Eagles Fall To Wolverines

First of all, sorry for the lateness of the post. I just haven't had the time to sit down and write a full recap of the game. Obviously, it stings to start off the season out there and come home with a loss but that's an extremely underrated Michigan club with a power play that is as good as any in the country. Historically, Red Berenson teams have had some of the best power plays in college hockey and they proved it on Thursday night. They made our penalty kill look silly. Both of their goals on the man advantage were two passes and then a quick one timer in the slot. Why was the guy in the slot not surrouned by at least one maroon jersey ? Both times, Moffat (the goal scorer on both occasions) was wide open and there was nothing Billett do about it. BC was just way too aggressive at times, I mean Michigan must have had fifteen odd man rushes and if it wasn't for Billett's outstanding game, it could have been a lot worse. Dumb penalties + bad execution on the penalty kill + an amazing game from Racine = a game in which BC could have won even though they didn't have their best stuff.

On the offensive side of things, I thought the Wolverines did a good job of "containing"  Johnny G. He had some solid chances but he wasn't a factor each and every shift like he usually is. Credit UM's young but talented defensive group. I was impressed with their play. I thought Kevin Hayes was probably BC's best forward as he had a bunch of chances to put the puck in the net but was robbed each time. Guys like Cangelosi and Calnan need to be better in order for the Eagles to have three lines that can consistently generate chances in the offensive end. As the game grew on, I thought the third line was better but they have got to find a way to put the puck in the net when possible. There were two or three "grade A +" chances for them but they missed they net completely both times.

Defensively, I was disappointed by a couple of things. First of all, the penalties were killer. Macleod and Doherty each picked up bad penalties for contact to the head and interference when neither action was needed. If BC gives RPI five power plays tomorrow afternoon, they're going to get blown out of the water. You can't give good teams opportunities to score on the man advantage. It killed the Eagles last season and if they keep this up, it will hurt them again. It's the first game so of course there are going to be a lot of mistakes, especially when you have seven freshmen in the lineup. I'd like to see BC cut down on those mistakes and start capitalizing on RPI's errors tomorrow.

All in all, tough way to start but the young guys probably gained a lot of valuable experience that will hopefully lead to better performances as the year goes on. I thought a couple of guys like McCoshen and Fitzgerald played really solid games. If more guys can continue to chip in and help out, there will be a lot of W's for this club.


Problems-

1. Penalty kill. It needs some serious work.

2. Need to start burying chances. The Eagles had a lot of chances to tie it up in the second period. They have to find ways to put the puck in the net.

3. The team, as a whole, needs to limit their mistakes. Michigan had a lot of solid chances thanks to BC errors in the neutral and defensive zones.


Notes-

1. Demko is starting tomorrow.

2. Look for lineup changes.


Go Eagles