Cedric Lacroix (14) tries to win a faceoff during the second period of a Hockey East game between Maine and Boston College on Friday, November 4, 2016 in Portland, Maine. Photo by Chris Lessner.
PORTLAND, Maine- Austin Cangelosi had a hat trick, and three other Eagles had multiple point nights as the #5 Boston College Mens Hockey team beat Maine in convincing fashion 6-1 at the Cross Insurance Arena before 4,621 fans Friday night.
Maine (3-4-2, 0-1-0) was playing their Hockey East opener, and would score first in the contest as Dane Gibson jumped on a rebound in front of BC netminder Joe Woll on the powerplay to make it 1-0 Bears 13:04 into the opening period. After that, it was all Eagles. Cangelosi scored at 18:25 of the period, also on a powerplay, to tie the game 1-1. Maine would have several late flurries in front of Woll, but the game remained tied after one.
Cangelosi scored the eventual game winner shorthanded 3:01 into the middle period to give BC the 2-1 lead. Chris Calnan was stopped by Maine senior goalie Matt Morris on a breakaway to keep the Bears deficit at one goal with 7:30 left. Morris also stopped Cangelosi point blank with six minutes left, before Cangelosi continued his scoring barrage by burying a great cross ice pass from JD Dudek just 19 seconds later past Morris to make it 3-1. “There were just too many opportunities in the second period for them, and not enough for us. And to me that’s where the game was decided, was in the second period”, said Maine Head Coach Red Gendron after the game.
Calnan scored just 1:04 into period three to make it 4-1, after another Maine flurry in front of Woll. “I thought the game was alot closer than the score. Maine had alot of good spurts, they worked very hard. Seemed like when they had a couple chances and it wouldnt go in, then we would we come down to the other end and it would go in. So it looks like a comfortable victory, but I bet the quality chances were fairly close”, said Boston College Assistant Coach Greg Brown after the game. David Cotton scored a powerplay goal 4:28 later to make it 5-1, and end the night for Morris. Freshman goalie Stephen Mundinger would get beaten by Ryan Fitzgerald just 1:35 later to finish off the scoring and extend the Maine winless streak to six games (0-4-2). “We have to learn as a team to do the small things for a full sixty minutes. We can’t take shifts off or periods off and the guys know that. We have to be alot more physical and do a better job of winning battles”, added Gendron.
Boston College is now 7-2-1 overall and improved to 3-0-1 in Hockey East. Along with the hat trick from Cangelosi, Cotton had a goal and an assist and Matthew Gaudreau and Chris Brown had a pair of assists as well.
The freshman netminder Woll (5-2-1) stopped 22 of 23 Maine shots to get the win in net for BC. Morris had 24 saves on 29 shots and suffered the loss (0-2-0). Mundinger had three saves on four shots in the final 14:28 of the game after relieving Morris.
Maine and Boston College finish off the two games series in Orono Saturday night. The puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
BC 1 2 3- 6
ME 1 0 0- 1
Shots on goal- BC 33 Maine 23
Powerplay- BC 2-7 Maine 1-8
