Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Brody Hannon
BC Displays New Chops Ahead Of Hockey East Gauntlet
January 16, 2025 | Men's Hockey, #ForBoston Files
Boston College's Tuesday night win over Harvard represented little more than a standard non-conference victory for the national college hockey landscape. The Eagles avoided a potential landmine after splitting with Merrimack over the previous weekend, and the dominant Hockey East season continued its steam-engine horsepower with another victory over an ECAC opponent. The win kept the Eagles stationed in the Pairwise Rankings' No. 2 spot after No. 1 Michigan State earned a win and tie during its weekend slate against Penn State and simultaneously maintained distance over the No. 3 and No. 4 spots occupied by Maine and Providence.
Avoiding the potential damage of a loss to a team situated in a 42nd-place tie with Omaha more naturally shifted eyeballs towards BC's upcoming Hockey East home-and-home series against surging PC, but the win's fallout steadied and readied the ship ahead at a time when the Eagles fought their first and second gear. It illustrated a different style and showcased new angles of a high-powered team, and it laid the foundation for the championship trophy season fast approaching through the gauntlet now cresting on 2025's horizon.
"[We] had a long break," said head coach Greg Brown after BC's 3-1 win over the Crimson. "We were fortunate to have six guys go play in the World Juniors, [but] we didn't want to schedule any games in there when we were missing that many guys. So that first game [against Merrimack], we showed that we weren't as sharp as we're going to need to be in Hockey East. The big positive was how we played on Saturday at Merrimack [because] we had very good legs. Our passing was crisp, and it was a much stronger game for us. That's the kind of level that we're hoping to get back to."
Tuesday night highlighted the relative strength of a Hockey East conference teeming with upper echelon programs, but the overall embedded rivalry between two Beanpot schools underscored Harvard's desire to break down BC's perceived offensive firepower. For the second time in three games, the Eagles failed to crack 30 shots on goal after spending the first half by peppering opposing nets for 30-or-more shots in each of the last eight games ahead of the December break, but what separated the performance against the Crimson from the loss to Merrimack stood largely on what BC did on the opposite end of the ice.
The offense didn't need prolific outbursts after the defense held the Crimson to 21 looks on Jacob Fowler, and the well-timed zone entries enabled nine different Eagles to notch at least one point on the three different goals. Teddy Stiga's power play goal in the first period pushed Harvard onto its back heels ahead of Ryan Healey's power play response, but surrendering a power play goal for the fourth straight game after preventing a goal in each of the season's first 15 head-to-head matchups was limited by an overall lack of extra attacker opportunities.
"We didn't really have our legs," admitted Brady Berard in the aftermath of the win, "but good teams find a way to win. That just showed us what we're capable of [doing]. We had two tough games this past weekend, and this [was] a weekday game, so it was tough to have two hard hockey games and then have this game. But I think we all stepped up and played the right way in the third to find a way to gut [a win] out."
Berard scored his third goal in as many games by potting BC's empty net goal in the third period, and his strike coupled Will Vote's sixth goal of the year to continue a stretch of burgeoning success beyond the touted scoring threat provided by Gabe Perreault, James Hagens and Ryan Leonard, and their outburst enabled Jacob Fowler to collect a ninth win when allowing one or fewer goals. He additionally improved to 9-1 when being forced to make fewer than 25 saves, though it's worth noting that his three 25-save games against Michigan State, Connecticut and Northeastern all ended in a loss. As is the case with most goalies, anything beyond that number, short of the 28-save, late-November win that preceded the aforementioned loss to the Huskies, produced a mixed bag of results.
"Both teams came off two-game weekends and turned around to play again on Tuesday," noted Brown, "so it turned out to be kind-of a tug-of-war. It was a close game, and in the first period, I thought we were skating pretty well. We drew a few penalties with our legs, which is important…[but] Harvard made a good push [in the second period]. They were hemming us in, and their defensive were coming down the walls a lot, and when they had full possession, they backed up into the neutral zone. They did a great job of not letting us through with a lot of speed, and we self-inflicted where our timing wasn't together with all five guys."
