Men’s Hockey: Bowen’s Two Goals Carry Vermont to 2-2 Tie at BC

Posted on by George Commo

Courtesy Vermont Sports Information

CHESTNUT HILL, MA – Brian Bowen answered a pair of one-goal leads for No. 11 Boston College and finished with a three-goal weekend as 16th-ranked Vermont earned a 2-2 Hockey East tie with the Eagles on Saturday night at Conte Forum.

UVM pushed its record to 17-10-5 (9-7-4 HEA) and retained sixth place in the standings with one weekend left in the regular season. Boston College moved to 18-12-5 (13-4-3 HEA) and holds a two-point cushion atop the league.

BC opened the scoring just 2:09 into the contest as rookie Julius Mattila wristed a shot short side high to beat Stefanos Lekkas (30 saves) from the left wing circle.

Lekkas made back-to-back saves on Austin Cangelosi and Ryan Fitzgerald from the top of the crease midway through the second to keep the deficit at one.

That led to Bowen’s first of the night at 13:27 as Trey Phillips sent Derek Lodermeier a pass into the offensive zone. Lodermeier cut across the middle and dropped a pass to a streaking Bowen, who circled around the net and buried a wrap-around at the left post to tie the game for the Catamounts.

Just 41 seconds into the third, Boston College set up on its second power play of the night and Matthew Gaudreau found Colin White in the high slot. White turned and fired a shot that deflected past Lekkas low glove side off the stick of Cangelosi.

The Catamounts erased BC’s again less than two minutes later as Mario Puskarich fired a left wing shot on net with the rebound kicking out toward the corner. Bowen located the puck along the left goal line and ripped a shot off Joe Wall (29 saves) inside the near post. The goal gave Bowen a team-high 11 on the year and his second multi-goal game of the season. Colton posted his team-high 25th point with the second assist.

Next weekend, Vermont closes the regular season in Burlington against the Merrimack Warriors for Senior Weekend on Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25 at 7:05 p.m. Tickets are available by logging on to UVMathletics.com/Tickets or by calling 802-656-4410.

Friday is Green Out The Gut Night presented by Casella Waste Systems and fans are encouraged to wear green. Saturday is Senior Night at Gutterson Fieldhouse as the Catamounts honor the 10 members of their senior class before the game.