Nov. 7, 2008
Chestnut Hill, Mass. – For the third time in the last five years, the Notre Dame hockey team has visited Boston College to face a highly ranked, high-powered team at Kelley Rink in front of a sellout crowd of 7,884.
And for the third straight time, the Irish walk away with a victory against the Eagles, stopping them 4-1 on Friday night on the strength of outstanding goaltending from senior Jordan Pearce, strong special teams play that held BC’s high-octane power play off the scoreboard and chipped in a power-play goal on the way to the team’s third consecutive road win.
Pearce stopped 27-of-28 shots on the night and got goals from Garrett Regan, Christian Hanson, Billy Maday and Kevin Deeth in the victory. Brock Bradford scored the lone Boston College goal. The Irish killed all eight Boston College power plays and were 1-for-7 with their own. The Eagles entered the game ranked fourth in the nation on the power play, clicking at a 27.1% success rate.
The win improved the 12th-ranked Irish to 5-3-0 overall while the second-ranked Eagles drop to 5-2-0 overall. In the last six meetings between the two teams, Notre Dame is now 4-1-1 going back to the 2002-03 season. Three of those wins came while the Eagles were ranked No. 1 in the nation (2003-04, 2004-05 and 2006-07). The lone loss came in last spring’s NCAA title game in Denver, Colo.
The Irish got the spark they needed early as they took a 1-0 lead at 4:20 of the opening period with Regan getting his first of the season on a breakaway goal.
Ryan Guentzel forced a turnover in neutral ice and Justin White banked it off the right wing boards to Regan who got behind the Eagle defense and raced in on goaltender John Muse. Regan pulled the goaltender down and flipped the puck under the crossbar over the BC goaltender for the 1-0 lead.
The goal ended a 21-game goal-less drought for the senior from Hastings, Minn., whose last goal came on Feb. 15, 2005 at Alaska.
Notre Dame spent the majority of the period killing off six penalties including one five-on-three that lasted a minute-and-a-half. The Irish had the best scoring chance on the penalty kill as Christian Hanson stripped the Boston College defense at the blue line and had a short-handed breakaway attempt on Muse who stopped a back-hand try.
Boston College tied the game early in the middle period when Bradford one-timed a nice drop pass from senior right wing Benn Ferriero past Pearce for his seventh goal of the season at 5:41.
The Irish answered back just 1:07 later with a power-play goal at 6:48.
With defenseman Carl Sneep off for slashing the Irish went on their third power play of the night with Hanson jamming a rebound past Muse for his fourth goal of the year. Defenseman Brett Blatchford set the play in motion with a shot from the center point that Muse stopped. Dan Kissel tried to tuck the rebound under Muse but it rolled to the left side of the crease where Hanson rapped it home.
Notre Dame picked up their second goal of the period at 10:04 with a little luck of the Irish working. Defenseman Ian Cole picked up a loose puck in his own zone and banked off the boards into the neutral zone where Maday picked it up and carried in to the BC zone. His shot from the slot was stopped by Muse and dropped down to the crease where it went off an Eagle defenseman’s skate and into the goal to make it 3-1. For Maday, it was his fourth of the season.
The defenses took over in the final period as the teams combined for just 10 shots on goal. With less than three minutes left BC head coach Jerry York pulled his goaltender for a sixth attacker and Notre Dame was able to tack on its final goal of the night.
Junior center Kevin Deeth intercepted a pass at his own blue line and sent it the length of the ice into the open net at 17:49 for his second goal of the season and the final score of 4-1.
In the game, the Irish were out shot, 28-23. Muse finished with 19 saves in the game.
Notre Dame closes out its four-game road trip on Saturday night when they travel to Providence, R.I., to face the Providence College Friars in a 7:00 p.m. game.
1 2 3 - F#12/#12 Notre Dame (5-3-0) 1 2 1 - 4#2/#2 Boston College (5-2-0) 0 1 0 - 1
First Period: ND: Garrett Regan 1 (Justin White, Ryan Guentzel), 4:20.
Penalties: ND: 6 for 12 minutes; BC: 4 for 8 minutes.
Second Period: BC: Brock Bradford 7 (Benn Ferriero, Brian Gibbons), 5:41; ND: Christian Hanson 4 (Dan Kissel, Brett Blatchford), PPG, 6:48; ND: Billy Maday 4 (Ian Cole), 10:04.
Penalties: ND: 4 for 8 minutes; BC: 4 for 8 minutes.
Third Period: ND: Kevin Deeth 2 (unassisted), ENG, 17:48.
Penalties: ND: 3 for 6 minutes; BC: 3 for 6 minutes.
Shots On Goal:Notre Dame 8 - 11 - 4 - 23Boston College 11 - 11 - 6 - 28
Goaltender Saves:ND - Jordan Pearce (59:51) 11 - 10 - 6 - 27BC - John Muse (59:25) 7 - 9 - 3 - 19
Power Plays:ND: 1 for 7BC: 0 for 8
Attendance: 7,884 (sellout)