Detroit Downs Devils, 5-2

The Detroit Red Wings extended their winning streak to three games with a 5-2 victory at New Jersey last night. The Red Wings win the season series, two games to one.

Detroit's Dylan Larkin (Michigan) scored his 30th goal of the season, which turned out to be the game-winner, and added an assist. He has now scored at least 30 goals in four straight seasons. J.T. Compher (Michigan) also scored for the Red Wings, while Alex Lyon (Yale) made 28 saves. Erik Haula (Minnesota) notched a goal and an assist for the host Devils, with Seamus Casey (Michigan) assisting on Haula's goal. Devils defenseman Brian Dumoulin (Boston College) logged a game-high time on ice of 26:17 before a crowd of 16,514 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

The Devils, who will face Carolina in the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, closed out their regular season with a 42-33-7 overall record, and finished third in the Eastern Conference's Metropolitan Division. The Red Wings (39-35-7), who have been eliminated from NHL postseason consideration for the ninth consecutive year, will close out their 2024-25 campaign tonight at Toronto.

BC Eliminates UNH, Stays Alive in Hockey East

Tyler Ward scored all of New Hampshire's goals, but his Wildcats ultimately came up short in a 4-3 overtime loss at Boston College on Wednesday night in a first-round Hockey East tournament game. BC improves to 15-17-5 overall, while UNH ends its 2021-2022 campaign at 14-19-1.

Marc McLaughlin connected for his second goal of the evening, just under 18 minutes into the extra session, at Conte Forum to boost BC to its fifth win in its last seven outings. Jack McBain and Nikita Nesterenko (shorthanded) also scored for the Eagles, who led 3-1 after 40 minutes of play before Ward scored twice, both times on the power play, in less than seven minutes to knot matters. Eric Dop finished with 44 saves in goal for the Eagles, while Mike Robinson made 23 stops for the Wildcats.

BC will now play at Northeastern on Saturday night in the single-elimination quarterfinal round. The winner will advance to the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden. The Eagles and Huskies split a home-and-home conference series last month, with the road team winning in each contest. 

BC Honors 2001 Team, Tops NU

 

Boston College honored its 2001 NCAA championship team following the first period tonight at Conte Forum. The current group of Eagles then rebounded to claim a 5-3 win over visiting Northeastern in the Hockey East opener for both schools.

Marc McLaughlin scored twice for BC (2-0-1 overall, 1-0-0 Hockey East), while Jack McBain had three assists and Eric Dop made 22 saves for the victory. Aidan McDonough had two goals for the Huskies (2-2-0, 0-1-0), while Devon Levi had 32 stops. BC scored three times in the third period to break a 2-2 tie after 40 minutes.

BC defeated North Dakota, 3-2, in overtime in Albany, N.Y.. in April 2001 to earn its first national hockey title in 52 years. Nearly two dozen members of that team were presented at tonight's NU-BC contest, and they will also be honored on Saturday night at halftime of the North Carolina State-BC football game at Alumni Stadium.

Minnesota, North Dakota Win Conference Titles

 

Two games, two offensive explosions in roughly two minutes each, and two tournament championships won on Tuesday night.

Minnesota defeated Wisconsin, 6-4, for the Big Ten title in South Bend, Ind., as the Golden Gophers broke open a 2-1 game with three unanswered goals in a span of 2:42 late in the second period. After Wisconsin closed to within 5-4 with three third-period goals, including Cole Caufield's nation-leading 28th score of the season to bring the Badgers within one, fourth-ranked Minnesota (23-6-0 overall) sealed the deal on an empty-net goal by Blake McLaughlin with 24 seconds remaining in regulation. McLaughlin led all skaters with two goals and two assists on the evening, while Roman Ahcan scored twice for No. 5 Wisconsin (20-9-1).

In Grand Forks, N.D., host North Dakota claimed its first-ever NCHC playoff championship by outlasting St. Cloud State, 5-3. After SCSU (17-10-0) took a 2-1 lead into the locker rooms after 40 minutes of play, the Fighting Hawks notched three goals in just 1:58 to start the third period en route to the victory. Riese Gaber's power-play goal just over five minutes into the final frame stood up as the game-winner, before Jordan Kawaguchi iced matters with his empty-net tally with nine seconds left. Gaber and Kawaguchi finished with two goals and an assist apiece for No. 2 UND (21-5-1), while Ondřej Trejbal set up two goals for the Huskies, including Sam Hentges' score that pulled No. 8 SCSU within 4-3 with just under 13 minutes left.

Both Minnesota and North Dakota, former rivals in the old WCHA, earned their respective current conference's automatic berth to this year's NCAA tournament. The NCAA selection show and the 2021 bracket will be revealed on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

BC Men Beat UMass in Return to Play

Boston College men's hockey finally got to play a real game again.

The host Eagles, in front of a sparse Conte Forum crowd in Chestnut Hill, Mass. due to COVID-19, opened their 2020-21 campaign tonight with a 4-3 win over Massachusetts in non-conference Hockey East play. Matt Boldy's goal just over a minute into the third period broke a three-all deadlock and ultimately stood up as the game-winner.

Jack McBain scored twice for second-ranked BC (1-0-0 overall), which built a 3-1 lead after just under 33 minutes of play. Josh Lopina then scored two goals 73 seconds apart late in the second stanza to knot matters for seventh-ranked UMass (1-1-1).

Logan Hutsko had two assists for the Eagles, who had last played in March before both the 2020 Hockey East and NCAA tournaments were canceled by COVID-19. Eamon Powell also had two assists on Friday in his collegiate debut for the Eagles, while Boldy notched an assist to go along with his goal.

Spencer Knight made 30 saves for BC, while Matt Murray stopped 28 shots for the Minutemen, who outshot the Eagles by a 33-32 margin on the evening. UMass also went 1-for-5 on the power play, while blanking BC’s four man-advantage opportunities.

The two schools will meet again on Saturday at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass.

ADDENDUM: BC won the rematch, 6-3, on Saturday afternoon at UMass. Marc McLaughlin scored twice for the Eagles, while Boldy registered two assists and Knight had 30 stops and an assist. BC's women's team fell to 2-2-0 on the year after dropping pair of 3-2 counts against Providence this weekend, one week after a two-step sweep of New Hampshire.