Boston College Hockey Sputters In 1-0 Loss To Providence

Just when you think things are going your way...

After last week's encouraging pair of wins over UMass and Maine, the Eagles came into their toughest weekend of the year with some momentum. But that that momentum was stopped cold with Friday's loss to Minnesota, and the power outage lasted right into Saturday's Hockey East matchup with Providence College, who topped BC in a tough 1-0 contest.

Looking at the box score, you would think the game was a track meet, with BC and PC putting up a whopping 81 shots, with BC holding a 43-38 edge. But that wasn't nearly the case.

The first period was easily BC's best of the night, but the Eagles couldn't find the back of the net. BC controlled the puck but didn't create many great scoring chances, and with Jon Gillies between the pipes for the Friars, it would take a little more than a few pucks thrown at the net to get on the scoreboard.

The two teams put up 40 shots between them in the second period, but you would never know it watching the game flow. Neither team managed to get much of anything going, although each team did managed to get good possession and take a ton of low quality shots.

Providence finally broke the stalemate less than two minutes into the third period. Ross Mauermann scored his first goal of the season on a shot that just got past Demko's right skate into the back of the net.

Unfortunately, that was the way the game would end. BC put together some good attacking possession but once again struggled to create any serious opportunities. A boneheaded penalty from Ryan Fitzgerald with 4 minutes left in the game where he bowled over Jon Gillies like an offensive lineman pretty much sealed the deal.

BC probably shouldn't beat themselves up too badly about not scoring, given that the Friars have gone almost 4 full games without allowing a goal, but I doubt it will brighten the mood in the locker room much.

If there was one positive for BC it was that defensively, they really tightened up and limited the Friars from getting many chances of their own. Thatcher Demko was obviously a big part of that, but there weren't many terrible decisions that led to any glaring PC chances.

Elsewhere, Northeastern shocked the world and took down Minnesota, which really gives BC fans the warm and fuzzies after giving up a touchdown to the Gophers at Conte on Friday night. BU beat a top 10 team, Harvard beat #4 Lowell...It's all sunshine and rainbows this weekend in hockey, isn't it?

BC drops to 7th in the Hockey East standings with the loss. The Eagles are going to need to get back in the saddle quickly to try and avoid playing in the Hockey East #octofinals—only the top 4 teams avoid the initial round of best-of-3 action.

BC moves on to a home-and-home with UNH next weekend, yet another (aren't they all at this point?) critical opportunity for the Eagles to right the ship.