CHESTNUT HILL – Boston College poured in four goals in the final six minutes of the first period to both start and finish a 7-3 victory over UMass on Friday at Conte Forum.

The Eagles (11-12-6, 6-8-5 Hockey East) took down the Minutemen (10-14-5, 4-12-3) for the third time in a row and ninth time in the past 11 games to secure their higher position in the Hockey East standings.

“That’s just competing, that's just being read. It's having some urgency, desperation.When we pick it up, we're fine. We need a lot of chances to score. Boston College doesn't,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “We made the goals too easy, and then the goaltender... We needed some big saves, and we just didn't get them.”

UMass’ forecheck pinned BC in its own zone for the first three minutes until too many Minutemen gave the Eagles the game’s first power play opportunity. UMass killed the power play despite some near misses.

The Eagles found the target after that. Colby Ambrosio tucked away the game’s first goal curling around the whole offensive zone to the left side before firing a clean wrist shot to the top right corner. Oskar Jellvik and Charlie Leddy assisted the tally 7:48 into the game.

Mike Posma doubled BC’s lead when he flipped the puck over a sprawled Luke Pavicich with 6 minutes left in the first. Pavicich saved Will Traeger’s initial attempt but committed too hard to. Mitch Andres also received an assist.

“This is not a goaltender issue. We needed the goaltender to save us a few times, and it didn’t happen,” Carvel said. “It was a first period with a lot of mistakes that they capitalized on. That’s what they do.”

Nikita Nesterenko made it 3-0 barely a minute later. Jellvik sprung him for a one-on-one opportunity with Pavicich that Nesterenko deked around and buried with 4:57 left in the period. Cam Burke also assisted the play.

Boston College took a 4-0 lead with 2:51 left in the third. Jellvik tapped in the goal from the doorstep from Eamon Powell and Nesterenko.

Marshall Warren completed the barrage 1:25 after that to make it 5-0 from Charlie Leddy and Connor Joyce, completing UMass’ worst period of the season.

“The process was right, the intentions were right and the pace was right,” BC coach Greg Brown said.

The Minutemen hadn’t allowed five goals in a period since the second game of its season 0pening series against Minnesota State in Oct. 2021.

That chased Luke Pavicich for the second game in a row in lieu of Henry Graham, who made his fifth appearance of the season.

Somehow, it got even messier. UMass forward Taylor Makar was assessed a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for contact to the head and was ejected it.

Some of that damage was mitigated when BC’s Trevor Kuntar was whistled for a cross check four seconds into the infraction and UMass received a four-on-three opportunity 52 seconds after that following an Aidan Hreschuk hold.

The Eagles killed both of their own penalties and still had the length of a regular power play to work with, which was more than enough. Nesterenko added a second goal from Powell and Kuntar at the 8:37 mark of the second.

UMass finally answered 16 seconds later. Owen Murray fed Matt Koopman on the break, who flipped it by Mitch Benson for his fourth goal of the season.

Koopman tapped in his second goal of the night with 5:29 remaining in the period amidst a crowd around the net. UMass had a sixth attacker because of a delayed BC penalty. Lucas Mercuri and Kennedy O’Connor assisted the play.

The advantage became five-on-three for five seconds after Marshall went to the box for tripping, extending the Minutemen’s time on the power play. That is until Cal Kiefiuk went to the box to make it a four-on-four with a cross check after just 23 seconds, during which UMass hit a post.

UMass coach Greg Carvel went to Arizona State transfer Cole Brady for the third period. It was his first appearance since Nov. 12 at Boston University.

“he’s a good teammate and just hasn’t had a lot of opportunity this year,” Carvel said. “I probably should have put him in the second period.”

Kenny Connors added a third unanswered goal for the Minutemen with 8:52 remaining on the power play. Scott Morrow slid him a pass across the ice, and Connors ripped it toward the net dropping to one knee. The puck bounced in front of Benson and dribbled into the net.

“They lost some urgency to their game, and we competed a little bit harder and made it look like a hockey game for the last two periods,” Carvel said.

Nesterenko completed his hat trick 55 seconds later from Hreschuk to make it 7-3.

The teams will meet again Saturday at the Mullins Center (7 p.m. ESPN+)

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