Boston College is used to locking up trophies at this time of the year.
The Eagles have won 12 Hockey East regular-season championships under legendary head coach Jerry York (Watertown, Mass.), including at least a share of five of the previous six. While it won’t be hoisting the Bertagna Trophy a week from now, York’s club knows that this is the time to get it right.
BC improved to 8-12-3 in Hockey East play with Sunday’s 3-1 win over archrival and No. 13 Boston University, its second victory in as many weekends following a 12-game winless streak.
“It was definitely a good way to bounce back,” said senior captain Marc McLaughlin (North Billerica, Mass.), referring to Friday’s 6-3 setback at Agganis Arena. “You could feel the energy in the room. The guys were excited and gave a complete effort. Eric Dop (season-high 42 saves) was amazing. We got a lot of contributions from a lot of guys.”
The energy in the room was certainly felt when McLaughlin, junior defenseman Drew Helleson, and McLaughlin’s linemate Jack McBain all returned from their Olympic assignments with the U.S. and Canada, respectively, within the past week.
“They played completely different types of hockey and grew from the experiences,” York said of his players’ Olympic stints. “Jack played the most out of the three, playing a regular shift for Team Canada. Drew and Marc played occasional games, but even that experience -- the practices and just the whole effect -- was good.”
Due to injury and the Olympics, the BU series marked McBain’s first action in maroon and gold since Dec. 31. He scored three goals on the weekend, including two in the Friday loss.
McLaughlin set up Helleson for Sunday’s winning goal, beating BU sophomore and fellow U.S. Olympian Drew Commesso (Norwell, Mass.) with 5:20 left in regulation. The Eagles’ two U.S. representatives jumped right back into the lineup for the previous weekend’s opener with Northeastern following a day-long return from Beijing to Boston.
Looking to build off an experience of a lifetime, McLaughlin scored a goal in his first game back and had two points Sunday against the rival Terriers.
“I just tried to go over there and soak it in as much as I could. There were a lot of great hockey minds, great coaches, great players,” McLaughlin said. “We went to a lot of events outside of hockey, so it was all really special and truly an honor to represent our country. … (Drew and I) were pretty close before, but we definitely got closer over there. It’s been great since we’ve been back.”
McBain, who became teammates with Northeastern star goaltender Devon Levi on Team Canada, was reunited with McLaughlin on his right wing Sunday after the two centered the top two lines in the series opener. No matter where he plays, he makes the team better.
“It’s hard when you miss him,” McLaughlin said. “He’s one of our best players, he competes and brings so much to the game, and he’s obviously a great leader for us, too. … We have everyone back and healthy for the most part, so we’re excited to make a push here.”
The Hockey East race is as tight as ever, but the Eagles and New Hampshire are locked into either the eighth or ninth positions. The order will be determined with next weekend’s results. BC can play spoiler as first-place Massachusetts looks to cap off the regular-season title.
Above BC in the standings is a logjam of six teams separated by just three points from second place. Two teams (Northeastern and Merrimack) are tied for second and three are tied for fifth (UConn, BU and Providence, the last of which has completed its regular season with Saturday’s overtime win over Maine).
When the postseason begins, the Eagles -- armed with a fully healthy lineup and improved goaltending from Dop -- expect to be right in the thick of the race.
“We’re going to be a tough out,” York said. “It’s a one-game shot and we could be traveling, so we’ll see how it all comes down. … This year we can’t win the first trophy, but I think (we have a club) that can win the whole thing.”
Crusaders prepped for playoffs
Holy Cross finished at the bottom of the Atlantic Hockey standings, but first-year coach Bill Riga’s (Westboro, Mass.) club put together its best stretch at the end of the regular season.
The Crusaders won six of their last nine games, finishing with 3-2 and 2-1 victories for a weekend home-and-home sweep of local rival Bentley. It was their second sweep in the last three weekends and first including two regulation wins.
“We’re going to have to (win two games) in the playoffs to advance,” Riga said of the team’s mentality following Saturday’s game. “We talked about that all week, last night and tonight. … Wherever we go, we’re going to be excited to play and take what we learned this weekend about winning two games against a good team.”
The team’s early “playoff mode” paid off. Senior defenseman Matt Slick and sophomore Lucas Thorne scored game-winning goals to lead Holy Cross in the perfect series. Freshman and St. Sebastian’s product Liam Connors (Westboro, Mass.) also scored on Saturday as senior Erik Gordon made 21 saves.
“We’re just trying to build for the playoffs,” Slick said on Friday. “We’ve been preaching it all week, focusing on the little things (like) blocking shots and playing the right way.”
