After what could be described as a "rough" first two periods, BC woke up and was able to salvage a point tonight @ Northeastern thanks to an Adam Gilmour goal with 2:15 remaining in the game. Give credit where it is due because I thought NU outplayed us in the opening 40 minutes. They created turnovers in the neutral zone which led to about 100 odd man rushes and if it wasn't for another tremendous game from Thatcher Demko, the red and black would have walked away with a win.
There are two ways to look at tonight's game. Early on, BC looked tired and lazy at times. They had a couple of terrible turnovers and couldn't get anything going on the power play, but somehow NU's only goal was the result of a couple of funky bounces in front of BC's net. This is the second game in a row in which BC has killed off a large chunk of an opponent's power play but thanks to some bad puck luck, they end up going down goal. The biggest concern for me was the amount of 2 on 1's, breakaways, and 3 on 2's Northeastern had. I'd have to look at the tape but the Huskies must have had 15 odd man rushes in the first two periods but thanks to Demko, none of those came to fruition. The bottom line is, BC has got to figure out what they want to do in the neutral zone. They're leaving NU's wingers literally wide open on the blue line and once the Huskies made that stretch pass, it was a 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 every single time. It should have been 5-0 NU after the first two.
The other way you can look at this game is the Coach York style. Somehow, someway, BC keeps finding a way to score big goals late in tight games. They did it @ Denver, @ UNH, @ Dartmouth, and once again tonight thanks to a guy in Adam Gilmour that is continuing to play top notch hockey. Gilmour now has goals in 3 straight games and points in the last 4. I thought his line (with Tuch and Sanford) was by far and away BC's best unit tonight. Tuch is beginning to round into that player that has a chance to be a star in this league someday (he told a Minnesota newspaper this morning that he plans on staying at least two years....watch out). The second line of Cangelosi-Straight-Fitzgerald was OK but they really didn't get that much offense going, especially on the power play outside of a chance from Fitz in-between the dots early in the third.
All in all, I look at tonight as a "good" tie. Obviously, the goal is always to win and anything less than that stinks but based on the way BC played tonight, I would have gladly taken the point. If they play like they did in the first two periods tomorrow, they won't win. If they play like they did in the third, they should take a crucial two points before the Game of the Century on Friday. I didn't think BC's defense was nearly as good as it was vs Dartmouth, for the reasons I stated in the second paragraph but if there was one guy that played well back there, it was Danny Linell. There have been a lot of questions as to what the staff will do once Santini is ready to return and I keep assuming they will take Linell out but right now, you could certainly make the argument that he deserves to be playing. Although he lacks in size, his speed is something that no other BC defender possesses besides maybe Matheson. Let's hope he keeps it up.
Big one tomorrow.
Positives-
1. BC didn't really play like they deserved a point but they found a way to get one. Win tomorrow and that is a huge weekend.
Negatives-
1. Power play struggled.
2. Way too many odd man rushes
Player of the game- Demko
Tomorrow's game is @ 4 on NESN.
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