First Round Recap

After a heart-stopping game Friday, BC came out and solved what was ailing them in the third period Saturday to move past UMass and on to the Garden for the Hockey East semifinals. Their opponent: Vermont. That comes as a big surprise, as every other playoff series went the distance (and more in the case of UNH-UVM and Maine-Lowell), with the Catamounts upsetting UNH and moving on to the Garden for the second time in as many years. The first round series revealed some flaws in the Eagles' game and ways to exploit them, which hopefully no one else saw but UMass.

Likes:
- Muse stepping in. I know, I know, Milner has been the hot hand. This is twice now that the vet has come in to replace the rookie and cleaned up. Most of UMass's 5 goals Friday were not Parker's fault, but I have to think it may be time for the more experienced John Muse (Beanpot MVP, no less) to take over for the title run.
- Top line keeps humming. These guys can't be stopped. Lets hope it continues.

Dislikes:
- The trap. UMass exploited BC's puck-moving offense with a pretty good trap. This caused a lot of action in the third period Friday and most of the game Saturday to be in BC's end. BC overcame this by taking advantage of power plays and turnovers, but you know people saw that and will use it to their advantage (see Parker, Jack).
- PENALTIES! The 5 on 3's Friday were murder for BC. Too many men penalties can be excused when you play UMass, but they will be killer later in March. They gotta stay out of the box and keep the shots on their goalies down. Good defense can only be so good when you are killing off 5 on 3's.

Overall, BC was the only top seed to hold serve at home and get the sweep. Two other top seeds moved on as well, but struggled to put their opponents away. BC is rewarded for that by getting 8 seed UVM. Heed this warning: UVM IS NO 8 SEED! BC has their hands full with this matchup, as the Catamounts beat them 2 out of 3. We could have a possible Beanpot rematch in the finals, but the Eagles need to focus on UVM first. I think Jerry will have them focused and they will be fine, but more on that game later this week. In the next post, I will take a look at the rankings and where we may end up next week.