PORTLAND, Maine — Senior center Austin Cangelosi had a hat trick and Boston College was simply too fast for the University of Maine as the Eagles posted a comfortable 6-1 victory Friday night in front of 4621 at the Cross Insurance Arena.
The fifth-ranked Eagles improved to 7-2-1 and extended their unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1). They are 3-0-1 in Hockey East.
The Black Bears are 3-4-2 overall and were playing their first Hockey East game. UMaine is winless in its last six games (0-4-2) and is 0-3-2 in its last five games at the Cross Insurance Arena.
The teams will play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Alfond Arena in Orono.
Cangelosi scored three straight goals, one in the first period and two in the second, after Dane Gibson had opened the scoring for Maine.
Chris Calnan, David Cotton and Ryan Fitzgerald broke the game open with goals over the first 7:07 of the third period.
UMaine had no answer for Boston College’s speed as the Eagles took control of the game in the second period and never looked back.
The puck-hungry Eagles constantly harassed the Black Bears into turnovers and those turnovers fueled their impressive transition game. They generated a number of odd-man rushes.
“We gave up too many opportunities in the second period and didn’t generate enough chances ourselves,” said Maine coach Red Gendron. “The game was decided in the second period. We went to sleep and let them get behind us. We didn’t do the the little things we needed to do.”
“You have to play hard every shift. We took shifts off after the first period,” said Maine senior left wing and captain Cam Brown.
BC associate head coach Greg Brown, filling in for head coach Jerry York (eye surgery), said his team “tries to play fast” and that the game “was a lot closer than the score.
“Maine had a lot of good spurts,” added Brown.
The teams swapped power-play goals in the first period as Gibson scored at the 13:04 mark only to have Cangelosi answer 5:21 later.
Cangelosi broke the tie with a shorthanded goal off a breakaway 3:01 into the second period and expanded the lead at the 14:19 mark.
Gibson opened the scoring just after coming off the bench on a line change.
Patrick Shea, whose father Neil played at Boston College, took a shot from the left circle that hit goalie Joe Woll in the shoulder and spilled across the goalmouth to Gibson, who swept it home.
Cangelosi tied it up off a perfect across-the-crease pass from Chris Brown after UMaine had failed to clear it out of the zone on a couple of occasions. Cangelosi one-timed the 6-footer into the short side before UMaine goalie Matt Morris could slide across.
“Chris had some good sauce on the pass,” said Cangelosi who added that Brown’s pass made it easy for him.
Cangelosi made it 2-1 when he got behind the UMaine defense, recovered the puck after Michael Kim’s clearing pass hit him in the rear end.
“It went right to my stick,” said Cangelosi, who burst in on Morris, pulled it to his backhand and jammed it between Morris’ right skate and the post.
Morris stopped a Calnan breakaway but Cangelosi made it 3-1 after they created a flurry of chances off their transition.
J.D. Dudek had a chance off a two-on-one and the Eagles were on a delayed penalty when the puck wound up on the stick of Connor Moore, who fed it over to Cangelosi in the middle of the slot and he wristed it past Morris.
Cangelosi said he couldn’t recall the last time he scored three consecutive goals.
“Austin has been our most consistent player,” said Brown, who added that the assistant captain sets a good example for the young players with his work ethic.
Maine killed off a five-on-three that spanned 1:41 later in the second period but Boston College capitalized on a UMaine turnover early in the third to make it 4-1.
The Black Bears fumbled the puck in the offensive zone, and Boston College quickly broke out and created a four-on-one. Ryan Fitzgerald fed the puck across to Calnan, and he chipped the puck past the helpless Morris.
Cotton’s power-play goal ended the evening for Morris, and freshman Stephen Mundinger replaced him.
Boston College outshot UMaine 33-23.
Woll made 22 saves while Morris finished with 24 and Mundinger had three and allowed one goal.