Eagles Provide Strong Offense In First-Round Win Over NU

Northeastern goalie Chris Rawlings had a rough second period on Monday night against the No. 5 Boston College men's hockey team, and to little fault of his own. The Eagles beautifully converted great defense into offense, even while being shorthanded during their three-goal second period. BC has had some trouble offensively this season, but with this kind of defense and Parker Milner's solid goaltending, the team is really starting to hit its stride.

"I think, come the second period," head coach Jerry York said, "we took the great effort we had in the first period and we put everyone on the same page, and it definitely made a difference. I think it was just a slight adjustment.''

Turnovers first began to hurt the Huskies with 10:17 left in the first period, already trailing 1-0 to the Eagles, when freshman forward Johnny Gaudreau put BC up 2-0 by sliding the puck through the legs of Rawlings with no defenders in front of him. The young forward almost converted another turnover just two minutes later, but after sending Rawlings diving after a fake, Gaudreau slipped and lost the puck. Gaudreau would show up again in the second half, but not before senior forward Barry Almeida and junior Steven Whitney began to put the game out of reach.

"When you've got forwards like [Steve Whitney and Barry Almeida], some highly skilled forwards, if the other team puts them in a spot where they can make a play, chances are more times than not they can make a good play with it,'' York said.

York attributed many of the Huskies' turnovers to the chippy ice conditions because of the earlier first round game between BU and Harvard.

"The ice conditions are terrific because of back-to-back games with bouncing pucks," York said. "I attribute that to the ice being rough here, and we took it to our advantage."

In the second period, the Eagles used those ice conditions to their advantage wonderfully. Steven Whitney contributed two shorthanded goals, the first coming after junior forward Chris Kreider was given a two-minute penalty for hitting from behind. Whitney and Almeida wasted no time, scoring just one minute later. Almeida stole the puck from a Huskie and set up Whitney for a one-timer seven minutes into the second, opening the floodgates. Whitney would connect again seven minutes later by stealing the puck on his own, even while short-handed, and driving down the ice to score on Rawlings again.

In between the two Whitney scores, Gaudreau found the net again off of a Northeastern turnover. Patch Alber stole the puck from a Huskie and took a shot that Gaudreau and junior forward Pat Mullane simultaneously rebounded and knocked into the net.

"Mullane made a huge effort to get the first (defenseman) to cough up the puck," Gaudreau said. "Paul was just screaming, and I knew where he was for a nice little drop pass that he ripped in."

The goal would end up being credited to Gaudreau, who had a magical night during his first Beanpot. Almeida would get a goal of his own in the final period to seal the win off of an assist from Whitney, capping off a huge night for the upperclassmen.

Recreating defense this good will be tough, and whether or not Milner can continue this kind of goaltending is a huge question mark for the Eagles, both in the Beanpot final against BU on Monday and for the rest of the season. Without all of the Northeastern turnovers, Milner could have been more exposed, and the goals would not have come nearly as easily. Even while they were on a roll, the BC offense could not get anything going when the Huskies were set up on defense. BU will likely do a much better job of holding on to the puck in the finals than Northeastern did on Monday, forcing Milner to continue to make saves and forcing the offense to create goals some other way.