The University of Maine hockey team began the third period with energy, trying to close a 3-1 deficit.
But after a couple of chances, Boston College got possession, raced down the ice and scored.
Just like that. It seemed that easy for the Eagles.
Boston College kept scoring and routed the Black Bears 6-1 Friday night at the Cross Insurance Arena.
Austin Cangelosi notched a hat trick, recording the cycle of scores – power play, short-handed and even strength.
Cangelosi and his teammates found too many openings, skating by and through Maine.
“It’s attention to detail. You can’t take any shifts off … and we took shifts off,” Maine captain Cam Brown said. “We had some lulls and broke down.”
This was the first of three games the Black Bears will play in Portland, and was their Hockey East opener. Maine’s overall record dropped to 3-4-2 and the Black Bears are winless in their last six games. Boston College, ranked No. 5 in the national polls, is 7-2-1, 3-0-1 in Hockey East. The Eagles are unbeaten in their last seven games.
The powerhouse Eagles often have trouble playing in Orono (2-6-2 their last 10 games there), but thoroughly enjoyed their Portland debut.
“The game was a lot closer than the score. Maine had a lot of good spurts,” said Boston College associate coach Greg Brown, who is running the team while Coach Jerry York recovers from outpatient eye surgery.
Brown was being kind. His team outshot the Black Bears 33-23 and pounced on mistakes.
“Maine worked very hard,” he said. “It just seemed that when they got a couple of chances they didn’t go in, and then we’d go down the ice and it would go in.”
The Eagles’ transition proved too much.
“We try and play fast,” Brown allowed – and the Black Bears could not keep up.
“We started the game well,” Maine Coach Red Gendron said. “And in the second period we went to sleep in a couple of situations and let them get behind us.”
Maine took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal at 13:04 of the first period. Dane Gibson stuffed in Patrick Shea’s rebound.
Boston College tied it with its first power play. Cangelosi one-timed a backdoor pass at 18:25 of the first period.
In the second period, Maine went on a power play early but Cangelosi made a steal and put a backhander past Matt Morris’ glove side at 3:01.
Morris was in the nets because No. 1 goalie Rob McGovern didn’t dress. Gendron declined to comment about McGovern’s absence, only to offer he’s still on the team.
On Maine’s fourth power play, the Eagles almost got another short-hander, but Morris stopped Chris Calnan on a breakaway.
Still, the Eagles made it 3-1 on Cangelosi’s hard shot from the slot at 14:19.
“It was 3-1. It was manageable,” Gendron said, “and then we made another mistake and got caught.”
Calnan capitalized, scoring on an odd-man rush early in the third period. Teammates David Cotton and Ryan Fitzpatrick added goals.
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