CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – For a fleeting moment, it seemed as though the University of New Hampshire had the sort of seminal moment that can turn around a hockey season.

In a tie game, late, at a louder-than-typical Conte Forum, little-used forward Scott Pavelski had scored the go-ahead goal with less than five minutes to play. All the Wildcats had to do was kill the clock, and they'd have the type of win capable that launches a team looking to take off at the top of the stretch.

Instead, it simply set the stage for another crushing loss.

Boston College answered with two goals in the final 3:05, the latter coming with just 51 seconds on the clock and giving the Eagles a 4-3 win that snapped their two-game skid while the Wildcats incurred their third last-minute loss this month.

“I thought it was going to be good,” Pavelski said of the second goal and third point of his three-year career. “We were playing pretty good defense – but, you know, they're a good team. They showed how they can make a comeback and they capitalized on their chances.”

Pavelski popped the puck home after Kevin McCarey chased his own rebound and pushed the rubber to his centerman at the top of the crease, but before the feel-good story began to unfold, UNH's Austin Block was whistled for interference.

Midway through the ensuing power play the Wildcats (9-13-2, 6-10-1 Hockey East) left Johnny Gaudreau open on the backdoor, and Brian Dumoulin found him from the point. He was wide open, as was Steven Whitney about two minutes later — when Pat Mullane fed him in the slot, and Whitney needed make just one move to beat Rochester-born goalie Casey DeSmith (30 save).

“We gave it away at the end,” said UNH Coach Dick Umile. “Two guys uncovered. The last two goals, guys were uncovered. We had the puck, we couldn't get it out.

“It's simple, basic stuff.”

Having played far better than a 34-13 disadvantage in shots on net would indicate, UNH did manage one final flurry. However, with nine seconds left to play, John Henrion ripped a backhander that hammered square off the post to Parker Milner's left, and when it clanged out the ‘Cats were relegated to at least one more day in eighth place.

“We lapsed for a few minutes,” said assistant captain Stevie Moses, “and they finished.”

They also started better, bringing urgency that translated just 35 seconds in, when Kevin Hayes took a rebound off the rear wall and used DeSmith's skates to redirect the puck into the cage. BC fired the first seven shots on goal. UNH's first came more than eight minutes in, that one blasted from the red line during a penalty kill.

But midway through the opening stanza, the Wildcats settled down. And that paid off in the early stages of the second. Block answered Hayes by scoring in much the same fashion, gathering a rebound below the goal line and bouncing it in off Milner's paddle before the sprawled goalie could recover.

Then, three minutes after that, UNH took its first lead, when Nick Sorkin's pretty pivot in the right-wing circle opened a lane for his centering pass and Moses got just enough on his one-timed wrister to sling it past a shifting netminder.

With 5:48 left in the period, New Hampshire had the game where it wanted it, and had just begun a power play with hopes of gaining some separation. Instead, Chris Kreider single-handedly ensured the game would go to the final frame tied. Twelve ticks into the man-advantage, he took the puck at center ice, and, with both Wildcat blue liners in front of him, carried up the right wing, cut to the front of the net – and blew by Brett Kostolansky before tucking it past DeSmith with his forehand.

Just like that, it became a 20-minute game.

And, when that was done, it became even more dire for the Wildcats.

“You never know what way it's going to go,” Pavelski said. “It just (stinks) when it doesn't go your way.”