AMHERST — Jake McLaughlin ended the night with a new addition to his hat collection.
The junior defenseman earned a tri-cornered hat from his teammates for being their player of the game Friday night. He also earned a puck from coach Greg Carvel for his efforts in helping No. 3 UMass defeat Boston College, 4-3, at the Mullins Center. And it wasn’t just his goal with 2.3 seconds left that earned him that honor.
McLaughlin put together his best effort of the season in the first 59 minutes, 57 seconds, and with the puck bouncing around the net late in regulation, Carvel said there was only one player he felt deserved to send the Minutemen to a program-record 22nd victory.
“We live by the motto ‘you get what you deserve,’” Carvel said. “Honestly, we deserved to score a goal with the puck banging around the front of the net a lot. And the guy who deserved to score was Jake McLaughlin. I challenged him the last two weeks and he’s really elevated (his game). He was outstanding (Friday), I thought he was our best player.”
McLaughlin had faced a similar situation earlier in the season to what unfolded in front of him as the clock ticked down. In November against Connecticut, the junior defenseman had the puck jump over his stick as he crashed from his spot on the blue line to the front of the net. But he didn’t miss it when it counted for UMass (22-6-0, 14-4-0 Hockey East) against the Eagles.
He was perfectly positioned below the faceoff dot to receive a pass from Mitchell Chaffee, who had scooped up the puck as it was pinballing around the crease area in the final 15 seconds. Chaffee skated it away from pressure behind the goal before feeding it to McLaughlin, who took the pass in stride and sent the shot over a sprawled-out Joseph Woll.
Neither he nor his teammates really had any idea of how much time was left, but he made his chance count for his second goal of the season.
“It was UConn, it was similar the puck was kind of at the net and it kind of jumped over my stick,” McLaughlin said. “Leading up to this point, I hadn’t gotten the bounces I wanted, so it was pretty nice to get that one.”
“I didn’t know how much time was on the clock and neither did my teammates,” McLaughlin added. “It was such a surreal feeling (to see the puck go in).”
UMass was down a defenseman against the Eagles with senior Ivan Chukarov out of the lineup with an illness. Carvel elected to use 13 forwards against Boston College (10-15-3, 9-6-3 HEA) and leave a standard six-defenseman rotation on the blue line. From his opening shift, McLaughlin proved he was ready to match the Eagles’ physicality and played with the effort UMass has lacked from the start recently.
“He had intensity, he had jump, he was heavy on the puck, he won battles,” Carvel said. “A lot of our guys didn’t have great jump, but he had great jump. Every player goes through ups and downs, and he’s just feeling confident right now. He was outstanding all week in practice, so I’m not surprised.”
The early energy did not help the Minutemen start quickly on the scoreboard, however. Less than four minutes into the game, Boston College scored to take the lead and the Eagles doubled it with three minutes left in the first on the power play.
Cale Makar took the slashing penalty that set up the second goal, but he almost immediately atoned for the mistake by joining Chaffee on an odd-man rush on the next shift. Chaffee kept Woll guessing as he dragged the puck on the two-on-one break before eventually sending the pass over to Makar for the easy goal. The score came just 29 seconds after the Eagles doubled their lead and helped give UMass some momentum heading into the second period.
“I wanted to just contribute,” said Makar, who finished with a goal and two assists. “I took a bad penalty before, so I just wanted to get on the ice and try to do something productive to get the energy back for the guys.”
The Minutemen played a heavier period in the middle 20 minutes and it led to good breaks falling their way. Amherst native John Leonard capitalized on a power play, taking a silky cross-ice pass from Makar and rifling it into the net before Woll could cross his crease. Less than 90 seconds later, Jacob Pritchard caused a turnover behind Woll and sent the puck in front to Philip Lagunov for the tally that put the Minutemen ahead 3-2.
BC equalized 13 minutes into the third when Matt Murray couldn’t catch a shot cleanly with his glove and the rebound found its way to David Cotton, who roofed the shot over Murray’s shoulder. From that point, UMass did what it does best and ramped up its game a little bit more. The Minutemen had a flurry of chances, most notably a breakaway for Pritchard, before it got the bounce it needed late.
“Our main thing is just being able to keep chipping away,” Makar said. “A few things didn’t go our way in the first period and we kind of just reset and re-focused after that. We came out a completely different team and that’s how we need to play consistently every night.”
Josh Walfish can be reached at jwalfish@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshWalfishDHG. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.