Everything was going right for the Black Bears, and then, in the blink of an eye, it all went tails up.

Up by two goals midway through the third period, the #5 Maine Black Bears had managed to claw their way to within minutes of a monumental victory over the #2 Boston College Eagles at a cacophonous Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. 

But when Grayson Arnott was sent to the sin-bin for a tripping penalty with 10:16 remaining, everything changed. You could almost hear the groans coming all the way down from the Pine Tree State, even amid the chaotic Conte Forum Friday night frenzy.

What transpired next, three BC goals in the final ten minutes, felt inevitable.

It felt inevitable because throughout the game Maine had their moments of momentum, but they were just that. Moments. Fleeting away into the autumn night all too quickly, all too often, for the most part not taken advantage of nor capitalized upon.

After a surging start by the Black Bears, who jumped out of the gates to command the early scoring chances with a shots-on-goal total of 11-5 in their favor, Maine began to get sloppy with the puck. Midway through the first, they handed the puck and control of the game to BC, who were the much better team during the second half of the opening period. The Eagles eventually evened up the shots-on-goal tally at 13 apiece by the period’s end, not including a James Hagens shot that beat Albin Boija, but rang off the post.

In the second period, the Black Bears successfully killed a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct call on forward Ross Mitton, who was ejected from the contest for kneeing BC defenseman Aram Minnetian,  leaving him writhing on the ice in pain.

The penalty on Mitton, who himself was on the receiving end of an earlier knee-on-knee collision that resulted in a two-minute Maine power play, was deemed to be more sinister by the officials, even though it looked from all accounts that he had led with his shoulder, the first point of contact.

Minnetian would return to the ice a few minutes later.

Not only did the Black Bears hold BC’s frighteningly ferocious extended power play scoreless, but Maine’s PK didn’t allow the Eagles a single shot on net. Meanwhile, during the kill, Maine had three shots on Jacob Fowler’s net, a couple on breakaways and odd-man rushes, but couldn’t sneak anything past who many deem to be the best goaltender in college hockey today.

“The momentum really swung  [Maine’s] way on the five-minute power play,” BC Head Coach Greg Brown said after the game. “I thought they outworked our power play with their penalty kill, they closed fast, and we weren’t able to move pucks, possess pucks, and it really gave their bench a lift, I thought, in the latter half of the second period. It felt like we were on our heels, and they were playing very well.”

While Maine did score seven minutes after killing off the five-minute major, thanks to a Josh Nadeau laser beam off a clean Nolan Renwick faceoff win, the Black Bears couldn’t keep their foot on the Eagles’ throats. They let the momentum they had worked so hard to create slip away with every passing minute and every BC dangerous scoring chance.

Almost immediately after taking the lead, a turnover in the neutral zone forced Boija to stonewall a BC partial breakaway. Minutes later, Brandon Chabrier blew a tire at Maine’s blueline, calling Boija in to fight another fire created by the Black Bears in front of him, once again bailing out his Maine teammates with a tremendous save.

While the Black Bears were able to get into the second intermission with a one-goal lead and a commanding shots-on-goal advantage of 23-13, the Eagles by then firmly had the bit between their teeth and were moving through the gears.

With Mitton, one of Maine’s highest-impact players, out of the game, the Black Bears’ line combinations went out the window. Maine mixed and matched, often putting Sully Scholle alongside Renwick and Makar. This significantly limited ice time for Scholle’s former linemates as Maine could only roll three forward lines. Oskar Komarov and Thomas Pichette, the latter playing his first action of the season apart from in the Army exhibition, were only on the ice for 6:58 and 5:10, respectively, rarely seeing time after Mitton’s ejection.

“It's definitely tough. Being down for almost two periods without a forward hurts, but you have a lot of other guys there. It throws off your lines a little bit, but we have to be able to get through that,” Barr said.

Komarov made the most of his infrequent playing time when he doubled the Black Bears’ advantage seven minutes into the third period, his first collegiate goal off a wraparound that squirted off a skate and under Fowler.

That let the air out of the Conte Forum. But it did not seep out of the Eagles on the ice. 

Instead, it flowed out of the Black Bears.

Maine’s moment of momentum once again slipped away under the Eagles’ talons.

“I don’t think we did anything well once we were up a few goals,” Barr said.

While Maine had more scoring chances up to this point, Boston College’s looks were grade-a, high-quality opportunities, mainly from rapid rush chances created by their bevy of elite forwards who could cut through Maine’s defense with superior speed and skill.

Even when Maine was playing well and creating their spells of zone time, it wasn’t sufficiently lethal, and enough members of the team couldn’t sustain it.

“I don’t think we played to the standard that we are capable of playing to. Some guys did, but we’re not a team that can have four or five guys that don’t. That doesn’t work for us the way we’re built,” Barr said.

Boija did all he could, standing on his head for most of the game. But, eventually, the onslaught caught up with him when Andre Gasseau scored nine seconds after Arnott took the tide-changing tripping penalty. This was the first goal Boija had allowed in about 213 minutes of play, going all the way back to early in the second period at Northeastern. Boija was a brick wall, but ultimately, BC’s battering ram siege broke through and the floodgates opened.