Harvard brought its best version after sweeping Brown and Yale for its first six-point weekend since an early November twirl through Princeton and Quinnipiac, but the sight of the Crimson playing BC did little to assuage the excitement surrounding a possible Beanpot game on the second Monday in February. By itself, the game didn't cost Hockey East any style points in the Pairwise Rankings, and even a win wouldn't have likely improved ECAC's standing enough to compensate a second team with an at-large bid.
The game and subsequent result therefore carried little impact for either team's future, but the Crimson's willingness to game plan a style specific to BC's strengths offered a preview of coming attractions for the weekly grind within Hockey East's oncoming schedule. That style stopped the Eagles within the neutral zone and looked similar to the issues exposed in the first Merrimack game.
Furthering that argument, sixth-ranked Providence now arrives at Conte Forum with a team that consistently closes out opponents with a defensive style built around gritty battles and strong goaltending. In the teams' meeting earlier this year, the Friars grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second period by stopping BC's attack after Gabe Perreault's first-minute goal in the first period, and it took a Ryan Leonard goal in the last five minutes to send the game to the three-on-three overtime period. BC eventually won on Leonard's goal with under a minute remaining in the extra session, but six of the last 10 matchups were decided by a single goal or ended in a tie before requiring a shootout with neither team sweeping a weekend series outright since BC's 12-0 aggregate win during the 2019-2020 season.
"There are no easy games," said Brown. "There are a lot of things that you have to do. You have to practice hard every day, so that just becomes normal for you. That's not a big deal, but you have to really understand what you're trying to do as a group. I think it's important [because] our favorite word that the NHL guys use right now is predictability. You have to be predictable for your linemates, for your teammates, and if everybody's on the same page, you can keep the puck moving in the right direction. When you don't have your legs or if everyone's tired, you still know where everyone is, and you can win when it's not beautiful. You can muck pucks out when you have to, or you can get into your forecheck when you have to. We've been working on that a lot, and we're trying to be more predictable for each other, especially when we're in a stretch like this, where we're playing a lot of games."
BC and Providence kick off their weekend with Friday's 7 p.m. puck drop from Conte Forum before turning the page to Schneider Arena for Saturday's second game. Both games can be seen on ESPN-Plus as part of the streaming service's subscription with radio broadcast available through the Boston College Radio Network coverage on WEEI 850 AM on Friday and via BCEagles.com on Saturday.
Avoiding the potential damage of a loss to a team situated in a 42nd-place tie with Omaha more naturally shifted eyeballs towards BC's upcoming Hockey East home-and-home series against surging PC, but the win's fallout steadied and readied the ship ahead at a time when the Eagles fought their first and second gear. It illustrated a different style and showcased new angles of a high-powered team, and it laid the foundation for the championship trophy season fast approaching through the gauntlet now cresting on 2025's horizon.
"[We] had a long break," said head coach Greg Brown after BC's 3-1 win over the Crimson. "We were fortunate to have six guys go play in the World Juniors, [but] we didn't want to schedule any games in there when we were missing that many guys. So that first game [against Merrimack], we showed that we weren't as sharp as we're going to need to be in Hockey East. The big positive was how we played on Saturday at Merrimack [because] we had very good legs. Our passing was crisp, and it was a much stronger game for us. That's the kind of level that we're hoping to get back to."
Tuesday night highlighted the relative strength of a Hockey East conference teeming with upper echelon programs, but the overall embedded rivalry between two Beanpot schools underscored Harvard's desire to break down BC's perceived offensive firepower. For the second time in three games, the Eagles failed to crack 30 shots on goal after spending the first half by peppering opposing nets for 30-or-more shots in each of the last eight games ahead of the December break, but what separated the performance against the Crimson from the loss to Merrimack stood largely on what BC did on the opposite end of the ice.
The offense didn't need prolific outbursts after the defense held the Crimson to 21 looks on Jacob Fowler, and the well-timed zone entries enabled nine different Eagles to notch at least one point on the three different goals. Teddy Stiga's power play goal in the first period pushed Harvard onto its back heels ahead of Ryan Healey's power play response, but surrendering a power play goal for the fourth straight game after preventing a goal in each of the season's first 15 head-to-head matchups was limited by an overall lack of extra attacker opportunities.
"We didn't really have our legs," admitted Brady Berard in the aftermath of the win, "but good teams find a way to win. That just showed us what we're capable of [doing]. We had two tough games this past weekend, and this [was] a weekday game, so it was tough to have two hard hockey games and then have this game. But I think we all stepped up and played the right way in the third to find a way to gut [a win] out."
