So, this was kind of a weird frigging game. It was 2/3 bad and 1/3 awesome, and unlike last week against Holy Cross, that 1/3 awesome was enough to earn a (surprisingly convincing) 6-2 win over a pretty solid conference opponent in the UNH Wildcats
Let's get started and try to make some sense of it all.
Goal #1 -- 1:07 of the 1st period: John Gaudreau (Bill Arnold)
BC 1, UNH 0
This is pretty much your garden variety Johnny-Gaudreau-embarrasses-a-goalie breakaway, to the point now where we all pretty much just point and laugh.
But this was a pretty big goal in the grand scheme of this game. Obviously it put BC up by 1 early, but the way the first period turned out, it was borderline miraculous to see the Eagles holding a 1-0 lead after the end of the first. UNH wildly outshot BC to the tune of 16-4 and it was pretty indicative of how things went down.
But 1-0 after 1 it would be... briefly, anyway. The Wildcats tied the score at 1 just 18 seconds into the second period and for a second there it looked like it would be more of the same UNH dominance we saw in the first. And thennnnn, nope.
Goal #2 -- 1:06 of the 2nd period: Steve Santini (Destry Straight, Austin Cangelosi)
BC 2, UNH 1
BC answers! And on probably the nicest goal of the game.
This is part 1 of Austin Cangelosi having himself quite a nice hockey game. He runs a bit of a crossing route and UNH actually didn't do too bad of a job defending him. But Cangelosi was able to leave a really pretty drop pass to Straight who did all the hard work here, earning position on his defender and sending a feed over to Santini who chipped it in for the 2-1 BC advantage.
And for the vast majority of the 2nd, BC outplayed UNH. Were there more goals to be had?
Oh yessir, there were.
Goal #3 (GWG) -- 15:04 of the 2nd period: Austin Cangelosi (Johnny Gaudreau, Teddy Doherty)
BC 3, UNH 1
Another example of beating your man to the net, this time courtesy of Messrs. Gaudreau and Cangelosi.
The thing that gets me about Gaudreau is he just makes it look so easy. Whenever he sets up a goal, it's some perfect pass or something that doesn't even make us bat an eye anymore. On this goal, he finds Cangelosi on a tape-to-tape pass, and Cangelosi takes a couple of hacks before it chips over DeSmith's shoulder.
We wouldn't have to wait long for goal #4... Just 1:22, in fact.
Goal #4 -- 16:26 of the 2nd period: Teddy Doherty (Adam Gilmour, Chris Calnan)
BC 4, UNH 1
This goal was briefly reviewed (of course it was reviewed, #HockeyEastProbs) but you can tell pretty clearly from the behind the net replay here that there was no issue. Gilmour's shot gets popped up into the air where a quick-thinking Teddy Doherty paws the puck down and stuffs it home.
I'm sure they were looking to see if the puck went in directly off his hand -- but nope. Squeaky clean.
It was Doherty's first of the year as part of a solid 1-1--2 night; why he hasn't been playing more I have no ide...hang on, looks like we just scored again...
Goal #5 -- 16:44 of the 2nd period: Kevin Hayes (Steve Santini, Ian McCoshen)
BC 5, UNH 1
Just 18 seconds later... well, what can you say about this one; this is just an absolute snipe out of Kevin Hayes.
I really like how he slowly drifted into a better shooting angle as he delayed here. He enters the zone at the near point and ends up almost directly in the slot by the time he actually rifles this puck home. You are going to convert on quite a few of these if you can take the shot from there.
So, that was the second period. What the hell was that all about? First period we look awful and the second period it's 4 goals and how-do-you-do this game is pretty much over.
So now we hit the third period, and hey guys, can we play more like we did in the second period? Thanks.
Goal #6 -- 4:59 of the 3rd period: Destry Straight (Ryan Fitzgerald, Austin Cangelosi)
BC 6, UNH 1
Okay, whole lot going on here before we can say "Touchdown Eagles."
First of all, Holy Cangelosi, kid was everywhere tonight.
We've got some UNH guy making a very poor effort at trying to keep the puck in the offensive zone -- though I suppose, down 4, you have to be playing a bit more desperate -- and then we're off to the races on a 2-on-1.
Except it's defended quite well by UNH and Cangelosi isn't even able to get off a particularly intimidating shot. Even the other half of the 2-on-1 is pretty well defended, at least for the moment.
Fitzgerald comes racing in and tries to gather in the rebound but his momentum takes him past the net. He does manage to float the puck back into the crease and all Straight has to do is step around the goalie and poke it in, seeing as how his defenseman just seemed to not care that he had position in front of the net. So 6-1, all is well right?
Well, not really. UNH went on to dominate the rest of the third period. It looked just like the first, with an early goal and then Wildcat domination. Fortunately a 5 goal deficit was too much for UNH to seriously threaten and all they could muster was one more goal to make it a 6-2 final.
But what the hell, seriously? I don't think I've ever seen a more concerning 4 goal victory. Why do we look so bad for so long, and yet score so many goals?
Leading the nation in scoring is pretty nice, yes. But getting outshot 41-21 is freaking awful and the concerns with the young D continue. People keep complaining about not dressing 6 true defensemen, and whether or not that's the issue, I don't know, but I really find it impossible to fathom that we as the fans would know more than Jerry York and the staff.
And finally, I tweeted this stat earlier, but it is worth repeating:
Stat of the night: BC is 8-0-1 in games where Gaudreau scores. 0-4-1 when he doesn't. #JohnnyHockey has found the back of the net tonight.
— BC Interruption (@bcinterruption) December 7, 2013
That, sirs and madams, is ridiculous.
The last game of the first half is Saturday night up at UNH, and it would be nice to close out the semester strong. A win would put BC at the top of the conference standings, tied with Providence with a game in hand.