CHESTNUT HILL – The Hockey East regular season championship will have to wait another night.
Boston College defeated the UMass hockey team 2-1 on Friday night at Conte Forum. The Minutemen needed just two points to clinch the conference title but let an early lead slip away.
The Eagles opened the third period with 58 seconds left of a power play. It only took 28 ticks for them to take a lead. Jack McBain deflected a Jack St. Ivany one-time blast past Matt Murray for a 2-1 lead. Drew Helleson also picked up an assist for delivering St. Ivany the pass.
UMass pulled Murray, who made 19 saves, with 2:02 left following a BC icing. The Eagles called timeout.
The Minutemen won both faceoffs after he reached the bench but couldn’t generate a shot on goal until the game’s last 30 seconds. Then Reed Lebster snapped home a rebound chance with 13 seconds left that Eric Dop (25 saves) turned away.
The puck popped out to Lebster again at the buzzer, and he fired it into the net. The play was called a goal on the ice but was waived off shortly after a review.
“At the end we’re fortunate that the clock was a fast clock, it kept going,” BC coach Jerry York said.
After UMass went ahead in the first, Trevor Kuntar leveled the score at 1 for BC with 1:32 left in the second period. He picked up a loose puck near UMass’ zone on the left side then beat Murray 1 on 1 using a UMass defenseman partially as a screen.
The Minutemen committed three penalties in the second period: a Ryan Ufko interference at 7:43, a Lucas Mercurui hook at 14:29 and Cal Kiefiuk’s 18:58 high stick that spilled over into the third.
“Three penalties we shouldn’t be taking, that’s a lot,” Carvel said. “You’ve got to kill six minutes of penalties in the second period – I guess five, one carried over. It took away momentum, they then got up and did a good job defending.”
Garrett Wait put the Minutemen ahead with 3:08 left in the first. Bobby Trivigno dragged the puck from behind BC’s net up closer to the circles and whipped a pass across the crease. Wait appeared exactly where Trivigno sent the puck for a simple tap in and a 1-0 lead.
“That’s a predictable goal for us. We try to do that, work the game below the goal line then work it to the net,” Carvels aid. “We had to make them work a little more in their D zone.”
BC appeared to have scored 7:30 in when Marc McLaughlin slapped a one-timer from the left side after a great cross ice pass. The goal horn sounded, and lights behind the UMass goal glowed red. But Murray got enough of the puck to keep the game 0-0.
The teams will close the regular season with a rematch at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Mullins Center, senior day for the Minutemen.
After Friday’s games, only three teams remain alive for the regular season title. UMass has 46 points and can clinch it with a win in regulation or overtime against the Eagles on Saturday.
Northeastern can reach a maximum of 47 points if it beats Merrimack on Saturday. The Huskies need a win in overtime and for UMass to lose to claim a championship outright. If they win in overtime or a shootout they can just chare the title.
UMass Lowell, which led the pack for most of the year, only has a shot at a shared title with UMass since the River Hawks can only get to 46 points with another win over UNH on Saturday at the Tsongas Center.
The Minutemen are guaranteed a home game in the Hockey East tournament quarterfinals next weekend.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.