The Eagles’ offensive onslaught was always coming, lurking in the weeds, waiting for their opportunity to pounce.

“We were definitely getting chances in the first and second, but we’re always waiting and we’re staying patient. All the chances were there it was only a matter of time,” Ryan Leonard said.

Even when Maine was controlling the game, in a split second, BC could carve apart the Black Bears' defensive structure with frightening ferocity, hitting four posts before finally lighting the lamp.

“I thought the first line, especially Hagens, Perrault, and Leonard, were fired up that they had missed some chances that they wanted back. They raised their game, the team followed,” Brown said.

Boston College never stopped believing because why should they?

With enough offensive skill to match Maine’s ‘93 National Champions, the Eagles already have a knack for soaring to comeback victories this season. In their last home game, BC scored four unanswered goals against Western Michigan, three in the third period to win 4-2. 

Panic is not in the Eagles’ vocabulary.

“We have enough firepower on the front and back,” Leonard said. “It was only a matter of time. Just keep trusting yourself and keep shooting. You know they are going to go in at some point there; they have to.”

Meanwhile, the Black Bears, on average over two years the Eagles’ senior, shrunk, looking like a shell of their former selves. It appeared that the moment got too big for Maine.

“[We] just panicked,” Barr said. “We definitely had some guys that looked like they didn’t want to be on the ice towards the end. That was disappointing.”

When Maine needed an offensive jolt the most, the Black Bears stayed on the back foot, playing not to lose rather than to win, playing whack-a-puck in their defensive end, unable to grab the reins and impose any sort of control.

Boston College, smelling blood in the water, attacked full steam ahead, pelting Boija’s goal with a boatload of chances.

Eagle Mike Pousma scored his first of the season, knotting the game at two when Maine defenseman Jack Dalton couldn’t get the puck out of his skates. After that, it felt inevitable the result was only going to end one way, a Boston College victory.

A huge reason for this was the emotional context surrounding this game. There was something special in the air on Chestnut Hill Friday night.

In late August, the hockey world was shaken by the tragic passing of brothers Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, both killed by a drunk driver while riding bicycles the night before their sister’s wedding.

Both Guadreau’s enjoyed immensely successful careers at Boston College. Johnny Hockey, as the older brother was lovingly nicknamed, won a National Championship with BC in 2012, as well as the Hobey Baker Award in 2014, before pursuing an exceptional eleven-year career in the NHL. Younger brother Matthew played with Johnny during his Freshman year before embarking on a five-year professional career, mainly for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Worcester Railers.

But to everyone who knew the Gaudreaus, they were even better people off the ice than they were on it. 

“Lots of memories for what they did on the ice, but for everybody who knew them, just great memories off the ice, what good people they were. It just makes it as sad as I could possibly imagine,” Brown, who coached both brothers as an assistant, said.

Both Guadreaus, along with Boston College hockey alum Tony Voce, who passed away suddenly in the summer at the age of 43, were remembered with an emotional tribute before the game, their families taking part in the ceremonial puck drop.

“It’s special for sure. You can see the emotion all the families have, our coaching staff that was lucky enough to know them, Leonard said. “We all know that those guys were really special to this program and really special to their families and the hockey world too. They were mentors for a lot of young kids. You look up to those guys, you try to honor them in the best way possible and we went out there and tried to do it for them.”

The Eagles certainly honored these three in the most remarkable of fashions. 

With 1:33 left, a defensive breakdown and a slow Black Bears backcheck allowed an odd-man rush on Boija’s net. Leonard scored the game-winning goal from a cross-crease feed from Hagens to send the roof off the Conte Forum. There’s little doubt the trio of passed Eagles was looking down on their teammates from above Friday night.

“The fact that the kids dug deep and came back for them was pretty special,” Brown said.

From a Maine perspective, the loss couldn’t have been more stunning or heartbreaking.

“The way we lost, that hurts,” Barr said.

The Black Bears were so close to perhaps their most remarkable victory of the Barr era.

They just unraveled.

Yet still, Maine showed that they have every right to play at the top level of college hockey. They gave an outstanding BC team everything they could handle in their building. The Black Bears showed through fifty minutes they have what it takes to beat a team as talented as Boston College. Now, it’s about taking the next step for a complete sixty minutes. Maine, of course, knows they must be much better, and so must BC.

“It’s going to be a man’s game on Sunday, and we have to rise to the occasion. I think everyone in the locker room knows that they [the Black Bears] are a hard team; you saw that out there tonight. They are going to be even more hungry on Sunday,” BC’s Leonard said.

The Black Bears will indeed be hungry. They were so close to victory that they could taste it.

While it’s a stinging loss, it’s only the first time this group will have to face real adversity this season. Now is when their character will truly be tested.

Sometimes, you have to take a step backward in order to make a leap forward.

The Journey North is never linear.

“We move on,” Barr said. “Get better.”