GOAL BY GOAL: Demko Perfect Again As Boston College Hockey Shuts Out Maine

With BC's relatively weak schedule so far (and with small sample sizes in general), it's easy to get overly hyped about stats early in a season. But after Friday's 3-0 shutout of Maine in which Demko extended his already-a-program-record streak of shutouts to 5 out of 6 games, you kind of have to throw those caveats out the window.

With Ryan Fitzgerald suspended for the game from Tuesday's melee against UMass, the Eagles struggled to find their footing against the struggling Black Bears. But Thatcher Demko stood tall once again, keeping Maine off the scoreboard and leading BC to a 7-1-0 record.

Boston College Goal #1 (GWG): 4:51 of the 1st period
Steve Santini (Colin White, Matty Gaudreau)

BC 1, UMO 0

Despite the slow start, BC did at least get on the board early. The Eagles were facing a freshman goaltender, Maine's Rob McGovern, so it's never a bad idea to just get pucks to the net.

That's exactly what Santini does. He takes the feed from the top of the slot, and while he would have done well to just take what Maine's giving him and shoot, he holds and tries to find more of an opening to the net.

He shimmies and holds, holds, holds all the way over to the faceoff dot where there's a clear line through to McGovern and rips off a laser of a wrist shot to give BC the early lead.

From there, though, the Eagles were sluggish to say the least. BC struggled to find its way through a neutral zone mucked up with Black Bears, and late in the 2nd period, the frustration boiled over for both teams.

Even Thatcher Demko got into the action in this brouhaha, which came less than two minutes after Casey Fitzgerald and Maine's Steven Swavely were sent to the box with a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct minors.

It got pretty crowded in the box.

Maine hung around, though. In the third period Colin White was awarded a penalty shot after a string of three straight BC penalties, but the puck bounced off his stick on the attempt and he couldn't convert. He would make up for it, however.

Boston College Goal #2: 14:40 of the 3rd period
Colin White (Steve Santini, Scott Savage)

BC 2, UMO 0

White finally got his goal, which effectively put the game away, although he did somewhat misfire on this shot as well. The changeup found its way through the five hole, and that was that.

But there was one last piece of business to take care of.

Boston College Goal #3 (ENG): 18:47 of the 3rd period
Alex Tuch (Adam Gilmour, Zach Sanford)

BC 3, UMO 0 -- FINAL

A-L-E-X-T-U-chuh spells relief.

Tuch finally gets his first goal on the season, and seeing his reaction, he sure knows it. It doesn't matter that it's an empty netter; it's a big monkey off the back of one of BC's most important players, and it might just get things going for him.

The men have Saturday off and are back at it on Sunday against the Black Bears for the 2nd (and last) regular season matchup with Maine. Will the emotion carry over? Will the day off calm things down? We shall see.