AMHERST — After outplaying Boston College for most of the game, things went south in a hurry for the UMass hockey team in the third period.
In the midst of a chippy game, a major penalty that earned Griff Jeszka an ejection and coach Greg Carvel a bench minor seemed to spark the Eagles to a 5-2 win Thursday at the Mullins Center.
Things seemed set up for UMass to break its nine-game (0-8-1) winless streak against the Eagles. The Minutemen were 11-1-2 when they scored first and 11-0-1 when leading after two this season. UMass got on the board first and led 2-1 after the second period.
But BC scored four times in the third period, including an empty-netter to pull away.
“It’s frustrating when you have a 2-1 lead in your own building going into the third and it ends up 5-2,” UMass captain Jake Horton said. “It’s something we have to take a step from because the playoffs are coming around the corner.”
The fact that Jeszka’s penalty was a major and a second period BC elbow to the head was only ruled a minor penalty, frustrated Carvel.
“The one power play we got should have been a 5-minute major for a violent hit to the head and the one they got was hardly a penalty,” he said. “It’s frustrating. Give BC credit. They’re a skilled team. Give them time and space in the offensive end and they made us pay.”
The Eagles tied the game on that 5-minute power play as David Cotton drove the puck through traffic in front past goalie Matt Murray with 12:38 remaining.
“That was a huge goal for us,” BC coach Jerry York said. “That was a big response for us to get a goal there.”
After that BC’s Finnish twins scored a trio of goals. Jesper Mattila broke the tie with 5:52 remaining on an odd-man rush. His brother Julius Mattila sealed the win 40 seconds later and added an empty-netter that left the Minutemen stunned.
“I thought it was a great bounce-back for our club,” York said. “We came back and played a very solid third period.”
UMass took a 1-0 lead 36 seconds into the game. Skating into the zone, Jake Gaudet slung the puck at BC goalie Joseph Woll. It was the type of play that usually ends up with either a rebound or an offensive zone faceoff, but the low wrist shot eluded the goalie, giving the Minutemen (13-17-2, 7-12-2 Hockey East) early momentum.
BC (15-13-3, 15-6-0 Hockey East) answered four minutes later when J.D. Dudek’s shot off Murray’s pad caromed perfectly to Jacob Tortora in the left-wing faceoff circle. The freshman’s one-timer snuck inside the left post before Murray (26 saves) could get his blocker there tying the game at 1-1.
Just over two minutes after BC’s Michael Karow rung the cross bar, UMass regained the lead. John Leonard knocked the puck away from an Eagle defenseman deep in the BC zone, to George Mika skating out of the right-wing corner. The freshman skated across the slot and flipped a backhand past Woll to make it 2-1.
UMass lost Leonard shortly after as he skated to the bench and eventually went to the locker room and didn’t return. Carvel wasn’t sure about his status going forward.
“Losing Leonard takes some juice out of the lineup,” Carvel said. “If you don’t come back in the game, it’s probably going to be a little bit of time.”
UMass is off this weekend and plays at UConn, Thursday at 7 p.m.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage