BURLINGTON, Vt. - Vermont fell 7-2 to sixth-ranked Boston College on Senior Night at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Saturday to close out the Hockey East regular season. The Catamounts earned the No. 7 seed in next week's Hockey East Quarterfinals and will face the No. 2 seed BC once again at Conte Forum.
The Catamounts finish the regular season with a record of 11-17-6 (8-13-6 HEA), while the Eagles closed at 20-10-4 (15-9-3 HEA). Saturday marked the final home game for the five members of the senior class: Ben Albertson, Brett Bruneteau, Anders Franzon, Tobias Nilsson-Roos, and John Vazzano.
Boston College opened the scoring at 14:01 of the first period after a long scrum around of the Eagles' net. Johnny Gaudreau collected the puck behind the goal and skated into the Vermont zone on a 3-on-1 rush. Gaudreau dished a pass to the right circle for Bill Arnold, who stuck it glove side on Brody Hoffman inside the right post.
The Eagles netted a pair of power play goals to begin the second period and took control of the game. Gaudreau curled through the slot and fired a wrister to the upper glove side corner at the 2:48 mark for a 2-0 lead. Steven Whitney then wristed a shot into the right corner from the left circle at 9:02 to make it a three-goal game.
Just 1:31 later, BC added to its advantage as Arnold delayed at the top of the crease and snuck a backhander under Hoffman's pads. The Catamounts called their timeout after the fourth tally and replaced Hoffman with Vazzano. After deking his way into the UVM zone, Gaudreau netted an unassisted goal at 13:45 to push the lead to five through 40 minutes.
Vermont started a comeback effort early in the final frame as Connor Brickley finished off an individual rush with a strong shot inside the right post. Vazzano picked up the only assist on the play. Four minutes later, Chris McCarthy rifled a wrist shot into the upper right corner past Parker Milner to cut the lead down to 5-2.
Boston College answered with back-to-back goals from Destry Straight at 9:15 and Travis Jeke at 16:55 to seal the win. The shots were dead even at 28 at the end of the night. The Eagles were 2-4 on the power play, while the Cats finished the night 0-4.
Vermont begins a best-of-three series with Boston College in the Hockey East Quarterfinals next Friday (March 15) on the road at Conte Forum. Check back to UVMathletics.com for a full playoff schedule with start times for each game. Pre-game coverage begins 30 minutes prior to faceoff for each playoff game on WVMT 620-AM and SportsJuice.com.
NOTES: UVM is making its seventh Hockey East playoff appearance in its eight years as a member of the league ... Vermont is 5-3-3 in its last 11 home games against Boston College, dating back to 2007 ... McCarthy has 12 points in his last nine contests ... Vazzano made his fifth career appearance on Senior Night in relief of Hoffman ... He became the first Catamount goalie to record a point since Rob Madore picked up an assist on Nov. 13, 2010, ironically against Boston College.