#1 Boston College Hockey Makes Everything Alright ... Again

Tonight's game against Maine was exactly what the doctor ordered after the football team's train wreck on national television Thursday night. It was a full-on, dominating effort in a game that was never in doubt.

Midway through the first period, after a Kevin Hayes tripping call put BC shorthanded, Chris Kreider took a Patch Alber feed across the center line for a clear breakaway - he could have had a cup of Jerry York's favorite Dunkin Donuts coffee and coasted into the slot before anyone from Maine would have caught up to him - and wristed one past Sullivan for the 1-0 lead. From that point, the party was on. The Eagles took a 2-0 lead into the locker room on a Kevin Hayes power play goal and Bill Arnold scored just 28 seconds into the second to make it 3-0.

Down by three, Maine's one goal came on a perfectly executed 3 on 2 rush (one of the few odd man rushes they had all game) where Milner didn't have any chance. He managed to get screened (though how that managed to happen on an odd man rush, of all things, I'm still not sure) and the trailing Maine shooter only had to tap it into a wide open net. Fortunately, Steve Whitney scored just 48 seconds.later and before you could even say "comeback," it was 4-1 Eagles.

The fourth goal chased Sullivan from the game as Maine put in Martin Ouellette (Or "Omelette," as the BC students were happy to call him) who didn't fare much better. Barry Almeida scored midway through the second for the final goal of the game.

BC dominated play on both ends of the ice. They built a relentless attack - as is their style - with their speed with several odd-man and even one-on-one rushes with the puck carrier just blowing by the Maine defense on the outside. Defensively, the Eagles really tightened things up, even with the big lead, breaking up several Maine chances before they even had a chance to take shape with some nice individual efforts. It was a refreshing change from the game against Lowell last week where they sat on the big lead and had some defensive lapses late... perhaps a sign of a young team maturing.

BC improved to 8-1-0 with a perfect 6-0-0 record in Hockey East. Maine could very well be the third best team in the conference, but the league is having quite a down year. The Eagles are far and away the favorite and Merrimack, of all teams, looks like a solid number two. Behind them, however, is a mess of other teams who could finish anywhere from 3rd to 10th.

Saturday BC is at UMass, who we've handled well recently... Our last loss came in 2008, and since then we've gone a perfect 12-0-0.