WEST POINT, N.Y. – In front of a sellout crowd of 2,761 fans, Trevor Fidler scored his first collegiate goal and Parker Gahagen stopped 35 shots, but top-ranked Boston College jumped out to an early lead and defeated the Black Knights, 5-1, on Friday night.
Army (0-1-0) saw Fidler tally his first collegiate goal in his first game as a Black Knight. He scored the goal early in the third period with hard work in front of the net. Mike Preston and Conor Andrle added assists on the play. Gahagen stopped double-digits shots in each period and stopped multiple breakaway chances throughout the game.
The Eagles (1-0-0) got goals from five different skaters and were led by Miles Wood, who posted three points on the first three goals of the game. He broke the scoreless tie in the first period and added assists on the two Boston College tallies in the middle frame. Alex Tuch chipped in with two assists, while goaltender Thatcher Demko finished with 23 saves, including 10 in the second period.
Head coach Brian Riley came into the game wanted his team to step up to the challenge and he believes he got that from his squad.
“Two years ago, I shook Coach York’s hand and said we are going to be a better team and we obviously were tonight,” Riley said. “A lot of good things I saw from tonight as we expect effort from our guys every game, but we want to be hard to play against and I thought for the most part we were hard to play against tonight.”
The Black Knights came out blazing and had some great opportunities with Conor Andrle connecting on a one-timer in transition and C.J. Reuschlein getting a chance in the slot, but Demko came up with the stops. Boston College had its first great chance with a shorthanded breakaway, but Gahagen made the pad stop to keep the Eagles off the board.
Boston College kept the pressure on and it paid off in the offensive zone as Army turned the puck over with a cross-ice pass. Wood swooped in from the blueline and stole the pass and beat Gahagen for the 1-0 advantage. The Eagles had 12 shots in the first period to Army’s eight.
With 7:59 left in the second period, the Eagles added to their lead with Chris Calnan breaking in on Gahagen on a 2-on-1 chance and beating the netminder. The Black Knights were caught in Boston College’s zone and didn’t recover. The Eagles increased their lead to 3-0 with a power play goal from Casey Fitzgerald with assists from Scott Savage and Wood. For Wood, it was his second helper of the period and third point.
The Eagles extended their lead 3:26 into the final frame with Chris Brown scoring on a nice feed from Tuch and it was 4-0 in favor of the visitors.
The Black Knights got back in the game with a tough power play goal from Fidler. He went into the teeth of the defense and swatting the puck past Demko, who thought he had it covered up. Preston and Andrle were given helpers on the goal after getting the puck to the front of the net.
Boston College put the game away with a power play goal from Zach Sanford and came away with the 5-1 victory over the Black Knights.
“I think the game started off well and our structure was pretty good,” Gahagen said. “We just got into a little bit of penalty trouble and they pushed the momentum into the opposite direction. I think overall there is some positives, but also plenty of things we can work on.”
The Eagles had a 40-24 shot advantage in the game and both teams scored on the power play. Boston College went 2-for-10 with the extra skater, while Army finished 1-for-6. The teams combined for over 95 penalty minutes in the game with Army earning 58, while Boston College was tagged for 40 minutes.
The Black Knights have next week off and return to the ice on Oct. 23 for a weekend series at Mercyhurst.
Ice Shavings: ESPN’s John Buccigross dropped the first puck of 2015-16 … head coach Brian Riley began his 12th season as Army’s head coach … second year in a row that a rookie has scored in the first game as Tyler Pham did it against SHU on Oct. 2, 2014 … Boston College leads the all-time series at 38-3-1 … the Black Knights had four rookies in the lineup (Tommy Besinger, Trevor Fidler, Ian Mansfield and Nash Worden) … it was the second matchup between the Eagles and Black Knights in the last three seasons … Army has been home for its last two season openers … Gahagen made his 36th start of his career in net … BC was the highest ranked team to play the Black Knights since Army played #2 Miami and won the game 3-2 at the Ohio Hockey Classic in Columbus, Ohio.
