The men’s Hockey East conference tournament resumed Friday night with eight teams beginning their best-of-three quarterfinals series.
The most surprising result of the night was Notre Dame’s 7-2 victory over No. 2 Boston College. The loss snapped the Eagles’ 18-game quarterfinals win streak. Their last defeat at this stage of the tournament was to Boston University in 2004.
After freshman forward Ryan Fitzgerald opened the scoring for BC at 17:37 of the first period, the Fighting Irish scored seven unanswered goals. Thirteen different Notre Dame players tallied at least one point, while senior defenseman Stephen Johns and senior forward Peter Schneider led the team with three points (two goals, one assist) apiece.
Eagles forward Johnny Gaudreau, the nation’s leading scorer, extended his point streak to 30 games with an assist on Patrick Brown’s late third-period goal.
Going back to the Hockey East regular-season finale, Notre Dame has a two-game winning streak against Boston College. If the Eagles don’t beat the Fighting Irish in Saturday’s Game 2, they will fail to make a conference title game appearance in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2003-04.
In other quarterfinals action, Providence defeated Maine 3-1 behind starting goaltender Jon Gillies’ 34 saves.
UMass Lowell took another step toward defending its conference title with a 3-2 comeback win over Vermont. The Riverhawks overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period with tallies from freshman forward Evan Campbell and sophomore forward Adam Chapie.
New Hampshire beat Northeastern 1-0 in a defensive battle. Freshman forward Tyler Kelleher broke the scoreless tie at 4:49 of the third period and Wildcats goaltender Casey DeSmith made 27 saves to earn a shutout.
All four Game 2s will be played on Saturday. Check out the schedule below.
Notre Dame at Boston College, 4 p.m.
Northeastern at New Hampshire, 7 p.m.
Maine at Providence, 7 p.m.
Vermont at UMass Lowell, 7 p.m.
