#1 Boston College Throttles #8 Minnesota: WE GOIN' TO THE SHIP!

Holy Crap.

Any shredded nerves BC fans had going into this game were sufficiently coddled pretty quickly. The Eagles completely dominated the Gophers 6-1 to advance to the National Championship.

Everything went right in this game, except we shanked the extra point.

BC got on the board pretty quickly six minutes in. Steven Whitney scored on a brilliant give-and-go setup from Bill Arnold to open the scoring. Minnesota outshot BC 10-5 in the first period, but BC would carry the 1-0 lead into the locker room.

And then the fun would really begin. The Eagles went on the power play early in the 2nd period and Kevin Hayes would absolutely snipe one just seconds in. BC played much better in the second period than the first for a while, but Minnesota really started to threaten for a good five minutes or so toward the end of the period. After several sparking saves from Parker Milner, the Eagles gave Minnesota a swift kick in the junk against the run of play on a beautifully executed two-on-one where Destry Straight waited, waited, deked the Minnesota defender, and threw the puck back to Kreider who roofed it into the open goal.

If the third goal was a kick in the junk the fourth was an absolute dagger. Seconds after Johnny Gaudreau was stoned on a breakaway where he was so far ahead of the nearest defender that he could have taken a nap (which he probably should have; it was way past his bedtime), Gaudreau came in on another rush, this time a two-on-one. After getting hauled down, Gaudreau somehow made an impossible pass while down on the ice from behind the goal line to Paul Carey who just had to tap the puck into the empty net for a layup. 4-0 BC, and the party was on.

The third period featured a lot of garbage as the game was really over already. Minnesota scored early to end Milner's shutout streak, but BC scored just 22 seconds later to remind them just who their daddies are. Johnny Gaudreau set up Paul Carey with, you guessed it, a picture-perfect feed from behind the net.

BC's last goal was an excellent set up from Brian Dumoulin with a beautiful finish by the Gopher defender. Dumoulin just threw the puck on net and Minnesota's Holl tipped it perfectly over Patterson's shoulder. Touchdown Eagles. Game over.

The only other thing really worth mentioning from the third period was the excellent leadership and class of Minnesota captain Taylor Matson, who took an impressive tomahawk smash on Bill Arnold. That would have been sweet enough, but the cross check to the face was really what made hockey fans proud.

Now, BC advances to the National Championship! What?! God, we are so good at this sport. We take on #6 Ferris State Saturday at 7pm.

More coverage to come over the next couple days leading up to the title game.

Go Eagles!