BC 5, Maine 1: Hockey Wins Big Over Black Bears

At least one Eagles sport has been consistently winning lately.

#1 Boston College men’s ice hockey cleansed the palates of Eagles fans again on Friday night, notching a 5-1 victory over the Maine Black Bears at Conte Forum’s Kelley Rink. A crowd of 6,304 saw the Eagles go to 8-1 (6-0) with the victory, and BC now has a perfect twelve points out of a possible twelve in Hockey East play so far.

The first goal of the game was scored at the 11:33 mark of the first period by New York Rangers prospect Chris Kreider, breaking away for a short-handed goal; it was Kreider’s seventh score of the season (Alber assisted).

BC’s second goal came only two minutes later, as at 13:26, Kevin Hayes found the net for his third goal of the year on a power play (Arnold and Kreider assisted). The score was 2-0 at the first intermission.

The Eagles wasted no time at all denting the scoreboard again in the second period: Bill Arnold, the Hockey East Player of the Month, added his second point of the game on a goal which tied him with Kreider for seven on the season (Kreider assisted). The goal came just 28 seconds into the period.

Maine scored their only goal of the game about a minute later as Jon Swavely got his second of the year (Beattie assisted). The good tidings on the Black Bear bench were short-lived, however, because the Eagles increased their lead back to three less than a minute later on Steven Whitney’s fifth goal of the season (Mullane and Gaudreau assisted). Following the fourth goal, on only twelve Boston College shots to that point, Maine goalie Dan Sullivan was pulled in lieu of Martin Ouellette.

Ouellette only allowed the Eagles to score once more in the game on a Barry Almeida power play goal at 10:14 in the second (Whitney assisted), but the lead was more than enough for Boston College goaltender Parker Milner. Milner turned aside twenty of the twenty-one shots he faced in the win, while Sullivan only stopped eight of twelve in his run; Ouellette was much stronger, recording fourteen saves on fifteen Boston College shots during his time in the game.

Shots were a problem for the Eagles one week ago in their home-and-home series against UMass-Lowell, though they won both games; the scores were 4-2 and 6-3, respectively. In fact, when combining shots-on-goal from each, the River Hawks outshot the Eagles 79 to 44. Tonight, Boston College had no such problem, outshooting the Black Bears 27 to 21 and making Parker Milner’s night much easier.

The Eagles converted on two of their four power play opportunities in the game, helping to bolster their power play unit which was ranked sixteenth in the country prior to tonight’s play. Their penalty kill, however, has been even better, standing at fifth-best in hockey before tonight, and that figures to rise with Boston College fighting off all four Maine power plays. The Eagles’ penalty kill was even worse for Maine than an 0-for-4 on the man-advantage suggests, as Chris Kreider scored on them short-handed for the first goal of the game.

Speaking of Kreider, he was named the first star of the game, with Bill Arnold and Steven Whitney also being recognized for their top performances. Kreider ended up with three points on the evening, while Arnold continued his strong start to the 2011-2012 season with an additional two, as did Whitney.

This was an impressive win for Boston College, smacking around a Maine team that normally plays them tough. It seemed to be about as complete of an effort as the Eagles could have put forth, and they will look to keep riding the wave tomorrow night in Amherst as they face UMass. Faceoff will take place at 7 p.m.