Eagles Roll Past Vermont 5-1

Quinn Smith hooked up with Danny Linell for BC's second goal. 

The Boston College Eagles edged to just one win away from a second consecutive Hockey East regular season title tonight with a 5-1 win over the Vermont Catamounts. The Eagles were led by first period goals by Paul Carey and Danny Linell while Barry Almeida added two more of his own in the second and third to lead the Eagles to their 3rd straight win over UVM. The game itself certainly was not the most exciting game I have ever seen in my life and the Eagles actually didn't play too well but they got the job done. Although the score says 5-1, I thought UVM played their hearts out and really stuck with BC for the first 45 minutes of that hockey game. I thought BC's first and fourth lines of Almeida-Arnold-Whitney and Linell-Straight-Smith were both fantastic tonight as the fourth line continued to be stellar. I thought Barry Almeida continued to improve his case for not just MVP of this team but maybe even the league as he now leads the Eagles in goals scored and ranks second in the league behind Maine's Joey Diamond in the same category. Yes, Almeida continues to be fantastic but I think the play of his linemates Bill Arnold and Steve Whitney has drastically improved as the year has progressed. 

As I said, I didn't think the Eagles played all that well tonight. Give credit to Vermont, they may not have the talent to compete with the BC's and Maine's of Hockey East but they certainly competed very hard versus the best team in the country tonight. One thing that really concerns me is Brian Dumoulin's knee. He wasn't bad tonight but he didn't play all that much and when he did, his skating and puck handeling were off. If this team wants to go places in March and April, Brian must continue to play like the best defenseman in Hockey East like he has all season. I also thought the line of Kreider-Hayes-Sit was off to say the least tonight. It just seems like that line has been way too inconsistent as of late as Chris Kreider has only had one point since the big win @ the Garden and Kevin Hayes has really struggled to find his game as of late. I thought the Carey-Mullane-Gaudreau line was pretty good tonight as Paul Carey continued his hot streak with 4 goals in the last 5 games.

One thought that has come upon me over the last couple weeks is that the freshman class is really improving as the season gets older. Yes, Johnny G has been a star all year long but guys like Danny Linell, Quinn Smith, and Destry Straight have really been playing stellar hockey since the game @ Vermont. Quinn Smith made a fantastic play to set up Danny Linell on the game winning goal late in the first when he made a terrific pass thorough traffic in front of the UVM net right to Linell who finished it off by beating UVM goalie Rob Madore top shelf. When the Eagles have that line scoring at the pace it has been as of late, this team can be even more dangerous than they have been over the past month (Scary I know).

Why BC Won 

1. Parker Milner continued to be stellar. There may not be a hotter goalie in the country right now as Parker has only allowed 4 goals in his last 5 games.

2. The Power Play came up big. Barry Almeida's sick power play goal was huge for the Eagles as they seemed to play much better after that moment in the game. That's now12 straight games with at least one PP goal.

3. I love the way the defenseman are playing. Actually, Tommy Cross and Brian Dumoulin didn't have their best games tonight but guys like Isaac Macleod (Who had his first multi point game @ BC), Edwin Shea, and Patch Alber that really played well tonight.

Problems 

1. The Kreider-Hayes-Sit line needs to be better. For BC to win a National Championship, Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes have to have the best month of their BC careers in March.

2. Brian Dumouin needs to get healthy. He wasn't bad but he could be the most valuable player to this team so he needs to be 100% come next weekend.

Player of the game- Barry Almeida with the two goals.

Next Up- Senior Night vs UVM tomorrow @ 7 pm.

Notes- As of now, BC would get UMass in the first round of the playoffs next week but a Providence loss to Lowell tomorrow night combined with a UMass win @ Merrimack would mean BC would get Providence.