Berard scored his third goal in as many games by potting BC's empty net goal in the third period, and his strike coupled Will Vote's sixth goal of the year to continue a stretch of burgeoning success beyond the touted scoring threat provided by Gabe Perreault, James Hagens and Ryan Leonard, and their outburst enabled Jacob Fowler to collect a ninth win when allowing one or fewer goals. He additionally improved to 9-1 when being forced to make fewer than 25 saves, though it's worth noting that his three 25-save games against Michigan State, Connecticut and Northeastern all ended in a loss. As is the case with most goalies, anything beyond that number, short of the 28-save, late-November win that preceded the aforementioned loss to the Huskies, produced a mixed bag of results.
"Both teams came off two-game weekends and turned around to play again on Tuesday," noted Brown, "so it turned out to be kind-of a tug-of-war. It was a close game, and in the first period, I thought we were skating pretty well. We drew a few penalties with our legs, which is important…[but] Harvard made a good push [in the second period]. They were hemming us in, and their defensive were coming down the walls a lot, and when they had full possession, they backed up into the neutral zone. They did a great job of not letting us through with a lot of speed, and we self-inflicted where our timing wasn't together with all five guys."
Harvard brought its best version after sweeping Brown and Yale for its first six-point weekend since an early November twirl through Princeton and Quinnipiac, but the sight of the Crimson playing BC did little to assuage the excitement surrounding a possible Beanpot game on the second Monday in February. By itself, the game didn't cost Hockey East any style points in the Pairwise Rankings, and even a win wouldn't have likely improved ECAC's standing enough to compensate a second team with an at-large bid.
The game and subsequent result therefore carried little impact for either team's future, but the Crimson's willingness to game plan a style specific to BC's strengths offered a preview of coming attractions for the weekly grind within Hockey East's oncoming schedule. That style stopped the Eagles within the neutral zone and looked similar to the issues exposed in the first Merrimack game.
Furthering that argument, sixth-ranked Providence now arrives at Conte Forum with a team that consistently closes out opponents with a defensive style built around gritty battles and strong goaltending. In the teams' meeting earlier this year, the Friars grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second period by stopping BC's attack after Gabe Perreault's first-minute goal in the first period, and it took a Ryan Leonard goal in the last five minutes to send the game to the three-on-three overtime period. BC eventually won on Leonard's goal with under a minute remaining in the extra session, but six of the last 10 matchups were decided by a single goal or ended in a tie before requiring a shootout with neither team sweeping a weekend series outright since BC's 12-0 aggregate win during the 2019-2020 season.
"There are no easy games," said Brown. "There are a lot of things that you have to do. You have to practice hard every day, so that just becomes normal for you. That's not a big deal, but you have to really understand what you're trying to do as a group. I think it's important [because] our favorite word that the NHL guys use right now is predictability. You have to be predictable for your linemates, for your teammates, and if everybody's on the same page, you can keep the puck moving in the right direction. When you don't have your legs or if everyone's tired, you still know where everyone is, and you can win when it's not beautiful. You can muck pucks out when you have to, or you can get into your forecheck when you have to. We've been working on that a lot, and we're trying to be more predictable for each other, especially when we're in a stretch like this, where we're playing a lot of games."
BC and Providence kick off their weekend with Friday's 7 p.m. puck drop from Conte Forum before turning the page to Schneider Arena for Saturday's second game. Both games can be seen on ESPN-Plus as part of the streaming service's subscription with radio broadcast available through the Boston College Radio Network coverage on WEEI 850 AM on Friday and via BCEagles.com on Saturday.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Hockey
G
/ Men's Hockey
F
/ Men's Hockey
F
/ Men's Hockey
F
/ Men's Hockey
F
/ Men's Hockey
Women's Basketball: Head Coach Kate Popovec-Goss on ACCPM (April 2, 2026)
Friday, April 03
#22 Baseball Defeats #6 North Carolina (April 2, 2026)
Friday, April 03
Kate Popovec-Goss Introductory Press Conference
Thursday, April 02
Football: Bill O'Brien Media Availability (April 1, 2026)
Wednesday, April 01
