All the makings of an historic upset continued to snowball in front of an SNHU Arena crowd that increasingly craved for it in the NCAA Tournament’s first round Friday afternoon in Manchester, N.H.

Instead, top-seeded Boston College moves on without the anguish of heartbreak for a second straight year.

Freshman James Hagens (goal, assist) snapped a tie with 1:17 left, sophomore Ryan Leonard (goal, assist) added an empty-netter less than a minute later, and the Eagles (27-7-2) continue their journey to avenge last year’s loss in the national championship with a 3-1 win over Bentley.

The Falcons (23-15-2) blocked north of 20 shots and Connor Hasley posted 41 saves to cling to a tie game for much of the final two periods in the program’s first tournament appearance, but the star-studded Eagles’ relentless offensive pressure proved too much to hold off.

“It’s a playoff hockey game, you know it’s going to be close,” Hagens said. “But we stuck together, we knew that you can’t quit, it’s going to be tough. It ended up working out for us in the end.”

“It was going to come down to who could make a play in the end, and we were fortunate that it was (Hagens) that made the play,” said Boston College head coach Greg Brown. “That was a heckuva hockey game, and we’re excited to advance.”

As time trickled down and overtime appeared imminent, the offensive pressure Boston College applied all game from its forecheck set up Aram Minnetian for a shot from the point with under 1:30 left. The shot banged off the wall below the goal line, which Hagens scooped and took it around the back for a wrap-around goal and the 2-1 lead.

“We were all crashing to the net, and the goalie was out a little bit,” he said. “So, I figured I’d wrap the puck and it ended up going in.”

Bentley pulled Hasley with about 40 seconds left. Aidan Hreschuk lobbed a pass from deep in the BC zone down the ice, and Leonard won a footrace to it to pot the empty-netter for his 30th goal of the year – which leads the nation.

Boston College peppered Hasley in a lopsided first period, though Gabe Perreault’s shot with 3:15 left in the frame was the only one of 16 the Eagles could get through to head into the first intermission up 1-0. Shortly into the second, Bentley – which threatened a couple times on a power play in the first period – tied the score at 1-1 on Ethan Leyh’s power-play goal off a feed in front from Stephen Castagna.

Several stoppages for ice issues to work on the nets disrupted flow. Leonard shot high on a wide-open net at the backdoor on a power play that would’ve given the Eagles a 2-1 lead in the second. Bentley scrapped out stops on several dangerous rebounds in front otherwise to keep it tied heading into the final two minutes.

“We had a few chances, like, good chances,” said Brown. “When you don’t score on those, then the game’s going to stay tight. It was exactly what we expected. You hope to capitalize on the chances you do get, but when we didn’t, you just have to stay patient. I think it’s so important, and the guys did a good job of that.”

Jacob Fowler finished with 20 saves for the Eagles, including one off a rebound Bentley fired on him in the third to nearly take its first lead.

The win marked the first for the Eagles over Bentley in three meetings.

BC will play the Denver-Providence winner in the regional final Saturday.

Bentley forward Ethan Leyh (19) battles with Boston College defenseman Drew Fortescue (5) and forward Andre Gasseau (24) for control of the puck during the first period of an NCAA hockey regionals on Friday, March 28, 2025, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)