Rare trio for Crimson
Harvard passed a rare and difficult challenge at the end of its regular-season slate in ECAC Hockey this past weekend, playing three games in three days after a rescheduled game against Princeton was tacked onto the end of a Capital District road trip to Union and RPI.
The Crimson, whose 14 wins in ECAC play is a program-best since 2017, came up on the short end of their Friday game but bounced back in convincing fashion to post 5-1 and 3-0 wins, respectively. Junior Mitchell Gibson pitched a 28-save shutout against the Tigers, his third of the season. All of Harvard’s clean sheets have come in the last seven games.
Senior Jack Donato (Scituate, Mass.), the son of the head coach, extended his career-high with his seventh goal of the season in the first period of the weekend finale, while sophomore Alex Laferriere added his team-leading 14th of the season and fourth on the power play.
New type of highlight
Former Boston University star Trevor Zegras has made NHL headlines by pulling off multiple highlight-reel goals for the Anaheim Ducks this season, but he has some more current collegiate competition now.
While seeing “The Michigan” in game action is nothing new (for example, BU’s Wilmer Skoog has multiple in his career), Merrimack’s Ben Brar scored a “Fake Michigan” goal in the third period of Saturday’s 4-3 win at New Hampshire. He crossed in front of Liam Walsh behind the net and took the puck for a unique wraparound goal.
https://twitter.com/MerrimackMIH/status/1497772279345856514
THREE MORE STARS:
Hockey East - Aidan McDonough, Northeastern
The top goal-scorer in Hockey East put together the best weekend of his junior season, powering the Huskies to a crucial pair of back-to-back wins over Connecticut. McDonough logged four goals and three assists across the 3-1 and 5-2 victories.
The winger has lit the lamp in three straight games and most recently capped off that stretch with his second collegiate hat trick and four-point effort in Saturday’s triumph. His 22 goals on the season are three more than BC’s McLaughlin for tops in the conference.
ECAC - Oliver Chau, Quinnipiac
While graduate goaltender Dylan St. Cyr recorded the team’s NCAA-record 16th shutout of the season, Chau was one of the offensive stars who helped Quinnipiac to a 4-0 Saturday win over Colgate and its second straight Cleary Cup as the ECAC regular-season champions.
The UMass transfer scored a goal and an assist in the victory, capping off the scoring after setting up star defenseman Zach Metsa’s goal just 18 seconds into the second period. Chau is second on the Bobcats with 13 goals, four of which have come within the last five games.
Atlantic - Chris Van Os-Shaw, American International
The Minnesota State senior transfer lifted the four-time AHA regular-season champion Yellow Jackets to victory in their final game. His overtime winner was the difference maker in Saturday’s 4-3 win over Niagara, but he also set up a go-ahead goal by Hunter Johannes in the first period.
Van Os-Shaw has scored goals in each of AIC’s last two victories, the most recent of which ensured Eric Lang’s 100th career victory at the helm of the program. He is the third Yellow Jacket bench boss to reach that milestone.
THIS WEEK’S HAT TRICK:
1. ECAC playoffs begin: Three of the four ECAC first-round series feature New England clubs as the road team. Yale heads to fifth-seeded Colgate, Dartmouth visits sixth-seeded RPI, and Brown faces St. Lawrence in the 8-9 clash.
The Bulldogs and Big Green didn’t find success against either of their upcoming best-of-three opponents, but the latter club skated to a pair of ties with SLU, which it just played in the final weekend of the regular season and earned an additional point against following a shootout win. Both of their meetings came in the last month.
2. Atlantic Hockey playoffs begin: The situation is similar in Atlantic Hockey as the two first-round playoff series include New England teams heading to enemy territory. Holy Cross travels to No. 7 Mercyhurst and No. 9 Bentley visits No. 8 Niagara.
While the Crusaders finished strong, it has been a tough season-ending stretch for the other aforementioned local club as Bentley is 0-9-2 in an 11-game stretch dating back to a Jan. 21 win at Canisius.
The Falcons’ rough patch includes two losses to Niagara. Holy Cross won the last of four games against Mercyhurst, all of which were played in October and November.
Fifth-seeded Sacred Heart got one of six first-round byes and is locked into a quarterfinal series at No. 4 RIT.
3. Home stretch in Hockey East: While UMass has the inside track on claiming the top spot in Hockey East for the second time in the last four seasons entering its home-and-home set with BC, the league’s key series pits Northeastern and Merrimack. The two teams currently share second place, though the Huskies have a game in hand Tuesday at Vermont.
Elsewhere, UMass Lowell and New Hampshire play home-and-home series, BU travels to Maine, Vermont visits Connecticut, and Providence plays an exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 Team as its regular-season slate is already complete.
