Boston College
New Hampshire*
No. 5 Hockey Defeats No. 7 New Hampshire, 5-2
February 26, 2005 | Men's Hockey
Feb. 26, 2005
A two-point effort from Ryan Shannon led the Eagles to a 5-2 victory over conference front-runner New Hampshire in front of a sellout crowd of 6,501 fans at the Whittemore Center. The victory is the Eagles' first at the Whittemore Center since Nov. 7, 1997.
Before taking the season series tonight, 1997-98 was the last season that the Eagles took the series from the Wildcats.
BC goaltender Matti Kaltiainen made a few highlight-reel saves in the first minutes of play. The Wildcats (22-8-4, 15-4-3) put the pressure on the BC net early, but Kaltiainen saved the first 10 shots on net.
Shannon netted BC's first goal of the game to go up 1-0 at 9:39 in the opening period. Spina picked up a loose puck and slid it to Shannon just past the blue line. He made a rush at the net and went over the glove of Regan for his 11th goal of the season.
The Eagles (20-6-6, 13-3-6) converted their first power play of the evening when Ned Havern buried a slapshot from the right slot at 12:33. He took a pass from Peter Harrold and quickly put the high shot on Regan's shoulder, which deflected into the net.
39 seconds later, freshman Dan Bertram scored to put the Eagles up 3-0. His rush was thwarted by Regan, but Bertram scored on the second effort. The tally was his ninth of the season.
UNH's Regan was pulled for junior goalie Jeff Pietrasiak after the third goal.
At 15:27, Joe Rooney scored to put BC up 4-0. Rooney picked up the puck in front of the net thanks to a Wildcat turnover in their zone. Rooney snapped a wrister over Pietrasiak for an unassisted goal.
BC's four first-period goals were all scored within 5:48 of each other.
UNH came back at 16:56 and netted a power-play goal on its second man-advantage situation of the night.
Both BC and UNH put 12 shots on net in the first frame.
The middle frame started slowly for both squads. BC had two great shorthanded chances in the first 10 minutes of the second period. Both opportunities were 2-on-1 rushes involving Stephen Gionta and Chris Collins, but Pietrasiak stopped the puck on all occasions.
Eaves put the Eagles up 5-1 at 12:58. Right off of a face off in the BC offensive zone, Shannon slid the puck to Eaves and the junior put a hard slapshot by Pietrasiak. The goal was Eaves' 17th of the season and his 100th career point.
Eaves is the 62nd Eagle to score 100-career points.
BC outshot UNH 20-6 in the second period. In a game that began with UNH putting seven shots on net to BC's one, the tally after 40 minutes was 32-18 in favor of the Eagles.
UNH's Brian Yandle cut the Eagle lead to three with a power-play tally at 4:23 in the third period. Hockey East's best power-play unit found the net for a second time on the play.
Kaltiainen was stellar in the third period, saving multiple UNH scoring opportunities in the final frame.
At the conclusion of the game, BC outshot UNH 44-34.
The Eagles take the ice against Maine this Friday at 7 p.m. in Kelley Rink. They conclude their regular season at home against the Black Bears at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.
