In York We Trust

"I like the way our team feels about the tournament. We have a lot of veterans that have gone through a good run the last few springs, so I think that will help us…. I feel pretty good about our attitude and our work habits that we’ve accumulated during the course of the year." - Jerry York

Was there any doubt that York would have the boys ready? Admittedly, I had some reservations. I wondered which team would show up. Would it be the team that went 3-5-1 down the stretch? Or the team that rattled off 12 wins in 16 contents (12-2-2) in a span that lasted from November 30 to a Beanpot championship.

Luckily for BC, the squad that ripped through the holiday tournaments and Hockey East play in December and January showed up. A convincing 5-1 win in game 1 of the Hockey East quarterfinals against the Friars. I was not able to watch the game on ACC Select (as I don't think they wanted to offer up ice hockey coverage to compete with the league's premiere postseason tournament), so any analysis I gathered from box scores and online articles.

Likes:

• The Hobey hopeful continues to heat up. Gerbe had 2 goals on the day. I am thinking now it is very likely that the junior forward will make the final 3 for the award, but ultimately fall short to Michigan's Kevin Porter.
  
• Providence pulled senior goalie Tyler Sims only 22 mins into the game after letting in 3 goals on 13 shots. This is great news for the Eagles as it should rattle Sims confidence tomorrow night. Sims owned BC over the 3 regular season matchups, stopping 86 of 92 shots (2-0-1).
• Providence's special teams continue to struggle. PC was 0-for-4 on the PP and BC converted 1 of 4 (Gerbe).
• John Muse's performance. After watching him struggle against PC at home on February 29, Muse was solid stopping 32 of 33 shots.
  

Dislikes:

• Home attendance. This was one of the first time's the Hockey East tournament did not fall over spring break, yet the box score says that only 2,788 were in attendance tonight. That's a whole lot of empty seats for a rink that seats 7,884.
• The other top seeds (UNH, BU and UVM) won their game 1 quarterfinal matchups tonight. Unless a lower seed pulls off an upset this weekend, if the Eagles advance, they'll face #1 New Hampshire before the championship game in the Hockey East semifinal.
  

If you attended or watched the game on television, leave any observations in the comments section below. Here's to hoping that the Eagles can wrap up the quarterfinals on a high note tomorrow night. Go BC!