With the Boston College-Notre Dame rivalry weekend finally at hand, the men's hockey team looked to start the playing off right when it took the ice against the Fighting Irish on Friday night. The match-up was the first time since the national championship game last April that the two teams met, with BC handily defeating ND, 4-1, to take the crown.
Friday's showdown was a much different story. The Irish out-muscled, out-skated, and overall outplayed the Eagles en route to a 4-1 victory of their own in front of a soldout crowd in the Conte Forum.
The Eagles came out of the gate fired up, giving good pressure and fight against the Irish and their goalie, Jordan Pearce. It was not long, however, before Notre Dame got hold of the puck and began a game plan of its own with Pearce standing tall against everything BC threw at him.
"I thought two really good college hockey teams played tonight," said BC head coach Jerry York after the loss. "Notre Dame impressed me in a number of ways; I thought their penalty killing was outstanding. Their goaltender, I've seen him play a number of times last year but this was clearly the best I've seen him play."
Pearce was clearly the star on the ice for Notre Dame, making 27 saves on 28 shots during the night but, most importantly, always finding a way to squash BC's hopes as soon as they got a chance to score. Three different times during the course of the game there were, so called, "scrums" in front of the Irish net. The Eagles would take a shot, find the rebound, and keep firing it at Pearce until it seemed that all 10 skaters were huddled around the crease, half looking to shove it in the net, the others seeking it to fire it down the ice. All three of these incidents resulted in Pearce standing tall and blocking away every shot before his teammates were able to clear it out of the zone.
"There were maybe a half dozen remarkable saves he made and that was clearly a catalyst for ND and their penalty kill," York said. "We got some good chances … but I thought he played very, very well."
One of the major of downsides to BC's game was the clear frustration that took hold of the team and its fans. Every lane that looked inviting to skate down was quickly closed off by defenders, and every play that the team tried to set up was cut short before any momentum could be gained. In total, the Irish blocked 15 of the Eagles' shots before they even had a chance to reach Pearce in net.
Players like Nick Petrecki and Tim Filangieri, who both often play with their hearts on their sleeves, were clearly discouraged and upset at the Eagles' inability to make anything work.
Regarding the emotions of his team, York said, "I thought we were pretty shocked for most of the night. I thought our effort was good, we competed hard but we just couldn't quite close that gap," he said.
Amid the great play of the ND players, it was not as if the Eagles didn't have chances of their own. Late in the game, with BC down 3-1, the team decided to pull goalie John Muse while on the power play with about 2:30 left to play.
The 6-4 advantage could have made a huge difference with the two extra attackers, but it was only a matter of seconds before the Irish got hold of the puck in their own end and flung it down-ice where it skidded into BC's empty net.
BC's lone goal did, however, come on a beautiful string of plays from the Eagles' top line of Brock Bradford, Brian Gibbons, and Ben Ferriero. After receiving some cycle passes from his two linemates, Bradford was able to blast a low, stick-side shot by Pearce to tie the game, 1-1. It looked hopeful to BC's fans inside at Kelley Rink, with the crowd erupting to this change in the game, but it was not for long.
Barely over a minute later and with junior defenseman Carl Sneep in the box for slashing, the Eagles saw themselves on the short end again with the Irish's Chris Hanson knocking home a rebound for ND.
It was all Notre Dame after that and the Eagles struggled to the finish line. It was the story of the night, as all the momentum was instantly lost and the Eagles were sent back to play on their heels for the rest of the game.
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