Boston College men’s hockey left Denver with a 2-2 tie against the No. 4 Pioneers, the defending national champions, on Saturday, Oct. 24, after Teddy Stiga scored with 46 seconds left in regulation. One night earlier, Denver had won 5-2 at Magness Arena. The No. 18/17 Eagles are 1-3-1 going into their Hockey East opener against Northeastern at Kelley Rink on Oct. 30, according to BC Athletics.
Game 1: Denver pulls away in the third period
Denver led 2-0 on Friday after a Sam Harris goal at 17:05 of the first period and one by Kieran Cebrian at 2:06 of the second. BC then scored twice in 37 seconds, the official recap said. Dean Letourneau scored on a rebound set up by Oscar Hemming and Matias Vanhanen at 10:38, and Will Vote redirected a Carson Woodall point shot at 11:15.
The Pioneers took over in the third. Daxon Rudolph scored on a power play 29 seconds into the period, James Reeder added a goal at 7:26, and Cebrian scored into an empty net at 19:26. Louka Cloutier made 27 saves for BC. The goal extended Letourneau’s point streak to four games.
Game 2: Stiga’s late goal forces a tie
BC had a five-minute power play early on Saturday after Denver’s Kyle Chyzowski was penalized for contact to the head, but the Eagles did not score. Letourneau hit the crossbar from the slot soon after. Kristian Epperson (5:31) and Blake Fiddler (13:46) gave Denver a 2-0 lead in the second period.
Vanhanen cut the lead to one at 18:43 of the second period, knocking a deflected Luka Radivojevic shot out of the air. Matthew Grimes got his first collegiate point on the play. BC pulled Cloutier with about two minutes left, and at 19:14 of the third, Vanhanen found Stiga across the crease for the tying goal. The five-minute overtime was scoreless. Letourneau was the only player to score in the shootout, which BC won 1-0, but the game officially goes down as a tie. Cloutier made 21 saves. Vanhanen finished with a goal and an assist, and Letourneau stretched his point streak to five games.
Why the Denver series mattered
Before the weekend, BC was ranked No. 18 in the USCHO poll and No. 17 in the USA Hockey poll, and Denver was No. 4 in both, according to BC’s series preview. BC is 16-23-0 all-time against the Pioneers, who had won the last four meetings, including 7-3 at Kelley Rink last season. BC’s last win over Denver was 5-1 on Oct. 23, 2021.
BC opened the season by splitting two games with St. Cloud State at home: a 4-0 win on Oct. 15, when Cloutier made 28 saves and Hemming scored twice, and a 5-3 loss on Oct. 17. Three Eagles (Teddy Mutryn, Woodall and Vanhanen) scored their first college goals in the second game. Going into the Denver trip, Radivojevic and Vote shared the team lead with three assists each, and Kristian Kostadinski had blocked five shots. Cloutier had a 1.52 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage in his two games. Our Boston college hockey roundup covers how BU, Northeastern and Harvard have started.
Letourneau named to Spengler Cup roster
Letourneau, a junior forward from Canada, has been added to the U.S. Collegiate Selects roster for the 2026 Spengler Cup, Dec. 26 to 31 in Davos, Switzerland. He is the first BC player named to that team, BC Athletics said. He had 22 goals and 39 points in 2025-26 and made Hockey East’s third All-Star team. The Spengler Cup, first held in 1923, is the world’s oldest invitational hockey tournament. The college team opens on Dec. 26 against Frölunda HC of Sweden.
Next: BC vs. Northeastern at Kelley Rink
BC hosts Northeastern on Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31, both at 7 p.m. on ESPN+. Saturday’s game will also be on NESN. The series opens BC’s Hockey East schedule. For the full local picture, see The Boston Report’s college sports hub.
More Boston College sports
BC football is 4-3 after a 49-27 win at Georgia Tech. On the women’s side, hockey split with No. 12 Cornell, our women’s sports roundup covers volleyball, field hockey and soccer, and the women’s basketball preview looks ahead to the Nov. 2 opener.
Sources
- BC Athletics: No. 18 Eagles drop first game of weekend to No. 4 Denver
- BC Athletics: No. 18 Eagles overturn two-goal deficit to tie No. 4 Denver
- BC Athletics: No. 18 Eagles fly west to play No. 4 Denver (preview)
Additional sources
- BC Athletics: Letourneau added to U.S. Collegiate Selects roster
- USCHO: Division I men’s poll
- NCAA.com: Division I men’s ice hockey
Featured image: A hockey game at Kelley Rink in Conte Forum, Boston College. Photo by BCLicious via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
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