MANCHESTER, N.H. — Throughout the Boston College men’s hockey team’s regional semifinal matchup Friday with Bentley, freshman James Hagens seemingly passed up shots, looking to make the extra pass at SNHU Arena.
But with time winding down and the teams tied, Hagens called his own number, swooping behind the net and scoring the go-ahead goal on a wraparound at 18:43. Ryan Leonard added an empty-netter and the Eagles escaped with a 3-1 NCAA Tournament win to advance to Sunday’s regional final against Denver, a 5-1 winner over Providence in the late game. The Eagles were shut out by the Pioneers in last year’s championship game.
The game-winner was just the second shot Hagens landed on net. The tally was his NCAA-leading 30th of the season, and he became the first NCAA player to post consecutive 30-goal seasons since fellow Eagle Cam Atkinson (2009-10, ’10-11).
Scoring opportunities were hard to finish for BC (27-7-2), despite the fact the Eagles landed 44 shots on goal. Bentley (23-15-2) worked hard to clog up the neutral zone, and finished with almost as many blocked shots (20) as it did shots on net (21). For the ones that did make it through, the Falcons’ Connor Hasley (41 saves) had the answer.
But he was caught out of position on the 43rd attempt. BC defenseman Aram Minnettian’s wrist shot went wide to the left of the net, where Hagens tracked it down. With Hasley leaning to his right, Hagens circled to the other side and buried it for the score.
“It all started from the forecheck, just hounding the puck,” Hagens said. “In a game like that, where there’s so little chances, you’ve got to stick with it. You’ve got to make sure you bury those chances once you get them.”
Leonard never lost faith that BC would pull out the victory.
“You look at our whole year, when we’re in those types of games we always find a way to come out on top,” Leonard said. “You look down on the bench and you just see all the belief in there. We’re talking up and down the lineup: ‘Boys don’t get frustrated, we all know it’s going to go in at some point. It’s just a matter of time.’ ”
The game was marred by stoppages throughout, as the nets kept becoming dislodged, forcing timeouts for work to be done on the goal pegs. Neither team was able to generate much momentum. The issues continued into the Denver- Providence game.
The NCAA released a statement between games: “At the NCAA Manchester Regional an issue with the goal pegs that hold the net in place caused the net to dislodge, leading to several delays. The NCAA recognizes the impact of the stoppages and are working with our hosts at the University of New Hampshire and SNHU Arena to address the issue.”
The Eagles dominated the opening 12 minutes, landing the first seven shots of the game, including nice looks from Leonard and Gabe Perreault. Bentley finally managed to get a shot on net 13:15 while on a power play after the Eagles’ Aidan Hreschuk went off for roughing, Nick Bochen’s one-timer was stopped by Jacob Fowler (20 saves) with a pad save.
BC broke through on Perreault’s goal at 16:45 of the first. Hagens carried the puck into the offensive zone and kicked it over to Leonard, who drew four defenders and found Perreault alone in front. Perreault swooped around Hasley for the easy score to put the Eagles up.
“They read each other very well,” BC coach Greg Brown said. “[Leonard and Perreault] have played together a while, but James has fit in very well with those guys. They’re all high-IQ guys so they can read offensive opportunities, and where the breakdown will come from the defense, they’ve been showing us high quality offensive chances like that all year. It was good they capitalized on that one.”
The Falcons scored the equalizer early in the second period on Ethan Leyh’s one-timer at 3:21. Bentley was on the power play after Lukas Gustafsson was sent off for tripping at 1:56, and cashed in when Stephen Castagna sent a pass from the goal line across to Leyh, who buried his team-leading 17th goal short side before Fowler could cover the inside post.
Bentley was looking to become just the fourth No. 16 seed to upset a No. 1, and the first since 2019 when AIC stunned St. Cloud State.
“My heart could not be filled with more pride for our hockey team,” Bentley coach Andy Jones said. “We left every single thing we had on the ice. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud of them than I am tonight.”
Follow Andrew Mahoney @GlobeMahoney.
