Johnny G Leads Annihilation of Vermont

You know, I actually feel bad for Vermont. They came in thinking they had a realistic chance at winning this game and quite frankly, so did I, I mean they battled the Eagles to a hard fought tie last night so why couldn't they do it again ?Yea, then the Cats ran into a 5'7 winger from Carney's Point, NJ. Led by Johnny G, the Eagles clinched home ice for the Hockey East playoffs where they will once again face Vermont. This is what I like to call the perfect BC Hockey game. What I mean by that is that they know they need to win or else they're going on the road and will go right back on the NCAA bubble. A win pretty much assures them an NCAA spot and home ice. Yhea, they didn't just show up, they dominated Vermont from puck drop to the final buzzer. When you enter this portion of the season, you need your big weapons like Johnny, Arnold, Mullane, and Whitney to be outstanding. While all four of those guys played unbelievable tonight....Johnny G and Arnold probably  played their best games of the season while Whitney continued to score goals at a rapid pace. Destry Straight quietly had a nice weekend as well with two goals in both games.

I won't go through all 7 BC goals but they first tally was actually pretty awesome. It started when Vermont possessed the puck in the Eagles' end for a long period of time, resulting in a huge flurry in front of Parker Milner (who played real solid tonight). It appeared that the refs were about ready to blow the play dead when the puck squirted out to Johnny G.  The Eagles then had a 4 on 1 rush the other way with Gaudreau leading the way. He slid it beautifully over to Arnold who easily put it in the wide open net. The period actually ended with the Eagles just up a goal but they dominated the first 20 minutes, outshooting the Cats by a 12-5 margin.

The second period is where all the fun happened as Vermont stupidly gave the Eagles two power plays, including a long 5 on 3, both of which the Eagles came through on with goals from Johnny G and Steven Whitney. Having a good player play can get you a long way in the postseason and right now, the Eagles' PP looks about as dangerous as it has all year. Not only are they moving it around the zone real well, they're starting to punish teams when they take penalties. Not only was Vermont taking penalties out there, they were looking to kill someone. Colin Sullivan and Mike Matheson got hammered from behind within two minutes of each other, both of which resulted in BC PP's but both also should have been 5 minute majors. Certainly the kind of stuff you don't want to see in this sport.

The final period was a bit of an up and down period for the Eagles but after taking a 5-0 lead into the third, it wasn't much of a problem. All in all, I thought BC played absolutely fantastic tonight. They knew they had to win to get home ice and stay in contention for a #1 seed and they did it. Their defense, which really struggled last night, played really well tonight. Danny Linell, a guy that I was a little skeptic about coming into this game, played his best game on the blue line to date as he made an unbelievable back check early in the first on a what would have been UVM breakaway. Give credit to him for adjusting on the fly.

Overall, the staff has got to be pleased with how this weekend went. I know they tied yesterday and that is not the results the team was looking for but this club is right back in the hunt for a #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament as they currently rank 5th in the Pairwise rankings. While they didn't win the Hockey East regular season title, they got as good a draw as they could of asked for with Vermont coming back to town next weekend.

Why BC Won-

1. When Johnny G goes into that gear he was in tonight, this is one of the best teams in the country. Scary stuff.

2. A high potent power play. It looked real good tonight.

3. Got back to the basics on defense. No turnovers, few penalties, and solid goaltending were all there for the Eagles tonight.

Problems-

I got nothing.

Player of the game- Who do you think. 6 points ?

Hockey East Playoff matchups-

1. UML vs 8. Maine

2. Boston College vs 7. Vermont

3. Boston University vs 6. Merrimack

5. New Hampshire vs 4. Providence