UConn ended Boston College’s hockey season in the most painful of ways on Friday at the Garden in the Hockey East semifinal. The Eagle loss also marked the start of the James Hagens Watch for Bruins fans.
At 1:18 of overtime, Tristan Fraser pounced on a loose puck and sent a turnaround shot that went off Eagle senior captain Lukas Gustafsson’s skate and past goalie Louka Cloutier, who was not able to glove an aerial puck just prior to the goal. That lifted UConn to the 4-3 win and it’s second straight berth in the Championship game, where they’ll take on Merrimack on Saturday night.
The winner will get a guaranteed berth in the NCAA tournament.
While UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh was thankful for the “puck luck” that delivered his team to Saturday’s game, the Huskies deserved to move on. After the first period, they held a 26-15 shot advantage and held the Eagles to just 15 shots on net at 5-on-5 throughout the game.
“There’s a reason why they say defense wins championships,” said Cavanaugh.
Now it seems like it is only a matter of time before the sophomore Hagens, the seventh overall pick in last June’s draft, signs with the B’s. He picked up two assists on Friday, both on power-play goals by fellow Bruin prospect Dean Letourneau. BC coach Greg Brown, who expects to have a chat with Hagens about his future as soon as Saturday, lauded Hagens’ focus on his BC team this season despite what is waiting for him at the pro level. And Brown said his game has grown impressively in his two years at the Heights.
“He’s got so many more dimensions to his game. The defensive side of the puck, the detail,” said Brown. “He could always carry a puck in. Incredible offensive ideas and vision. You see the ideas popping out his head as he’s carrying it through the neutral zone. That part was always there. But he’s added to his offensive and he’s really added to his complete game. A guy like that growing up, he has the puck the whole game so you’re not playing without the puck as you are in college. So for him to come as young as he did and pick that up in two years is a credit to him that he’s not just a talent, he’s a student of the game.”
The Bruins will also have decisions to make on BC seniors and Boston draft picks Gasseau and Oskar Jellvik, who has been dogged with injuries in his career at BC. If they’re signed, they would most likely head to Providence.
The B’s also learned this year that they indeed do have another high-end prospect at the Heights. Letourneau, the 25th overall pick in 2024, was deemed a bust when he never found the back of the net once in his freshman season. But this season, the big centerman exploded for 22-17-39 totals in 36 games.
“It says a lot about his character and his perseverance to stay through a tough year last year statistically,” said Brown. “But he kept sticking with it and he didn’t get down. He kept working hard. He kept showing up every day and giving every thing he had. Then the work he put in the summer was tremendous and you can see the results. I don’t know what the next step is. I know he can keep going. No one’s a completed project, not when you’re this young. I don’t want to say he can double that again because it was such a tremendous year for him. He’ll continue to get stronger, he’ll continue to work on all of his physical skills. But what I think he really showed was a mental fortitude to put last year behind him and come in with a ton of confidence and have a great year for himself.”
Friday’s contest was a back and forth affair with BC taking two leads in the second period on PP goals but UConn scratching back to tie it each time.
With the game deadlocked at 2, UConn dominated in the third period until the Huskies took their first lead of the game at 12:29 on a great individual play from Mike Murtagh. Steaming down the his off wing on the left side, Murtagh made a strong move to the inside to get position on defenseman Drew Fortescue and then slipped the puck between Cloutier’s pads for the 3-2 advantage.
But the Eagles got off the mat and tied it up with 5:47 left in the third. It appeared that the Huskies had survived a surge by BC but a breakout pass drifted away from the UConn skater and Ryan Conmy stepped into the loose puck, sizzling it past goalie Tyler Muszelik to even it.
BC had to kill off a Gasseau interference penalty taken with 4:52 left in regulation, but the Eagles did so and, after Muszelik turned away a couple of BC chances in the final seconds, the teams went to OT.
It didn’t take long before it was decided by Fraser and the hockey gods.
“I think it was just a scrambly play,” said Fraser, a senior. “In those overtime games, tight games you just try to get anything on net. Those are plays you kind of get lucky on but you try to get it through as best you can and luckily it hit a body and trickled in.”
The first period was scoreless, though the Eagles felt that they surely deserved one. Operating behind the net, Hagens sent a pass out front for Gasseau. The senior forward snapped a shot that was initially stopped by Muszelik. Gasseau took another whack and the puck rolled in but the play had already been blown dead and the game continued at 0-0.
“(The ref) said that he lost sight of the puck so he blew the whistle,” said Brown. “I asked if it’s challengeable. But then if he says his intent is to blow the whistle even sooner, you can’t really challenge it. Looked from our point, (Muszelik) didn’t have it but from (the ref’s) vantage point he thought the goalie had it tied up. Tough break.”
But 39 seconds into the second period, with some leftover power-play time, the Eagles did take the lead on a tic-tac-toe play by a trio of Bruins’ draft picks. Operating up top, Hagens fed Gasseau down low on the right side and Gasseau zipped a perfect cross-ice pass to Letourneau, who ripped it past a helpless Muszelik.
But before BC could get rolling, the Huskies tied it on a shaky goal at 1:32. From the right boards above the circle, Trey Scott flipped what looked like harmless shot that somehow eluded Cloutier and it was all even.
The Huskies put the Eagles back on their deadly power play and Letourneau cashed in again. Both he and Hagens crashed the house in front of Muszelik and the puck came loose. Letourneau was able to collect it and torque his 6-foot-7 frame to pull it to his forehand and lift it over Muszelik at 5:09.
But again, the Huskies clawed back to tie it. After a pass intended for Letourneau did not connect with the target just outside the BC blue line, UConn went on the attack. Eventually, Murtagh gained control of the puck behind the net and fed Ethan Whitcomb for the goal at 8:28. Brown challenged that Whitcomb was offside on the original entry and, though it was oh so close, the call on the ice stood.
UConn had to face one more BC power play before the period was up but the Huskies were able to kill and get to the third period tied at 2.
From there, the Huskies earned their spot in the title game — and a chance to keep their season going beyond Saturday.
Boston College Eagles forward Dean Letourneau (29) is congratulated on his goal by Boston College Eagles forward James Hagens (10) as UConn takes on BC in the Hockey East semi finals at the Garden. (Staff photo by Stuart Cahill)