Despite Northeastern having the second best home ice record in Hockey East (12-2-2), the Boston College Eagles hardly let that record influence them. It would be all Eagles from opening faceoff to the final whistle.
Boston College (17-14-2, 9-11-1 HEA) defeated the Northeastern Huskies (17-13-3, 10-9-2 HEA) in convincing fashion, 7-2, Friday night at Matthews Arena in Boston.
BC captain Jeff Giuliano scored the game-winning goal at 13:43 of the second, en route to a steamrolling of the Huskies. Giuliano and Co-Capation Ales Dolinar each netted two goals for the Eagles with Ryan Shannon, Ben Eaves and John Adams each chipping in two assists in the winning effort.
“The bounces definitely went our way tonight, it was like the puck had eyes out there,” Boston College coach Jerry York.
Said Northeastern coach Bruce Crowder of the lopsided loss, “One to forget about tonight. A good old-fashioned beating.”
At 7:28 of the first, Northeastern centerman Chris Lynch found himself all alone in front of Boston College netminder Tim Kelleher after a failed attempt to clear the puck by BC. Lynch was unable to beat Kelleher on the chance.
Just 17 seconds later, Northeastern had its first opportunity on the power play, but a miscommunication between Keni Gibson and Tim Judy would prove costly for the Huskies. Ales Dolinar intercepted the pass between the goalie and defenseman, and burried the puck in the open net as Gibson had strayed to make the play on the puck. The shorthanded goal by BC would be the only scoring on the power-play chance.
“It was going to be a battle of special teams tonight, and I think that our guys just didn’t come out and compete,” said Crowder.
Strong play in the corners proved fruitful for the Eagles. At 12:40, BC made the score 2-0 after a series of shifty passes behind the Northeastern net. Jeff Giuliano found Dolinar on the doorstep for his second tally of the evening.
Late in the first, Northeastern got its second power-play chance of the evening, but failed to convert thanks to the strong forechecking of BC.
“We’re a good club,” said BC Coach York. “If we’re healthy we can do the things we can do and tonight was a good example of getting things done and done well.”
Senior captain Jeff Giuliano made the score 3-0 on a strong individual, effort beating two defenders and putting a slap shot past Gibson at 13:43.
“It was really good to see our two captains get two goals tonight,” said BC Coach York. “They are really touch tenacious players and goals come tough for those two guys.”
The Eagles weren’t done with scoring in the second, as Tony Voce tipped home a slap shot by John Adams from the point, at 15:15, making it 4-0. With that goal, Crowder pulled Gibson in favor of Jason Braun.
Not showing any mercy, BC scored for the third time in the period after strong forechecking, as Ty Hennes put one in from Anthony D’Arpino to make it 5-0.
“I think we really found out how well we can forecheck and cycle the puck tonight,” said Giuliano. “We keep doing that and the goals will come.”
And the goals kept coming.
With Chris Lynch in the box for tripping, Giuliano made it 6-0.
“Confidence booster for me that’s for sure,” said Giuliano. “I haven’t scored a goal in a few weeks now and I really want to get rolling for the playoffs.”
On an amazing individual effort, BC’s Dave Spina put one top shelf on Braun for BC’s seventh tally of the night. Spina spilt two defenders and forced Braun to commit on the ground, then proceeded to lift the shot over his shoulder for his 12th goal of the season.
Kelleher proved beatable at 7:16 when Northeastern’s Willie Levesque put home a shot on the doorstep after a feed from Jaron Herriman, who was positioned behind the net.
Northeastern will travel to Kelly Rink for the back end of a home-and-home series with Boston College.
