Seventh-ranked UMass rallied, but No. 2 Boston College had the final answer in a 4-3 victory, Friday night at Kelley Rink in Boston.

Matt Boldy scored the game-winner 1 minute, 6 seconds into the third period. The Eagles went the length of the ice in two passes and Boldy scored the breakaway, beating UMass goalie Matt Murray in the one-one-one situation.

Murray (28 saves) kept UMass (1-1-1) in the game, stopping a couple one-on-ones following Boldy’s tally to keep the deficit at one.

“I give BC credit. They really used their speed up the ice,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “That’s something that we knew coming in. It’s hard when you have two injuries to defensemen, especially Marc Del Gaizo. Would have been helpful to have him out there tonight, to have a veteran’s presence. Had some inexperience D-men tonight make some mistakes, which they’re going to do.”

The Minutemen had a pair of power plays in the third but couldn’t capitalize. With an open net on the weak side, Carson Gicewicz couldn’t get control of the puck as an Eagle defender broke up the play from behind on the first one. UMass had three shots on the second with about 5 minutes remaining, but came up empty each time.

Freshman Josh Lopina scored twice to rally the Minutemen. His first came on the power play with UMass trailing 3-1.

Lopina won the faceoff then skated to the crease and as the puck worked itself to Colin Felix at the blue line. Felix wristed a shot on net that Lopina redirected past Spencer Knight with 4:55 left in the second.

About a minute later Lopina found himself in front where he poked the puck into an open net on the weak side to tie the game at 3-3.

“He’s just a really mature player,” Carvel said. “Just does a lot of things right, makes plays, shoots the puck a ton, is around the net. Just a real good player.”

The Eagles (1-0-0) took a 1-0 lead in the first period, but the Minutemen answered quickly in the second. With Boston College on the power play, defenseman Matthew Kessel cleaned up a loose puck and found Zac Jones streaking toward center ice. Jones took the pass and skated up the left side with BC defenseman Drew Helleson forcing him wide.

With Philip Lagunov wide right, Jones sniped it past Knight to pull UMass even with the Eagles at 18:08.

Mike Hardman gave BC a 2-1 lead when he found space in front to beat Murray. Jack McBain made it 3-1 with his second goal. McBain broke out and took a pass at the blue line. Skating in on Murray, McBain stopped and let defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro skate in front. With Cassaro acting like a shield for Murray, McBain beat the senior over his glove-side shoulder.

With 3:12 left in the game, UMass caught the Eagles in a line change. Cal Kiefiuk dropped a pass to Gicewicz but his open shot was stopped by Knight (29 saves).

With about 25 seconds left Travigno and Oliver Chau nearly connected in front.

UMass committed four penalties. It now has 11 over its last two games.

“Early in the year you learn you need make adjustments and one of them is the penalties. We took too many penalties,” Carvel said. “I rarely am unhappy with our play five-on-five and I think that was the case tonight, too, other than the breakdowns where BC was getting speed up the ice. The thing about this team is I think we can be a heavy team, I think we can be a good defensive team, I think we can score enough goals. … This group has got to realize where their Achilles’ heel is and respect that. I think there is a lot of good things about this team, but there are some weaknesses and we discussed it. We have to be able to adjust and respect where there are weakness in your game, and one of those is penalties.”

The teams play again at the Mullins Center in Amherst at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com. Follow on Twitter @mikemoranDHG.