In what was one of the wildest weekends of hockey I can remember in some time, BC played two hard fought games against Northeastern, settling for a tie (and shootout loss) on Friday before bouncing back with a win at home on Saturday night.
To be honest, Friday night was one of the most deflating BC hockey games I can remember in my close to 20 years following the team. I thought BC was the better team throughout the weekend, but especially for the first 55 minutes on Friday night. They were getting pucks behind NU's shaky defensive core, winning battles along the boards, and most importantly, winning the special teams battle. After NU took a 1-0 lead on a bad face-off loss (something that would come back to haunt BC), Cutter Gauthier responded with a power-play goal almost halfway through the period. I was a bit surprised when the staff shook up the power-play units for the first game of the Merrimack series, but I am glad to see that they have the original units back, with the exception of Kuntar replacing Hreschuk. In my opinion, you need to get Nesterenko, Ambrosio, and Gauthier on the ice together as often as possible in order for this team to have the best chance of winning and that line did more than their part this weekend (besides a bad turnover on Saturday leading NU's second goal).
The second period on Friday was perhaps BC's best of the series as they controlled the play for the majority of the twenty minute frame. The Eagles were rewarded with a five minute major after an NU player got caught jabbing Gauthier with the end of his stick. I saw the replay and to me, it looked inadvertent and I was a bit surprised they called it a major, but the ref clearly had his eyes on the situation. Unfortunately, right as the power-play began, BC took a boneheaded penalty that negated two minutes of power-play time. I am a getting a little bit concerned with some of the lazy penalties they are taking- a lot of them are so far away from the play there is really no need to even engage. Anyways, Trevor Kuntar cleaned up a rebound to Devon Levi’s left side with just over a minute left in the second to give BC the lead, which was a power-play goal. I thought Kuntar had his best weekend of the year, besides the bad penalty he took on Friday. Northeastern had a very hard time dealing with him in front of the net, an area where he is quickly becoming a bit of a force.
Unfortunately, we have to discuss the third period. BC was able to build up their lead, first to 3-1 thanks to another greasy net-front goal, this time from Liam Izyk. With just under ten minutes left in the period, Gauthier scored yet another highlight reel goal, forcing an NU defender to fall and then beating Levi with a backhander. Like everyone else in the building, I thought the game was over, but BC just went into a total shell for the final seven or eight minutes of the game. Northeastern had too much space, especially in the neutral zone and they got BC pinned down badly in their own end for extended periods of time. On the second Northeastern goal, BC had three defenders surrounding the puck carrier, but no one was able to take him off the puck and eventually it ended up in the back of the net. It wasn’t like BC was outnumbered at the point of attack- there were three white jerseys in the area- it was just that no one made a play. On the third Northeastern goal, BC had a chance to make a play in the neutral zone, but NU forward Cam Lund (who is a stud), beat BC’s forward, made a quick pass, and then banged home a short-side rebound. Again, if you watch the replay, it looks like BC just got lackadaisical towards the end of the game- they were playing fast, physical, and hard for so much of that game, but towards the end, Northeastern just had way too much space to maneuver.
As for the tying goal, I am frankly, still in the state of shock. No matter who is out there in that situation, you cannot lose that face-off like that. Northeastern was clearly trying to get it to Aidan McDonough for a quick snap-shot and even after NU won the draw, BC looked like they had it covered as Hreschuk made a nice diving effort to prevent the initial shot opportunity, but the puck got right back to McDonough, who got it on net and you know what happened next. I think Benson probably wants that one back as it did not look like McDonough got a ton of wood on the shot, but it was enough to slip by Benson and into the crease. In reality, it all goes back to the face-off. There are a million scenarios you will take there on that draw other than the one that happened- it was a clean loss and led to the golden opportunity for NU to tie it up. Furthermore, BC’s defensemen can’t let the NU forwards outnumber them in front of the net. There were two green jerseys directly in front of Benson, both of whom could have knocked home the rebound. Just an extremely frustrating situation all around.
Looking back on it, the silver lining is that BC didn’t lose in OT because NU had all of the momentum and certainly had the better chances in the extra frame. To his credit, Benson made a couple of key stops in the overtime stanza. Lastly, everyone (myself included) is wondering why Gauthier did not go in the shootout, but those are something that the team practices often (they have one at the practice before every game), so I have no reason to think they based that decision on something other than what they have seen during those sessions- stinks it didn’t work out, but shootouts are a crapshoot anyways.
Now onto Saturday (I am going to keep this shorter, I promise). I absolutely loved the way BC bounced back last night- they were the better team throughout the game and it would have been a shame for them to get anything other than a regulation win. For some time, I was getting flashbacks to the UConn game, another contest where BC outplayed their opponent, but came out on the wrong end of the stick. For me, there were two overarching themes to take out of this game and the series as a whole. First, BC’s power-play looks very good. When you are a bit short on scoring depth (which, yes, will change soon), you need to have a power-play that makes up for that deficiency and after a pretty disastrous weekend against Merrimack last week, I thought BC’s power-play was the difference maker this weekend. They had two power play goals this weekend when they made things simple by getting pucks on net and outnumbering the opponent at the net-front. On BC’s second goal of the night, Eamon Powell threw a puck on net and Kuntar was once again there to clean up the mess- similar to BC’s second goal on Friday night. I thought last weekend, they made too many errant passes at the top of the zone that were either mishandled, intercepted, or wayward. The staff clearly emphasized making things simple on the man-advantage during practice this week and the results spoke for themselves.
My second major takeaway, which I hit on earlier, was that I loved the way they responded. After what happened on Friday, they could have just thrown it in the towel last night, but not only did they win, they were the far superior team (as I thought they were for most of the weekend). Give Coach Brown and the staff credit for reinforcing a positive message because there was a certain blogger who was not exactly the most positive person in the world on Saturday morning.
Some quick notes on a few players before I wrap things up. I thought Andre Gasseau played his best game of the year on Saturday night- he made the play that led to BC’s game winning goal. I also thought BC’s third line of O’Neill-Burke-Izyk had a solid weekend, besides the glaring error on Friday night. They aren’t the most skilled third line BC has ever had, but they are all good skaters and do a nice job of applying pressure in the offensive zone. I noticed Colby Ambrosio had his ankle roll up towards the end of the third period on Saturday, so hopefully that is nothing major- BC has some time off after their game against Lowell on Tuesday. Finally, two thoughts on the penalties. One, I don’t understand why BC’s players keep grabbing opponents’ facemasks. It has happened twice in two weeks- it is the most obvious five minute major in the game, they simply have to stop doing it! In both instances, the culprit has been a freshman defenseman. Also, I saw the replay of Aidan McDonough’s hit on Trevor Kuntar, which took place after the game ended- I expect Hockey East to hand out a suspension there as it was a dirty play. Cade Alami was also assessed a ten minute misconduct after the game ended, so he could pick up a suspension as well. To be fair, I have not seen a replay of what Alami did.
Alright- that is all I got for now. Big game for the Eagles on Tuesday night against Lowell, who, ironically, did not have to play this weekend. This is as deep as Hockey East has been in years- BC will have opportunities to play high-end teams almost every weekend here on out, so will see what they are made of.
One last note, Brooks Orpik is no longer BC’s volunteer assistant coach as he took on a full time role with the Washington Capitals. I think BC will name a new volunteer assistant at some point this week- expect it to be another former Eagle.
Go Eagles
No comments:
Post a Comment