OK time for some quick thoughts...
Overall BC didn't play a terrible game. 13-7 SOG after 1, but staying scoreless was a huge win for NU. The second period wasn't terrible early on until the stretch where NU flipped this game and hit paydirt. You could see it coming from a mile away as NU was building towards the goal for a few shifts, starting piling up shots on goal and had BC on their heels... BC was getting panicky when they did get the puck and you could see it was going to end poorly. Lund (of course!) goes in surrounded by BC players on a harmless rush, and the one Dman in front of him sagged rather than made the read to be more aggressive. Bang. Then the second one moments later. It was similar to when BC just went to sleep during the Merrimack game. Pretty much game over.
The Leonard breakaway hitting the pipe was a big moment in the game. If they got the first goal it's probably a different story. Then you had Perreault get a feed from Hagens and put it into Whitehead's chest with a ton of open net. He also had a great look that Whitehead got a shoulder on. One of those nights. Another puck went off a skate in the third and just trickled wide. BC really didn't get the bounces tonight.
Basically if you had to brew up a BC loss, this game had all the ingredients that we've been talking about for the entire season (or two):
- Not a good night at the faceoff dot.
- Leonard taking penalties
- Falling asleep for a few minutes
- PP getting shutout
One thing that absolutely blew my mind was how BC handled the delayed penalty while on the PK. They had the puck with all sorts of bodies back behind the BC net to dish it to, NU as barely pressing, pulled Fowler for an extra attacker and advanced up the ice to play 5x5 for a bit. They should have held on to it and killed off as much of the BC penalty as possible before doing anything for a longer PP. As a result, they played 5x5 delayed and coughed up the puck, 4x4 for a bit, then an abbreviated PP. Come on. Were the coaches telling the players to hold on to it back there and play keepaway?
Shot selection was poor as evidenced by the shot blocks; NU did a tremendous job here. These weren't shots through the initial coverage that got knocked down closer to the net, they were shots right into the initial coverage. You're better off shooting around them and looking for a bounce off the kickplate. Or pass it to someone else that is open.
Sure seems like this program is absolutely in Lenny Ceglarski territory and this could go on for a LONG time.
I do find it interesting that BC's all-world goalies always seem to get outplayed in the postseason.
Jellvik is better than I think we all realized and he's missed.
This team has been a weirdo team that just won hockey games all year long but had no mojo. I don't know how to describe it. Strange team.
BC will be in Manchester. It's 50/50 this team gets chumped by the 16 seed. Almost no chance they get out of Manchester. Ryan Leonard will be a Capital by Sunday March 30th at the latest which is great for him since they will be at the Garden on April 1st to play the Bruins so he doesn't have to do any packing. Everyone is licking their chops to get into this regional now and it will be an all-time moment for whichever program can take down #1 BC. PC is 85% likely to end up in Manchester with BC.
In a lot of ways this game mirrored the loss to Denver last year; essentially a 2-0 game that went awry in the second period and a frantic third was not enough and their goalie outplayed BC's.
A few thoughts on Leonard. He's one of the top 3-4 guys I've seen come through here in almost 30 years and no one is like him. He lost almost every faceoff he took tonight. I'm not sure the box score even credited him with enough losses. It was bad. And it's talked about every night with the penalties. He's easily the best player in the country but may not win the Hobey. I can't believe he cannot control himself on a nightly basis. I guarantee you he will in Washington though.
Congrats to the Huskies and all the teams playing in the Garden. Everyone going there earned it. BC earned the weekend off and will earn whatever the final NCAA tournament result is.