BC 3, Northeastern 0: Milner Shuts Huskies Out on Banner Night

Boston College hockey knows how to throw a party.

On Saturday night at Conte Forum’s Kelley Rink, the #3 Boston College Eagles defeated the Northeastern Huskies, 3-0. It was goalie Parker Milner’s fifth career shutout victory on a night where Boston College welcomed back some old friends to help raise the 2012 national championship banner to the rafters.

A capacity crowd at Conte Forum saw the gold-clad Eagles strike first, middle, and last. Just 6:16 into the game, Kevin Hayes got into the goals-scored column by notching his first of the season on a power play to give BC a 1-0 lead (assisted by Doherty and Wey). Only seconds remained on Colton Saucerman’s cross-checking penalty at the time of Hayes’s score. The assist for freshman Teddy Doherty was his first career point.

One of the heroes from last night and the tournament run that made the banner ceremony possible, Johnny Gaudreau, wanted to ensure that he got in on the action. At 10:06 in the first period, Gaudreau scored his second goal of the season to double the Eagles’ lead (assisted by Mullane). In Friday’s comeback win over UMass, Gaudreau assisted on Pat Mullane’s game-tying goal, then Mullane assisted on Gaudreau’s game-winner, and now Mullane assisted on this one tonight.

The Eagles were quiet for most of the second period, despite the fact that both BC and Northeastern took a high number of shots on goal. Boston College took 14 and Northeastern shot 13, but the difference is that one of BC’s got in the net. That was at 18:32 of the second period, coming off of the stick of Steven Whitney during a 5-on-3. His second goal of the season put the icing on the proverbial cake, giving Boston College a 3-0 lead (assisted by Gaudreau). The point for Gaudreau is his fifth in the first three games of the year.

Neither team did any scoring in the final frame, with the only item of note being a Vinny Saponari ten-minute misconduct penalty for Northeastern.

Following their opening night loss to these same Huskies, Boston College has gotten better. Their win on Saturday night was a tidy, businesslike victory in which all phases of the game were working and BC did what they had to do. Boston College took a few too many penalties at eight, but their penalty kill remained outstanding in not allowing any goals. Offensively, the Eagles went 2-for-6 when they had the power play.

Shots on goal were virtually even at 27 to 26 in favor of Boston College. but Parker Milner stopped all that came his way. At Amherst on Friday night, Milner’s night was a little rough as he allowed four goals in their come-from-behind victory, but on Saturday, he bounced back to pitch a shutout. Chris Rawlings took the loss in-net for Northeastern.

The Eagles return to action on Friday night as they face UMass-Lowell in Lowell.