CHESTNUT HILL - An effort called one of the best of the season by coach Don "Toot" Cahoon still wasn't good enough for the University of Massachusetts hockey team Friday night.

The Minutemen, three weeks after they were spanked by Boston College in Amherst, put up a better fight in Chestnut Hill, but the result was another loss as the seventh-ranked Eagles beat UMass 2-1 in overtime.

Chris Kreider's goal 2 minutes, 2 seconds into the overtime session gave Boston College (20-10-2, 15-8-2 Hockey East) the win, and puts the Eagles one point out of first. The Minutemen fell to 16-16 overall, and their 11-14 Hockey East record puts them in a tie for eighth with Vermont, over whom the Minutemen hold the head-to-head playoff tiebreaker. The Catamounts defeated Boston University 7-3 on Friday.

"We're dealing with bottom lines here, and we didn't get the bottom line," Cahoon said. "So it's a pretty sullen locker room right now, a pretty dissatisfied locker room given the effort they made."

The loss came three weeks after the Minutemen were blown out of their own building 7-1 by the Eagles, a loss that started a now-six-game slide for UMass. However, the Minutemen had every right to feel a little cheated by Friday night's result.

"We saw what they did to us that night, and there were reasons for it, and we made some adjustments that way, but I thought it was more the kids having a great mentality on the ice and competing at a much higher level, making the game more difficult for BC than we did back in Amherst," Cahoon said.

Goaltender Paul Dainton made 31 saves in the loss for UMass, posting his fifth 30-plus save effort in nine career games against the Eagles. But he had no chance for save No. 32 in overtime. Pat Mullane picked off the puck in the UMass end, zoomed up the right wing, and cut in on the goal at full speed. He dished it across the slot to Kreider, who merely had to tap it past a helpless Dainton to give the Eagles the win, which they celebrated en masse in the UMass end.

"I got caught in the line change, but we did a great job of stripping the puck," Kreider said. "I had to go to the post hard, Pat really dictated the pace and made that happen."

The loss leaves UMass with just two games, both at Maine next weekend, to salvage a season that has come apart in the final month. And while Friday night's effort was clearly an improvement over some of the ones that resulted in a disastrous February, the only victories left to collect are not the moral kind.

"It's not about the positives going into the last week of the season," Cahoon said. "It's about wins. We thought we did what was necessary to get out of here with something tonight."

The Minutemen had chances in the first period, but the frustration continued for the offense around the net. Will Ortiz, Danny Hobbs and Brett Watson crashed the BC net with 2:45 left in the period, and all three got a swipe at the loose puck as it bounced around the crease, but the Eagles escaped.

At the other end, Dainton was very solid, turning aside all 13 shots he saw, saving the UMass defense at least twice on bad give-aways in its own zone.

The Eagles got on the board first with a goal just 18 seconds into the second period, sapping whatever momentum the Minutemen had from their strong first. Joe Whitney scored his 12th of the year on a redirect in the slot, pushing Patrick Wey's feed past Dainton's outstretched right leg.

UMass continued to stay with the hosts, though, and made some big plays to keep it close. Michael Marcou made a great stop with his stick on a spin-and-shoot by BC's Matt Lombardi as Dainton slid back into position with 14:04 left in the period.

The Minutemen started to pick up some steam with a power play midway through after interference was called on Tommy Cross. With defenseman Justin Braun playing left wing for almost the entire two minutes, UMass swarmed BC goaltender Parker Milner (34 saves) but could not score.

Dainton made two sparkling saves in the middle part of the period, and the UMass offense started dumping pressure in the BC zone.

That effort finally paid off with 2:19 left, when Watson redirected a pass across the low slot from Marc Concannon, beating Milner to tie it 1-1. It was Watson's first goal in 82 games # dating back to Jan. 18, 2008, at Providence # and the Minutemen's first in more than 125 minutes of play.

A quiet third period saw the teams evenly matched, and UMass, which stayed out of the penalty box all game, had a power play after Brian Gibbons was called for tripping with 8:08 left.

Nothing came of it, though, and BC held on to force overtime, where Kreider ensured the Minutemen would go without a win in the month of February.