One Down

G scores his first goal. Photo from The Heights.

Talk about a bounce back game. Whew. The #2 Boston College Eagles hammered the Denver Pioneers in the first round of the NCAA Northeast regional this afternoon by a score of 6-2. All six of Boston College's goals came from the big three of Johnny G, Kevin Hayes, and Bill Arnold. In fact, G recorded his first career hatrick. BC outshot Denver by a 33-20 margin and didn't allow DU to get a shot on goal until the seven minute mark of the first period. Overall, it was a complete effort from every guy. Obviously the big three provided the offense, scoring three goals in the first ten minutes of the game, the defense blocked everything in sight, and Demko was his normal, solid, self.

After all the disappointment from two weeks ago (Notre Dame lost tonight which is sweet), I think we all had a feeling BC would come out flying. And that they did. Here's something you probably don't know. Coach York has a couple degrees from BC and might be one of the smartest people I know. He uses a lot of words that I couldn't name the first letter of. So, he figured that the frequent TV timeouts (two minutes each) would give him the opportunity to play the first line more often than normal. As he pointed out in his post game presser, you can't do that in a regular season game because we don't have the luxury of those breaks. So, when Denver put their third line out there with about fifteen minutes left in the period, Coach countered with the big three (on what was basically a double shift after a TV timeout), and of course, Kevin Hayes scored his twenty fifth goal of the season. Shortly after Kevin's first tally, Mike Matheson made a solid breakout pass to the far wing (Johnny G) and he just obliterated the Denver defenseman before wrapping around the net and  eventually scoring. I just can't get over how good the kid is. Take out the fact that he plays for BC and they're in the NCAA's and all that crap. I would go down to Chandler's Pond at 8:30 tomorrow morning to see him play shinny. It's just so fun to watch. Such a special talent/player.

Obviously the scoring was great to see but I thought BC's play in their own end was at least ten times better than it was vs Notre Dame. Every breakout was smooth, there were very few turnovers, and Denver couldn't get any grade A chances on Demko. I honestly can't remember any "great" chances they had in the first forty minutes. Every shot the took was blocked, every pass they made was intercepted and went the other way. The one rough spot was that BC took five penalties even though they killed each one of them off. The fourth line of Silk, Smith, and Sit was sustaining pressure in the offensive zone throughout the whole night, something that didn't happen once vs ND. Much better night for those guys, particularly Smith and Sit.

Look, it was a great effort but this game tomorrow vs Lowell is going to be a war. They're without a doubt one of the top clubs in the country and they proved last month they can play with us for a full 60 minutes. They're the exact opposite of BC. They're big, they're a defensive first team, and they don't have one or two "super stars", o and not to mention they're almost three years older than all our guys are but that's another topic for another day. Tomorrow presents a fantastic opportunity for this club to go out and show the country what they're made of. Heck, 6 of 8 "experts" on one of those college hockey websites predicted Lowell to win this region. Just remember, if you have Johnny G, anything is possible.

Why BC Won- 

1. Johnny G.

2. Bill Arnold.

3. Kevin Hayes.

4. Really solid play in the defensive zone. I thought each defenseman had their share of bright spots tonight.

Problems- 

1. 5 penalties is too much. Were they bad calls ? Yes but still, Lowell scored a power play goal vs us earlier this year. Can't give them that many chances on the man advantage

Player of the game- G

Next up- Lowell tomorrow at 5