There was history. For the first time since the USCHO.com poll started in 1997, Boston University and Boston College were meeting as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country. It was the first time in 10 years that they were even meeting as top-five teams.
There was hype. Both nights of the weekend home-and-home series were sold out well ahead of time – 7,884 fans at BC’s Conte Forum on Friday night; 6,150 at BU’s Agganis Arena on Saturday. The cheapest standing room tickets on the secondary market for either night were going for $170. There were 26 NHL draft picks on the ice, five of them first-rounders, plus the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft in BU freshman Macklin Celebrini.
And then, after all that, there was hockey. And the hockey did not disappoint. Both games were fast-paced and physical, with plenty of chances both ways. Both crowds were electric. But the results were decisive: A BC sweep, and a major statement from the Eagles.
Brad Marchand is stepping up in a big way
BC entered the weekend a spot behind BU in the polls, the Hockey East standings and the Pairwise ratings that are used to determine the NCAA tournament field. They are now tied with BU atop Hockey East, they are first in the Pairwise, and they should be a unanimous No. 1 when the new polls are released Monday. The Terriers, who had not lost since Nov. 25 before this weekend, dropped to third in the Pairwise, and could land in the same spot in the polls.
The final score Friday was 4-1 to the Eagles, but the game was closer than that. BU had cut it to 2-1 with 6:37 remaining before BC tacked on a pair of empty-netters. Saturday’s final was 4-3, with the Eagles holding off a late charge from the Terriers after they made it a one-goal game with 2:11 to go.
There were some common themes across both games. BC took a 2-0 lead both nights, scoring twice in the second period on Friday and twice in the first on Saturday, forcing BU to play catch-up almost all weekend.
The Eagles were more opportunistic. When they got odd-man rushes, they buried them. The Terriers got their share of odd-man rushes and chances off offensive-zone cycles, but too often missed the net or ran into the brick wall in it that was BC goalie Jacob Fowler, a 2023 third-round pick of the Canadiens.
There was probably no sequence that better summed up the weekend than the one where the Eagles pushed their lead to 4-2 in the third period Saturday. Dylan Peterson, a St. Louis third-round pick, raced in 2-on-1 for BU with a chance to tie the game, but Fowler kicked aside his shot. The Eagles immediately took off on a rush the other way and Will Smith, the fourth overall pick for San Jose last summer, snapped a shot past Mathieu Caron. Ballgame.
Fowler was the No. 1 star of the series. He was excellent all weekend, as he has been all season. He has started all 23 games for BC and is now 18-4-1 with a .924 save percentage and 2.25 goals-against average.
He was at his best in the second period Saturday after BU had tied the game 2-2. The Terriers outshot the Eagles 14-6 in the frame and had an at-times overwhelming territorial advantage, but Fowler prevented them from ever taking the lead. And then Cutter Gauthier – the 2022 fifth overall pick of the Flyers whose rights were recently traded to the Ducks – made it 3-2 BC late in the period, against the run of play.
Caron made some great saves of his own for BU, but ultimately couldn’t match Fowler either night. A few of BC’s goals were at least savable – a Ryan Leonard snapper from outside the dots on Friday, a Lukas Gustafsson rebound goal on Saturday that Caron didn’t appear to get fully set for, and even Gauthier’s fatal five-hole clincher.
BC’s other stars joined Fowler in rising to the occasion. The all-freshman, all-first-round-pick line of Smith, Leonard (eighth overall pick of the Capitals) and Gabe Perreault (23rd overall to the Rangers) was dynamite. They scored the Eagles’ first two goals on Friday, on Leonard’s snapper and then on a 2-on-1 feed from Smith to Perreault. They scored two more on Saturday, with a Perreault 5-on-3 goal off another feed from Smith, and then Smith’s third-period dagger.
Gauthier, who centers a line with Bruins prospects Oskar Jellvik and Andre Gasseau, scored both nights as well. He had the first empty-netter to seal Friday’s win and then the go-ahead goal in the second period Saturday. Gasseau also scored an empty-netter Friday. That trio frequently matched up against BU’s top line, centered by Celebrini, especially Friday night when BC coach Greg Brown had last change. They handled that assignment about as well as any line could.
BU’s stars were a little quieter. Celebrini, who is tied with Perreault for fourth in the country in points per game on the season (1.57), was held off the scoresheet most of the weekend before finally breaking through with the goal that cut BC’s lead to one late in the third period Saturday. He had plenty of other chances, landing 12 shots on goal for the series, but was repeatedly denied by Fowler.
Lane Hutson, BU’s star blue-liner and a Montreal second-round pick who is tied for the national lead in points per game among defensemen (1.38), was similarly held without a point until assisting on that Celebrini goal.
There may not be a huge margin between these two star-studded squads, but it was the Eagles who emerged from this historic weekend as the new national title favorites thanks to the sweep.
The Terriers should now feel like they have something to prove. They’ll get another chance to do so a week from Monday, when they face BC again in the first round of the Beanpot.