The one that got away.....

Ouch. That one really hurt. Once again BC blew a two goal lead, only this time it was in the third period as they fell to Denver 4-3 at the Wells Fargo Denver Cup. This is the second straight game where the Eagles had a pretty sizable lead only to see it evaporate into a loss.

The Eagles did everything they needed to do early on, getting lots of shots on DU goalie Marc Cheverie, and it paid off in the first two periods. BC opened the scoring with a goal in the first period by Joe Whitney a few minutes after John Muse made the save of the game on a short-handed bid from DU. Tommy Cross made it 2-0 late in the second, and it looked like BC was on their way to a big upset. Denver started to make it interesting with an early third period goal by Rhett Rakhshani (one of two on the night for the Denver captain), and suddenly we're sweating this one. The Eagles got the 2 goal lead right back on a shorthanded goal by Brian Gibbons (the first BC SHG of the year.... yeah that surprised me too). Then the fun began....

I'm still not sure how the hell this happened, but suddenly Denver scores on a face-off (a Muse specialty). From then on BC played scared. They could not clear pucks out of their end, and when they did they iced them. They just could not sustain any type of offensive rush. A scrum in front of the net late in the period did not result in a whistle, allowing Rakhshani to somehow push the puck past Muse to tie it up with about 5 minutes left. Now, how one can score without a stick befuddles me, but there you have it. Just one of those crazy things that happens when the refs decide that all of a sudden when the puck gets frozen in front of the net they are not going to blow the whistle. (I'm not bitter, really. BC blew this one on their own without any help from the stripes). Future Bruin Joe Colborne put Denver ahead for good with the game winner about 2 minutes later, and that was that.
Denver 4 BC 3 Box

The two losses in Denver will certainly push BC out of the top 10 this week, and that is probably deserved. This team has turtled alot this year late, unable to finish off good teams. They come out on fire to start games, but often struggle to finish late. This is ok right now, since it is still early on in the season, so I am not too worried at this point. They have a few huge series coming up in the second half of the season, and they will need to finish strong against good teams like UNH and UMass Lowell to stay where they are in the Hockey East standings. Right now they are safely in the field of 16, but a lot can change.

The next game is huge. BU is starting to hit their stride, evidenced by a 7-3 whitewashing of UMASS Saturday night. BC will need to stop the Terrier rush before it gets too much steam, or I fear this BU team can climb the standings fast. When your rival is down, you need to keep them down. Fenway will be a awesome Friday night, but it will be better with a BC win. Weather is calling for a good chance of snow and temps in the 20's, so bundle up if you're heading out to the game. See ya there!