CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — In Friday's matchup against Northeastern, Boston College men’s hockey coach Greg Brown was visibly displeased when Dean Letourneau, his veteran, first-line forward who entered the season as the Eagles’ top returning scorer, received a roughing penalty just past the 10-minute mark of the second period.

Despite outshooting the Huskies by more than double the amount, and quite frankly outplaying them in almost every facet, BC only possessed a one-goal lead when it happened, and an unnecessary penalty was the very last thing it needed.

Less than a minute later, Northeastern tied the game at two apiece on Amine Hajibi’s quick-reaction shot that swerved past BC goalie Louka Cloutier on his glove side.

Instead of letting this one slide, just like the Eagles’ two-goal lead entering the second frame which had just disappeared, Brown made a decision he thought was in the best interest of the player who, in part, let it happen.

That decision was to keep Letourneau off the ice for the remainder of the period.

“Yeah, you had to let him know,” said Brown after the game. “The plan was to let him think about it for the rest of the period, hope he was ready to respond in the third. … We have to avoid situations like that. [You] can’t shoot yourselves in the foot.”

It turns out that Letourneau was, in fact, benched after his roughing penalty at the 10:18 mark of the second frame, which led to the Huskies tying the game.

Brown said: “Yeah, you had to let him know. The plan was to let him think about it for the rest of the period.” pic.twitter.com/802YBJDmS5

— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) October 31, 2026

When Letourneau is on the ice, the puck typically lasts in the Eagles’ possession, as his 6-foot-7 frame makes it easy to keep it away from the opposition.

It’s a certified risk to not let a player like that skate for a lengthy duration, especially when it's a tie game and the momentum has been completely swept out from underneath.

But as strange as it sounds, it might have been the decision that won BC the game, as Letourneau came out in the third with a different level of stamina and tenacity than he’d been playing with until his costly mental mistake.

While the Eagles did not score in the third period, they also kept the Huskies off the board and continued to pepper NU goaltender Lawton Zacher with shots — Zacher would end up finishing the game with 45 saves on 48 shots to the net by BC, a ridiculous statistic that fully puts into perspective how tilted the ice was, as the Huskies only put 18 shots on goal.

The moment that really made the benching seem worth it, however, came after regulation in the three-on-three overtime period.

Brown decided to send out Letourneau, forward Teddy Stiga, and defenseman Luka Radivojevic as the starting unit for the additional five minutes, but it barely took that group a minute to find the back of the net and cement the 3-2 overtime win, which gained the Eagles (2-3-1, 1-0-0 Hockey East) an extra point in the conference standings.

Fittingly, that game-winning shot came off the stick of Letourneau, who received a beautiful pass from Radivojevic on the opposite side of the crease before rifling a wrist shot past Zacher.

The overtime winner 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/6aYFmLRERq

— BC Men's Hockey (@BC_MHockey) October 31, 2026

“Sitga did a really good job there going around,” Radivojevic said. “I think he confused [Zacher] a lot, and then somehow I got it on my stick, and I [saw] Dean open for a one-timer. I tried to fake a shot and [gave] it to him after.”

It surely was a gratifying moment for Letourneau, Brown attested after the game, to have that be the end result of something in which he earlier led his teammates into a precarious position.

“It’s great that he got the goal for us in overtime,” Brown said.

BC’s first two goals were scored within the first three minutes of the affair, as Matias Vanhanen put the Eagles ahead first with a backhander off Zacher’s knee pad, followed by Ryan Conmy's jam-in goal from right outside on the power play less than two minutes later.

Before Hajibi’s game-tying goal for NU just past the halfway point of the second, Miguel Marques had cut the Huskies’ deficit to one only 4:13 into the frame with a lucky goal off his skate blade.

Brown said that it was crucial for the Eagles’ psyche to pull away with the victory, because finishing a game with 30 more shots than the opposition and losing would have really put them in the gutter.

“It was important because we played some decent hockey, but our record’s not great,” Brown said. “So to convert and get a win is huge, just for the confidence, the psyche of the guys. Because when you put up that many shots, if it didn’t go our way, like what do you have to do to get a win? So that was huge for us.”

“When you put up that many shots, if it didn't go our way, like what do you have to do to get a win? So that was huge for us.”@BC_MHockey coach Greg Brown on putting up 48 shots against Northeastern, how this win will help the Eagles’ psyche: pic.twitter.com/zTgtXHgmRn

— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) October 31, 2026

And it couldn’t have been done without Letourneau, and possibly his brief, yet impactful, benching.