Talk about one heck of a hockey game. Friday night BC advanced to the Hockey East tournament finals via a tough 5-4 victory over the Northeastern Huskies. BC was led by goals from Brian Gibbons, K.Hayes, S.Whitney. T.Cross, and P.Mullane. The Eagles went down a goal after Joe Whitney kicked the puck into his own net. Later in the period, Brian Gibbons scored on what looked like a pass and it hit of an NU's D mans stick. After one period it was Huskies one Eagles one. Late in the period however Gibbons was injured when he went charging at an NU d man, the D man leveled Gibbions and he was out for the rest of the period, and part of the second with a shoulder injury.
Early in the second period, BC was awarded a PP. Since Gibbons was out, it was J.Whitney-C.Atkinson-S.Whitney-B.Almdeia-K.Hayes. The Eagles could not convert, but were able to apply some good pressure on Chris Rawlings. five minutes later NU was penalized again, this time it was Bitetto going off for high sticking. With Gibbons back on the ice, J.Hayes was able to give a great dish to his brother Kevin who was right on the door step to put Boston College up by a goal. Just some thirty five seconds later Wade Macleod was able to pull the Huskies even when he went down on a two on one and beat Johnny Muse short side. Then the fun began.
Just after taking two horrible penalties, Steven Whitney went down on NU D man Jaime Olesiak (who had leveled him earlier) took him wide, and beat Chris Rawlings top right corner. After this goal, the Eagles were clearly dominating the game, and were rewarded with a power play with about 1:30 left in the middle session. After Patty Mullane did a good job of winning the draw back to Brian Domulin, he slid it over to missile man Tommy Cross who took a wrist shot for his seventh goal of the year. This was the last of Chris Rawlings who was replaced after the goal. Rawlings did not seem comfortable at really any point in the game, and was outplayed by Eagle netminder John Muse.
Going into the third BC had a two goal lead and were flying all over the ice. Then the wheels sort of fell of. Cross followed his terrific goal with a penalty just 19 second into the period. That penalty was soon followed by a Barry Almeida tripping call. Give all the credit in the world to the Eagle penalty killers, Billy Arnold,Cam Atkinson,Brian Gibbons,J.Hayes,and the Whitney brothers. All week in practice the players worked so much on the PK, and I knew deep down, that it could be the difference in the game, and it was. BC killed off the penalties, and were then rewarded with a PP of their own. The second unit once again came through, as Pat Mullane put in a rebound of a J.Hayes shot and it seemed to be just a insurance goal but we would soon find out that it would be the game winner.
The game looked to be over, when BC again started taking stupid penalties. Philp Samuelsson and Pat Wey both went to the box for hooking and tripping. The Huskies were able to take advantage at 3:56 to make it a two goal game. After Gibbons took yet another penalty with 1:43 to go, the Huskies looked like they were in business. NU scored just thirty seconds later to make it a one goal game with a minute to go. After NU pulled the goalie and got some good shots off, BC was able to get a PP and ice the game.
Yes it’s always great beating one of your arch rivals in a big game, but you cannot take dumb stuPid penalties late in the game. The last couple of minutes of play were not the minutes of play the Eagles have had this year. Thanks to great goaltending,good play making early in the game, and some luck, the Eagles were able to send Greg Cronin and the Huskies back to Huntington Ave.
TOMORROW I WILL HAVE IN GAME UPDATES, AS I WILL HAVE MY LAPTOP IN THE MEDIA ROOM DURING THE GAME, SO CHECK IN.
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