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Why can't all of our games be like the one against Army? It wasn't pretty -- it really, really wasn't pretty -- but BC went into a half-empty Mullins Center and escaped with a tough 2-1 victory.
The Eagles had to play the game without freshman goaltender Thatcher Demko, who was a scratch and did not dress in this game after having a (presumably minor) hamstring pull prior to the game. Per Coach York, Demko will be out for a week or so, possibly to return against Maine. Brian Billett got the start in net.
This game was a mess with the exception of a few decent stretches of hockey for BC. Whether it was lack of motivation, lack of effort, or whatever it may be, UMass outworked BC for big stretches of the game.
The Eagles did outshoot UMass in the first period, but UMass was the team to find the back of the net late in the first period to take a 1-0 lead into the locker room.
It took nearly half the game for BC to get their first, and no surprises here on who put in the goal.
Goal #1 -- 9:25 of the 2nd period: John Gaudreau (Isaac MacLeod, Bill Arnold)
BC 1, UMass 1
Nothing really too special here. But if you're UMass, how to you allow the best player in the sport to camp out like that? Nice tape-to-tape feed from MacLeod though. The UMass radio announcers referred to it as a "slam-dunk" for Gaudreau. Yeah, basically.
This was in the midst of BC's best stretch of hockey and it wasn't long until they took advantage again for their second of the night.
Goal #2 (PPG, GWG) -- 13:42 of the 2nd period: Kevin Hayes (Danny Linell, Ryan Fitzgerald)
BC 2, UMass 1 -- FINAL
Another pretty standard goal (I'm used to all of our goals being like something out of a highlight reel, so this is kind of weird). But missing from the scoresheet on this one is Adam Gilmour who does a pretty fine job of screening UMass 'tender Mac Haight who really didn't get the cleanest view of Linell's shot.
All Kevin Hayes had to do was clean up the garbage, and it's 2-1 BC.
Unfortunately... that was a pretty short stretch of "good" hockey. The game was 2-1 into the locker room after a decent second period (shots were 28-18 BC at that point), but it would all go pretty dramatically downhill from there.
It was almost as though BC forgot to show up for the third period, but give credit to UMass who really won a lot of battles.
Early in the third period, it seemed that UMass had tied the game up at 2 with a slick move by Troy Power, but then... confusion.
BC argued for a review to show that UMass was offsides, though there was mass confusion among the radio broadcasters and fans alike as conventional wisdom says that offsides calls are not reviewable. But per The Kid:
Coach says they changed the offside review rule this year. He knew and decided to use TO. Thought 1 was great. 5 and 3 were ehh. 7 solid.
— BC Hockey Blog (@bchockeyblog1) November 15, 2013
So apparently it was legit? In any case, have a look at the play -- at least they got the call right, with not one but two Minutemen jumping the line on the play, including the eventual goal scorer:
My favorite part is the linesman waving the "onside" call at the bottom of the frame.
Nonetheless, ugly or otherwise, BC will obviously take the win and move on. Game #2 of the home-and-home is Friday night at 7pm at Conte Forum. Hopefully this one is a bit easier on the nerves.