Boston College 3, Denver 1: Player of the Game - Joe Woll

For 40 minutes on Saturday night, BC and Denver punched and counterpunched, looking to be pretty much equals on the ice. BC struck first; Denver got one back, then the Eagles retook the lead. Shots were 18-17 Denver after two periods.

Then, as the desperation for Denver increased and as BC went in to more and more of a shell to protect their narrow lead, things changed — Denver began completely dominating.

The Pioneers threw a remarkable 23 shots on the BC net in the third period, outshooting the Eagles 23-5. Overall for the game, DU had 69 shots attempts to BC’s 38.

Standing in the way to defend against the onslaught and lock down the Eagle victory? Joe Woll.

Woll, the freshman goaltender out of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri and the US National Team Development Program, left no doubt that he’s the team’s #1 goalie this weekend, playing the full sixty minutes between the pipes in both games and playing very well, stopping 64 of 67 shots he faced.

The freshman looked particularly poised and confident down the stretch last night. He wasn’t required to make many highlight-reel saves, but he did a good job of staying square to everything and remaining cool, calm and collected. The 6’3’’ Woll is actually quite reminiscent of watching Thatcher Demko, the point where it was easy to forget it wasn’t Demko between the pipes as BC was closing out the victory.

Thanks to Woll’s third period performance, the Eagles fly home from Denver with the feeling of having had a successful weekend. They went 1-1, and took down one of the nation’s marquee teams. For his role in it, Woll is the BC Interruption Player of the Game.

BCI PLAYER OF THE GAME STANDINGS:
Joe Woll 1
Austin Cangelosi 1
JD Dudek 1