Notre Dame hockey: Irish clobber No. 2 BC

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Senior defenseman Stephen Johns and junior right wing Peter Schneider each scored twice and added an assist for three-point games to lead Notre Dame to a 7-2 win over Boston College on Friday night in game one of the best-of-three quarterfinal series at Conte Forum.

Mario Lucia, Bryan Rust and Thomas DiPauli added single goals and senior goaltender Steven Summerhays stopped 22-of-24 shots as the Irish handed the second-ranked Eagles their worse loss of the season.

The loss also was the first Hockey East quarterfinal loss for BC since 2004. The Eagles entered the game having won 18 straight quarterfinal series.

Notre Dame peppered freshman goaltender Thatcher Demko with 34 shots and he made 27 saves before Brian Billett came in to play the final 5:01 of the game.

The win was the sixth straight for the 11th-ranked Irish and ran their unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1) since Feb. 8. Notre Dame is 22-12-2. Second-ranked Boston College is 25-6-4.

Boston College scored first in the game, taking a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Ryan Fitzgerald at 17:19.

From there, Notre Dame would score seven unanswered goals over the next 35:09.

Notre Dame got the equalizer with 10 seconds left in the first as Johns capped a three-on-two chance for his sixth of the year and first of the night at 19:50.

1st Period: BC: Ryan Fitzgerald 11 (Adam Gilmour, Austin Cangelosi), PPG, 17:19; ND: Stephen Johns 6 (Thomas DiPauli, T.J. Tynan), 19:50. Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; BC: 1 for 2 minutes.

2nd Period: ND: Johns 7 (Vince Hinostroza, Shayne Taker), PPG, 2:50; ND: Mario Lucia 16 (Hinostroza, Austin Wuthrich),, 12:49. Penalties: ND: 2 for 4 minutes; BC: 1 for 2 minutes.

3rd Period: ND: Peter Schneider 7 (Steven Fogarty, Johns), 1:08; ND: Bryan Rust 14 (Tynan, Sam Herr), 5:35; ND: DiPauli 2 (Kevin LInd, Schneider), 12:44; ND: Schneider 8 (Fogarty, Jeff Costello), 14:59; BC: Patrick Brown 12 (Johnny Gaudreau, Bill Arnold), PPG, 17:42. Penalties: ND: 0 for 0 minutes; BC: 1 for 2 minutes.

Shots On Goal: Notre Dame 8 - 12 - 14 - 34; Boston College 8 - 9 - 7 - 24

Goaltender Saves: ND: Steven Summerhays (60:00) 7 - 9 6 - 22; BC: Thatcher Demko (54:59) 7 - 10 - 10 - 27; Brian Billett (5:01) x - x - 0 - 0; Power Plays: ND: 1 for ; BC: 2 for 6

Attendance: 5,525