Tough Weekend

It was a tough weekend for the Eagles, as they had some really bad breaks that translated into two losses. To make matters worse, UNH swept their weekend to pull 5 points ahead in the Hockey East standings. Let's look at what happened.

Friday BU5-BC4 (OT)

The game Friday night started off bad, got a little better, then ended in a gut-wrenching OT loss. BC got themselves in a 2-goal hole early in the third period after jumping out to a 2-1 lead. The third period was one of the most exciting and frustrating periods of hockey BC has played all season. The refs decided to put the whistles away, allowing BC to get back into the game and tie it. Then, with 38 seconds left in regulation, they decide to call a trip on Cam Atkinson to give BU the man advantage going into the extra frame. I'm not going to argue with the call, just the timing of it. The refs had let the guys play rough for a majority of the third, and some of the abuse BC's forwards were taking was ridiculous. To call that trip when other blatant penalties were ignored was silly. Needless to say, BU scored on a seeing-eye goal about 1 minute into OT. Should never have happened, but when have we ever not seen BU score bull shit goals to win or tie games (see NCAA championship game 2009). But, I digress.

The biggest problem BC had in this game other than the fact that BU was breaking up their passes in the neutral zone was that they could get no one in front of Milan to knock home rebounds. It looked like Milan was wearing rubber pads the way the puck was bouncing off him, yet there was no BC guy anywhere near any of them. BC had 40+ shots on net and lost. That can't happen this late in the year.

Likes and Dislikes:
Like - The amount of shots, BC leaving it all on the ice, agressive play, another line scoring goals (Kreider's line played great ), Milner standing up and playing tough despite the score.
Dislike - Refs, no one collecting rebounds, letting BU's rough stuff get into their heads.

In the end, this is a loss and it costs us at least a point in the standings. BU now sits at 6th, and if the season ended today, BC gets BU in the first round of the playoffs. That is not good. The players looked dead out there as the game ended, which would explain Saturday.....

BU 5 BC 4 (OT) Box

Saturday UML 3 BC 1

This one was doomed from the start. BC and BU beat the Bejeezus out of each other the night before, and UML was looking to rebound from a bad weekend last week. Not good for BC.

Despite all this, the two teams skated to a 0-0 tie for the first period. UML opened the scoring with a tally by Scott Campbell late in the second period, and the 1-0 score would hold for the rest of the stanza.

That's when all the craziness happened. 20 seconds in, BC gets a Ben Smith goal disallowed when it was ruled he knocked it in with his hand. A few minutes after that, another BC goal is disallowed. Dumoulin appeared to score, but the ref ruled the net had come dislodged. Now, to me it looked like UML goalie Carter Hutton had knocked the net off its moorings, which would have allowed the goal, but referee Jeff Bunyon had other ideas. I like Bunyon. I think he calls a good game. But this was a horseshit call and it eventually would cost BC the game. If the BC staff does not send some type of protest to Hockey East this week I will be severely disappointed. Officials should not have as big a hand in the outcome of games. I mean, this is not the NBA here folks.

Well, BC did actually tie the game on a Ben Smith goal, but UML scored on a clean break 5 minutes later to take the lead. Then, just when you thought, "OK, looks like Lowell might just get out of here with a win they actually earned, " another bullshit call screws BC yet again. What looked like an icing by a UML defender with BC's goalie pulled was never called, allowing UML to score the empty net goal and end the game for BC. Not the zebras' best weekend, lets just say that.
UML 3 BC 1 Box

All in all, not a good weekend. Ugly to say the least. But, the bright side is that BC still sits in a home ice position and they look good in the Pairwise at 12. So, a good weekend this week will put them right back in a position to make a run at this thing. Providence is coming to Conte on Friday, and then we have round 1 of the Beanpot next Monday against Harvard. Trophy Season has begun, and even though this young team has some weaknesses (closing tight games, defending bigger forwards), they look like a strong team. The road does not get easy after Providence, as the rest of their schedule is against the top teams in the league. We'll see what this team is made of in the next few weeks.