Milner Leads Eagles To 1-0 Victory Over Lowell

Parker Milner Made 39 saves in the win

As every coach/player/fan of this sport will always say..."you can win any game when you get great goaltending". Tonight could not have been example of that statement as Parker Milner made 38 saves for the nation's #1 team as he just completely shut down any chances Lowell had all game long. Despite having to go on the man down four times and not getting a single power play, the BC penalty kill (led by Milner) was fantastic once again as they didn't allow a usually potent Lowell power play to get any goals on the night. While Lowell's first line did a very good job of keeping the BC's big line off the scoreboard for almost 3/4's of the game, they couldn't keep the big three from getting the decisive tally three and a half minutes into the third period. BC was able to gain a four on two in the neutral zone which led to a perfect pass from Johnny G to Steve Whitney who used his fantastic shot to get one past Doug Carr. Other than the one BC goal, both goalies were very sharp tonight but Milner's 38 save effort certainly stole the show. Overall, you could probably say Lowell outplayed BC as they outshoot the Defending Champs by a 38-20 margin but unlike BC, they couldn't get anything past the red hot Milner. Even though we only had 20 shots on goal, I thought BC was able to create some "grade A" chances on the night, the best coming in the first when Whitney made a fantastic pass to Kevin Hayes (who came right out of the box) and went in for the breakaway, only to be denied by Carr.

Did the Eagles get badly out played at points ? Sure, but what's one of the corner marks of BC Hockey ? They always find ways to get a victory, no matter what ways they have to go to attain it. Last Friday, the team battled relentlessly, Saturday, the Eagles dominated NU, and tonight, BC got fantastic goaltending from the best goalie in the country in order to win. While the third and fourth line have yet to record a point so far this season, I would say they both played pretty well tonight on both ends. I think the fourth line probably had it's best game of the season as they actually created some great chances in the game. Brooks Dyroff (it may have been Teddy Doherty)  had a goal taken away early in the first when the officials decided they didn't want to call it a goal for some reason. The second line was not as good as they were last weekend but I would say they definitely made an impact out there and created some good scoring chances. Bill Arnold and Kevin Hayes are really playing good hockey right now which is huge in order for this team to win.

Another positive that should be noted is that the freshman defenseman continue to improve. In fact, the defense as a whole is starting to really look good. Yes, Milner saved them a few times but when you hold a team like Lowell to nothing on the scoreboard, you've got to give your defenseman some credit. I thought the pairing of Alber and Matheson was fantastic for BC tonight as it seemed like they played almost the whole third period. Matheson is definitely logging a lot of minutes right now which is very impressive as a freshman. Wey was good tonight as you can clearly see he is the leader on the defense. The other three were not fantastic but they continue to play better hockey night in and night out.

All in all, it's great to see the Eagles beat a top ten team on the road. Any game in this league is tough but when it's on the road, it makes it extremely difficult to get a few points. Mix that in with the fact that the officiating in this game was absolutely horrendous, you've got to give a lot of credit to this team and the staff on getting a real solid victory.

Why the Eagles Won- 

1. Parker Milner was fantastic. Definitely his second best game in a BC uniform. (Last years BC Invitational tops it).

2. The PK. Even though the officials made it out to screw BC all night, the Eagles' PK was really solid as they held Lowell to 0/4 on the man advantage.

Problems- 

1. Getting outshot by almost a 2-1 margin is never good but I guess Lowell has the tendency to do that a lot versus BC. They did it last year in two games when they outshot BC 2-1 in two of the three games. BC still won those as well.

Player of the Game- Parker Miner

Next Up- Sunday @ 4:00 versus Lowell.