Greco's Hat Trick Leads Eagles Past Vermont, 8-3
Photo by BCEagles.com
Fourteen different Eagles found their way onto the score sheet as Boston College defeated Vermont for the third time this season and extended its win streak to 10 games.
Ryan Edquist got the start in net, his first of the season and first in nearly a year. Spencer Knight didn’t dress for the game, as he was traveling back from the World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic. Knight started four of the United States’ five games during the tournament, going 2-2. He was named U.S. Player of the Game for the group stage win over Russia and the quarterfinals loss to Finland.
Despite the lopsided final score, UVM actually got on the board first. Vlad Dzhioshvili scored four minutes into the game while David Cotton was in the box for an elbowing minor. BC would respond by tilting the ice in the latter half of the first and scoring three before the period was done.
Ron Greco evened the score midway through the first. This was only the beginning of a career day for the senior forward. He’d go on to finish with four points and record his first collegiate hat trick.
Following Greco’s equalizer, Aapeli Rasanen and Marc McLaughlin combined to score two goals in 21 seconds to stun the Catamounts and give BC a two goal lead.
In the second, Vermont outshot BC 15-11, but Edquist held strong, turning away 14 of the UVM shots during the middle frame. The one he let in from Simon Boyko brought the Cats to within one; it was Boyko's first career goal. The score would remain 3-2 for most of the period until Greco’s second brought the lead back to two going into the third.
Jesper Mattila scored a little over a minute into the third. Then Logan Hutsko tacked on a short-handed goal and Cotton added one on the power play. Quickly, the Eagles had enlarged the lead to 7-2. In the middle of the third, Edquist dodged a freak injury when he caught a stick through his goalie mask. He appeared shaken up, and Jack Moffat was warming up while trainers examined him, but the senior stayed in and finished the game. He’d yield one more goal, but Greco would finish off the hat trick and the afternoon’s scoring, making the final 8-3.
BC returns to the ice Friday night against UMass for the first half of a home-and-home. UMass is coming off back-to-back losses against Denver, but the Minutemen remain one of the top two teams in the Hockey East, alongside BC.