Thanks to a fantastic effort from the home team and a lousy 60 minutes of hockey from one team, the Northeastern Huskies were able to upset the #1 Boston College Eagles 3-1 Saturday night. First of all, let's give the credit where it is deserved. Northeastern came in ready and came out hot with two goals early on in the first period. BC on the other hand looked slow for most of the period until they picked it up at the end and were rewarded with a nice PP goal to go down just 1-0 after a period of play. With timely saves from Chris Rawlings and a fluke third period goal, Northeastern was able to hold off a BC team that clearly has some work to do on both ends.
Ok, I know it's the first game and NU already had one game under their belts but what I saw last night was not the #1 team in the country, rather it was a team comprised of just 3 or 4 guys that really looked solid for the whole game. I thought on the offensive end it was just one line that had every scoring chance for BC. The first line was great all night but the second and third line didn't seem to generate any offense at all and spent the majority of their shifts running around in their own zones. I don't know but if I had to guess, I would think there would be some serious lineup changes this week because obviously, the three best offensive players are all on one line. The third line battled hard but they just don't generate any scoring chances, I thought all three of them played with a great effort all night but very rarely did they have any "grade A" chances on Chris Rawings (who was outstanding).
On the defensive end, I thought the three best defenseman were Wey, Matheson, and Doherty. I thought Matheson was outstanding once again and Wey also was also very solid. Out of the other four guys, Doherty was OK, but Macleod, Sullivan, and Alber all had tough nights for the Eagles. Like I said in my preview, in order for BC to be good, they need to be able to generate offense by breaking out the puck well and getting odd man rushes. That did not happen often tonight as the defense and the forwards were caught running around in their own end on too many occasions last night. Just really frustrating.
To be honest, I thought Parker Milner was really good last night and the third goal from outside the blue line was just a bad deflection off of Wey's stick. Milner definitley kept BC in it.
It's the first game and I hate to be all mad and everything but last night was just not good hockey from the boys in maroon and gold. Hopefully, they have a good week of practice and are ready to go for a big tilt @ UMass on Friday.
Why BC Lost-
1. NU looked faster all night. NU won a lot of those "little battles" in the corner that allowed them to generate multiple scoring chances. Kudos to them on a great effort.
2. The defense struggled There is no explanation. Maybe it was first game jitters but the defense flat out struggled all night.
3. The depth @ forward is a problem. The first line was good, the second line was ok at times, the third line played hard but didn't get anything going, and the fourth line had a hard night. Bottom 8-9 guys need to step it up for BC.
Positives-
1. Special Teams. Power play was very good as they scored on their only chance and the PK really did a good job of shutting down NU's potent offense.
2. Milner was solid.
Next Up- Friday @ UMass.
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