BOSTON – Potential rewards far outweighed the risk.

The No. 15 UMass hockey team trailed Boston College by a goal with 1 minute, 4 seconds left and challenged a high hit against Aaron Bohlinger as he crossed the blue line. UMass coach Greg Carvel didn’t have a timeout to stake, so a failed challenge would result in a bench minor penalty.

The Minutemen stood to gain a man for the remainder of regulation that wouldn’t expire with a goal by the nation’s best power play – which had just scored.

“We were told that we should challenge that hit. It looked pretty violent on the ice. I haven't looked at a replay yet, but we just calculated we should try, even though we knew we would get a penalty if we were wrong,” Carvel said. “We thought, at that time, it was a good, calculated risk.”

Instead the call on the ice stood, and UMass had to kill a penalty and try to score a tying goal. The Minutemen pulled goalie Luke Pavicich and pushed, but the Eagles regained possession of the puck, leaving UMass to defend an empty net with five players in its own zone. Defensemen Scott Morrow and Bohlinger alternated with some of the forwards standing around the crease to potentially ward off shots.

“We don't practice five on five with a goalie out, but I guess we should,” Carvel said.

Boston College’s Eamon Powell flicked in an empty netter to secure a 4-2 victory Saturday at Fenway Park.

The Minutemen (9-8-3, 3-7-1 Hockey East) trailed most of the game after Pavicich allowed a Cutter Gauthier goal on the first shot he saw 2:25 in. Gauthier, fresh off a bronze medal at the IIHF World Junior Championships with UMass players Ryan Ufko and Kenny Connors, swung his stick like he hit a home run after the puck hit the net.

“Tough way to start the game. Like to have that one back, I’m sure Pav would, too,” Carvel said. “He looked really steady the rest of the way, but it’s a tough one to give up right off the bat.”

Pavicich saved 37 shots.

UMass brought its bats out quickly to respond. Late on the Minutemen’s first power play, Ryan Lautenbach shuffled the puck up the ice to Cole O’Hara. He found a streaking Michael Cameron, who flipped the puck over BC goalie Mitch Benson (23 saves) to tie it 9:28 in with just one second remaining on the power play.

“Cameron's goal was a good response. We needed that,” Carvel said.

The Minutemen didn’t need another BC goal. Cam Burke deflected a tic tac toe pass from Lukas Gustafsson and Andre Gasseau at 12:41 to send the Eagles (8-6-4, 5-3-3) to the locker room with a 2-1 lead.

He doubled his tally 12:55 into the second, firing home a pass from Oskar Jellvik that he collected after a UMass clearance bounced off the referee.

UMass’ power play, 2-of-6 in the game, breathed life into the Minutemen again late in the third. BC’s Liam Izyk was called for interference with 3:33 left, and UMass scored 18 seconds into the man advantage to make it 3-2.

“We didn't fight back hard enough,” Carvel said. “You get it to 3-2 in the third period and it just felt like we were gonna find a way. I liked the way the kids were playing. We needed to get more pucks to the net and a little more urgency to do so. It felt on the bench like we were going to find a way. Frustrating that we couldn’t.”

On the power play strike, Connors collected the puck below the goal line and passed to Morrow near the blue line. He moved it over to Ufko, who blasted a line drive into the back of the net. Connors screened Benson so he didn’t see it.

“Obviously hoped maybe a couple more went in and we won the game but yeah, it was definitely a cool feeling,” Ufko said.

Ufko and Connors flew back from the world juniors tournament in Canada on Friday to join the team for Saturday’s game. They clicked right back into place in the lineup and on the power play.

“I definitely didn't want to miss this. I don't want to miss any games, especially here with this group,” Ufko said. “Looking at all the crowd that showed up, it was really special, really deep down important to us. You can hear the UMass chants from the bench even though fans are sitting pretty far away. It was definitely a really cool experience, especially to play here and in Boston.”

UMass fell to 1-2 at Fenway after dropping a game against Boston University in Jan. 2017. The team beat Vermont in 2012. The Minutemen will visit No. 6 Boston University at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>