That was a tough one to swallow. Thanks to a power play goal from John Henrion with about 5 minutes to play, the UNH Wildcats upended the Eagles by a 2-1 score. Look, I thought BC played well last night and even though they were outshot badly, they still had a chance to win the hockey game. It was however a bit unfortunate that the refs decided to become a 7th man on the ice for the Wildcats, evident by UNH's 6 penalty minutes to BC's 27. The first questionable call was late in the first period when Mike Matheson, who literally had taken one stride out of the box, elbowed Kevin Goumas in the head. I didn't get a good enough look at the play but I don't know if it looked as bad as the one Matheson had a week ago vs Yale. Whether it was a penalty or not can be debated but what cannot go unnoticed is Matheson's tendency to take penalties. BC is already short on the defensive side of things and him going out and taking all these penalties, it just kills the team. Although BC did a phenomenal job in killing off the 5 minute major, which was actually a 5 on 3 for 2 whole minutes, they gave up a costly goal with just 30 seconds left in the period.
I loved the way BC battled and competed in the third period. They controlled the play when it came to 5 on 5 hockey but unfortunately they got screwed over once again after a Kevin Hayes trip, which also led to a UNH power play goal. Although they had a lot of help out there, give UNH and their coaching staff a lot of credit because they completely shut down Johnny G last night. BC's big line was not as much of a factor as they were on Friday and because of it, goals were hard to come by. With under a minute to go in the contest, the officials ruled a penalty shot in favor of BC because they thought a UNH player covered the puck with his hand in the crease. I was right behind the net and I'll try to be as unbiased as possible here but the bottom line is....he covered the puck. After discussing the play for a minute or two, they refs decided against giving the Eagles the opportunity and thus, ending their chance for a big road victory.
If you asked me whether I thought this weekend was a success or a failure, I would say a success in a second. Why would I say that ? Because I thought BC played well in 5 of the 6 periods they played this weekend. Unfortunately, the Wildcats and the refs did a great job of teaming up in the second period of last nights game and were able to come out with a victory. Unlike the games vs Yale and Minnesota, I thought BC competed and played hard when it came to 5 on 5 hockey. Overall, it's tough to come out on the wrong end of the stick but there were a lot of things the staff has to be happy about.
Sorry for the short post, I'll have more tomorrow.
Go Eagles.
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