Eagles Defeat Irish in Holy War 3-1

Pat Mullane Hoist the Lefty Smith/Snooks Kelly Trophy

In what was one of the most electric atmospheres in Conte Forum history, the Boston College Eagles treated the home crowd to a gut wrenching victory over rival Notre Dame on Friday night. The Eagles had goals from senior captain Pat Mullane and Johnny G (x2) to lift them to a huge pairwise victory over the #7 Irish. The first thing I take away from tonight is that I thought BC played really hard for close to a full 60 minutes. The final 20 minutes were controlled by the Fighting Irish but for the most part, I thought a lot of guys wearing the maroon and gold played their hearts out tonight. I've seen Pat Mullane play a lot of great games in his time @ BC but I would say that tonight was probably one of his best performances of his outstanding four year career. He played hard in all three zones, scored a goal, helped out in his own end, and was just all over the ice it seemed like. Steven Whitney was also very good for the Eagles tonight as he recorded a team high +3 rating tonight and could have had one or two goals if it wasn't for some great saves by Notre Dame goaltender Steven Summerhayes, who was very strong for the Irish tonight. While Summerhayes was good, Parker Milner played his game of the year for BC as he stopped 19 of Notre Dame's 20 shots on goal. Even though the stats show that Notre Dame had 20 shots, Milner made a few saves, one diving stop on a 5-3 for ND and a lunging stop late in the contest that will stick out as the reasons why BC won. If he continues to play at this level, he will have a magical season.

The first BC goal, a breakaway one from Mullane, was all set up because of a perfect pass off the stick of Pat Wey to Mullane who used his speed to beat the two ND defenders to the puck and eventually put the puck past Summerhayes. With the crowd standing on it's feet and going crazy, BC continued to dominate the second period of play and were again rewarded with a goal as Johnny G pulled a Johnny G and beat Summerhayes to give BC the 2-0 edge. The turning point in the game however was when BC was able to kill of a lengthy five on three late in the second and early in the third. Some acrobatic saves from Milner and superb penalty killing by guys like Bill Arnold, Quinn Smith, and Whitney were keys in helping the Eagles kill off ND's biggest chance of the night. While it can probably be said that ND played better in the first and third period, BC completely dominated the Irish in the middle stanza, evident by there two goals and the fact that they outshot Notre Dame 12-2 in the period. The penalty kill certainly was another reason BC won the game tonight. Every time Notre Dame got on the man advantage, whether it was late in the game or that big five on three, guys did a fantastic job of getting down to block shots, getting sticks in lanes, and clearing the puck whenever they could. Certainly a positive sign heading into Sunday.

Another group of guys that I thought were really solid tonight was the line of Brooks Dyroff, Pat Brown, and Brendan Silk. The beginning of this year was a bit of a struggle for these guys but over the course of the past three games, they are really playing much better hockey. It's great to see guys like Dyroff and Brown, who didn't play much last year, get a lot of playing time as they were moved up to the third line. Silk has been a pleasant surprise in his own right. With Vatrano leaving, BC was thin up front in terms of freshman forwards....well, Silk is certainly playing at a higher level than I thought he would at this point. Hopefully, these three continue to play like they did tonight because if they do, we could see them start scoring some goals relatively soon. On defense, I thought that pretty much everyone was pretty solid except for a few turnovers here and there. Isaac Macleod, Mike Matheson, and Patrick Wey take home my three stars tonight on the defensive side of things. Good going by all three of those guys tonight.

Beating a team like Notre Dame, a school rival and future conference foe, is always a huge W on the schedule but we all know who is up next. BC played really hard tonight and was rewarded with a great victory in front of one of Conte Forum's all time best crowds. I said in my preview that we would find out a lot about BC this weekend and so far, we certainly have. We learned that when this team plays exceptionally hard like it did tonight vs a very good hockey team, they are nearly impossible to beat. We also learned just how good Parker Milner can be (Not that we didn't really know already). At times, BC showed some mental lapses and were running around in their own end (especially in the third) but Milner was always there to make the stop. There were some issues that need to be cleared up for sure but in terms of overall effort, tonight was a season high.

Why BC Won-

1. Parker Milner played his game of the year. Notre Dame only recorded 20 shots but the majority of them were high quality chances and Milner was always there to make the stops.

2. Stars Shined. When the big three are a combined +7 for the night, you know it was a big night for the first line. They really controlled the play when they were out there tonight.

3. The PK was fantastic. A kill on a 5-3 late in the second and killing off a Pat Brown penalty in the third were huge.

Problems- 

1. The power play struggled tonight. Going 0-6 isn't too encouraging but BC was able to get some good chances on net but Summerhayes made some great stops.

Player(s) of the game- Parker Milner, Pat Mullane, and Johnny G.

Next Up- Agganis.

GO EAGLES !

I'll have all the Sunday stuff tomorrow hopefully.