12/03/2010 -- Boston College 9, Boston University 5 -- 10-5-0, 8-4-0 Hockey East
12/04/2010 -- Boston College 5, Boston University 2 -- 11-5-0, 9-4-0 Hockey East
That's one way of taking some moment into the winter break.
Over the weekend, the Eagles earned a home-and-home sweep over their Green line rivals -- 9-5 Friday and 5-2 Saturday -- to earn 4 points in the Hockey East standings and take sole possession of first place in Hockey East going into the winter break.
On Friday night, and despite the 9-5 final score, the Eagles turned in a particularly dominating performance. If not for the referees losing control of the game early and calling an absurd 29 penalties in the game (17 on BC), the Eagles would have won handedly. BC notched nine total goals -- three in each period -- and to no one's surprise, Chris Kreider (1-2-3) and Cam Atkinson (2-0-2) led the team in scoring. Atkinson was denied a natural hat trick when his third goal was called off by a hitting after the whistle penalty on Joe Whitney.
Muse made 18 saves on Friday night.
On Saturday, the Terriers actually got off to a fast start, before Cam Atkinson answered in the first period at 11:46 to knot the game at 1. It was all BC in the second period though, as the Eagles jumped out to a 4-2 lead behind goals from Joe Whitney, Steven Whitney and a short-handed tally from Chris Kreider. The younger Whitney added his second goal of the night at 11:46 of the third period to seal the victory.
Unlike Friday night, the two teams combined for just 9 penalties (of course, 2/3 of those were against the Eagles). Both teams went 0-for on the power play.
Muse matched BU goalie Kieran Millan with 29 saves to improve to 10-3-0 on the year.
The Eagles outscored the Terriers 14-7 over the weekend, and exposed to some extent what is a very young Terriers team. BU hadn't been swept by the Eagles in so lopsided a fashion since 1987.
Streakin'. Cam Atkinson extended his scoring streak to five games, and has tallied 14 goals in 16 games this season for the Eagles. BC's Brian Gibbons has had multi-point performances in four of his last six games, and has at least 1 point in 14 games this season. For his performance over the weekend, Steven Whitney earned Hockey East Co-Player of the Week Honors.
Polls. A dominant weekend sweep of BU was good enough to bump the Eagles up 4 spots, back up to #4 overall in this week's USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll. Yale is your new number one this week, but as Fetch points out, Yale is the college hockey equivalent of Boise State football. They don't really play the same tough schedule from week to week as teams from the WCHA, CCHA and Hockey East play.
Schedulin'. The Eagles are off for the next few weeks before playing in the Ledyard National Bank Classic up in Dartmouth against Colgate and either Mercyhurst or Dartmouth on December 30-31. The Eagles then open the new year with a home-and-home against Providence. After that, the Eagles have a pair of road games that will wrap up the regular season series against Maine and BU, before returning home for a home-and-home with UMass Lowell. Hopefully, the Eagles can carry the momentum of their weekend sweep of BU into the holiday tournament and against Providence in the new year, as the schedule eases up considerably over the next eight games.