Boston College’s youngsters might have been expected to experience growing pains early in the hockey season. But the Eagles appear to be growing up quickly in the second month.
BC remained unbeaten in November with a 4-1 victory over Northeastern in a Hockey East game Saturday night, the Eagles’ seventh successive win, all this month.
The Eagles (8-5-1, 8-1), who play host to Harvard next Friday, had a perfect November record (7-0-0) in the 2015-16 season on the way to a Frozen Four berth.
Northeastern (7-4-1, 5-2), ranked No. 12, had a three-game home winning streak snapped and has not defeated BC at Matthews Arena in five games (0-4-1) since 2012.
“I think we were good but just had no experience,’’ BC coach Jerry York said of the Eagles’ slow start to the season. “And I think you need experience to have a better team and we gained it pretty quickly with the schedule we played.
“When you start 1-5-1, you know, here are our weaknesses, guys. Even in that stretch we had some strengths in our game. We concentrated a lot on some of the defensive zone problems we were having, some of the penalties we were taking. But we never would’ve seen that if we played just the popcorn teams early. We played some really good teams and that exposed our flaws and it was better for us.
“At this juncture in my career I’m not trying to save my job by playing teams you’re going to win, and we’re 5-0. We try to challenge ourselves and I think it’s good for our club.’’
BC, which has no seniors on its roster, also proved it could play with the lead. The Eagles, benefiting from two deflected goals, had scored first in only one previous victory this season. The Eagles opened the scoring in the final seconds of the first period Saturday, then broke the game open late in the final period.
Northeastern got off to a strong start, the Eagles remaining composed as Joe Woll (28 saves) made stops on Jeremy Davies, a Bobby Hampton breakaway, and two Dylan Sikura rebounds.
BC recovered to outshoot the Huskies, 7-1, in the final minutes of the first period, the Eagles’ offensive paying off as Jesper Mattila scored first. Mattila’s drive from the left point deflected off Ryan Shea’s skate and slid past Cayden Primeau for his second goal of the season at 19:43.
Graham McPhee’s power-play goal upped the advantage at 9:16 of the final period. McPhee converted his fourth goal of the season from the right circle after Casey Fitzgerald hit the post from the left point.
“When we had it down, 1-nothing, we obviously had a lot of confidence thinking we can come back, just like we did last night,’’ said Northeastern coach Jim Madigan, referring to the Huskies’ 2-1 victory over Vermont Friday. “But you have to play 60 minutes of smart hockey. Even though we only got three penalties, the one we got was ill-timed. It gave them the momentum and 2-nothing lead and just made the climb that much harder and longer for us and we couldn’t get there.’’
Ron Greco converted his first goal of the season, finishing a rebound off the boards for a three-goal lead at 9:51. Julius Mattila’s second goal of the season made the score 4-0 with a shot redirected off the back of a sliding Zach Solow at 11:48.
John Picking’s first goal of the season cut into the deficit at 16:41.
“Northeastern is one of the best teams in the country,’’ York said. “By far, this is Jim’s best team at Northeastern. Lot of weapons, their first two lines are really difficult to contain. We got some fortunate bounces and Joe made some great saves.’’
