BOSTON — In the first three minutes of last night's 4-3 loss to Boston College, the Eagles were throwing haymakers at Merrimack College, taking a 2-0 lead.
But the Warriors did respond.
Merrimack scored the next three goals to take a short 57-second lead before BC tied the score, 3-3. Ben Smith's tally 9:18 into the second period sealed the win for the Eagles, handing Merrimack its first loss in its past five games.
The first three goals of the game were scored just 3:58 into the first period and the second three were tallied in the last 1:59 of the first.
"BC is a good hockey team," said Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy. "You never want to trade chances with them. I don't care how young they are, they have a lot of talent; a lot of skill."
Merrimack mustered just 18 shots on net and had to kill seven Boston College power plays.
"I thought we were the better team tonight," said BC head coach Jerry York. "But Merrimack battled back and hung in there. They're much improved. They'll be in the battle for playoff spots, no question."
Merrimack's penalty kill has killed 92.5 percent of its penalties (37 of 40) on the season.
"We killed well, we have all year, but we don't want to kill that much," said Dennehy. "We've talked about penalties in bunches and we did that early in the third period. We killed them off, but penalties in clusters can kill any energy you have going."
Down 2-0, Stephane Da Costa fired a pass to Jeff Velleca on the doorstop, and the sophomore potted his second career goal around the pad of BC goaltender Parker Milner.
"All of a sudden Stephane makes a play and it's a hockey game again," said Dennehy. "He changed that game. He finds Velleca and Velleca buries it."
After Kyle Bigos scored his first career goal at the 17:08 mark, Brandon Brodhag corralled a home-run pass from Da Costa and slipped a backhander through the legs of Milner on a breakaway to give the Warriors their only lead of the game.
"I went to the far post and it opened him up," said the freshman winger. "I went to my backhand and saw the space between his legs and just slipped the puck through.
"Obviously it's not the result we want, but it's good to get that first goal out of the way. I've been a goalscorer at every level, and I went a couple of games without one, so it's nice to get rolling."
The Warriors host the Eagles tomorrow at Lawler Arena (4 p.m.)
No. 12 Boston College 4, Merrimack 3
at Conte Forum, Boston College
Merrimack College (4-3-0, 1-1-0 HE):¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ 3-0-0—3
Boston College (2-1-0, 1-1-0 HE):¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ ¬ 3-1-0—4
First Period: 1. BC Jimmy Hayes 1 (Paul Carey, Pat Mullane), 2:57; 2. BC Paul Carey 1 (Jimmy Hayes), 3:36; 3. MC Jeff Velleca 1 (Stephane Da Costa, Brandon Brodhag); 4. MC Kyle Bigos 1 (Chris Barton, J.C. Robitaille), PPG, 17:08; 5. Brandon Brodhag 1 (Pat Bowen, Stephane Da Costa), 18:10; 6. BC Carl Sneep 1 (Cam Atkinson), 19:07.
Second Period: 7. BC Ben Smith 2 (Cam Atkinson, Brian Gibbons), 9:18.
Third Period: None.
Shots: Merrimack 6-6-6—18; Boston College 16-13-7—36
Saves: MC Cannata (2-2-0) 13-12-7—32; BC Milner (1-0-0) 3-6-6—15
Power Play: Merrimack 1 for 3; Boston College 0 for 7
Attendance: 3,842
Next: Hosts Boston College tomorrow, 4 p.m.
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