Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

On Wednesday, Hockey East announced seven individual awards and named its 2012-13 All-Rookie team for the conference, and the Boston College Eagles men’s hockey team has received some of those honors.

Defenseman Mike Matheson was named to the All-Rookie team and was one of three unanimous choices out of the six players chosen. So far this season, the Canadian freshman has managed 25 points, 8 goals and 17 assists, which has set a high for BC defensemen this year. Matheson also boasts one of the better plus/minus ratings on the team at +18. He is a first-round draft pick for the NHL’s Florida Panthers and is probably destined to be a short-timer at Boston College, but so far, so good.

Senior Patrick Wey was named the “Old Time Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman” in Hockey East this season. Wey, property of the Washington Capitals, has appeared in all but one of Boston College’s 36 games this season and has totaled 12 points, but his defense has been crucial. Someone had to step into the shoes left empty by Brian Dumoulin and to this point, he has performed admirably.

Finally, sophomore Johnny Gaudreau was named the “Turfer Athletic Scoring Champion” as he collected 49 points this season, leading all contenders in Hockey East. For the purposes of the award, only points scored in conference games count, and Gaudreau won that tally as well, coming in with 36. His next closest competitor was Mike Collins of Merrimack at 32. This is an impressive achievement for Gaudreau, considering that his post-World Juniors play resulted in a handful of games in which he had no points at all, but he made up for lost time quickly.

Most recently, the Eagles have played four consecutive games against the Vermont Catamounts, and in those contests, Gaudreau scored in each and totaled ten points. His most impressive of those performances was a six-point explosion in a 7-2 win at Burlington.

Consequently, on the women’s side, an Eagle won this award as well: sophomore Alex Carpenter set a league record with 48 conference points.

Congratulations to Wey, Matheson, and Gaudreau.

Bob DeChiara-US PRESSWIRE

That was embarassing. There is no way around it, especially at Conte Forum. Seriously!?!? A 5-1 loss to the Friars!?!?!?

I am really not much for talking about Providence scoring FIVE straight goals, breaking an 18 game winless streak against the Eagles. There is literally no point to it.

What we as Boston College fans must hope is that this is just an aberration and that the Eagles will kick it into gear by the time the NCAA tournament rolls around, but you never know. This could easily turn into another 2011 playoffs, with the lack of consistency the boys have been showing recently on the ice.

But Boston College faithful:please don’t fret!! Now I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but seeding literally doesn’t matter. If you are not meant to win the tournament, you won’t win it anywhere you’re placed. That is the bottom line. Do the New York Giants care about wherever they are ever placed in a playoff bracket? Heck to the no!! If you are so concerned about seeding, then your team can’t win. If you can’t win from the back of the pack, then you don’t deserve to win.

The basic thing we need to remember is that the Boston College Eagles WILL be in the NCAA tournament and I’m pretty sure they will do very well in the Hockey East tournament, if they don’t win it outright. I’ve got about as much faith in this team as George Michael would if he were to follow college hockey. We have a strong, strong squad, and I hear defenseman Patch Alber may be coming back in time for playoffs so we have that to look forward to.

So guys, don’t fret about this little downer and heed the words of Eddie Vedder. And if I hear one more person talk about pairwise rankings…………

Follow @KeganSTG

Andrew B. Fielding-US PRESSWIRE

With a four-point weekend in Hockey East play, the Boston College Eagles could have essentially buried one of their main opponents in the conference and put in some breathing room with another.

Instead, BC finds itself in a tenuous second-place behind the Merrimack Warriors, barely holding off the third-place New Hampshire Wildcats. At the moment, the Warriors lead Hockey East with just six games to play. Merrimack has 27 points, BC stands at 26, New Hampshire has 25, and BU and Providence both have 24.

After their three-game win streak which culminated in their fourth Beanpot title in a row, it figured that the Eagles would simply start getting on a roll. After all, it’s what they’ve done in previous successful seasons. Endings like last season’s 19-straight wins are highly uncommon and there are likely to be bumps in the road, but it probably came as a big surprise to the BC faithful to watch their team lose to Merrimack near the end of overtime and skate to a tie with New Hampshire at home.

How does this happen? BC played a sub-par game in North Andover on Friday night in which they committed ten minor penalties, the tenth of which resulted in the power play that gave Merrimack its winning goal. On Sunday afternoon, the Eagles managed only 26 shots on goal in 65 minutes of playing time while giving UNH seven power plays. In fairness, Boston College did score two power play goals on Sunday.

One might have assumed that BC was well on its way to “figuring things out” in February, but one point out of four possible is a disappointing weekend by any stretch, especially when the price is first place. As demonstrated in the standings, another similarly bad weekend in the near future could put BC in fourth. In that respect, this was somewhat of a catastrophe for BC, but at the same time, it shouldn’t be overstated.

Despite having managed just one point, the Eagles are still only one point behind — they’ve not exactly been buried. They did, however, miss a tremendous opportunity to take a commanding lead and put themselves in better conference and national tournament position. Furthermore, they’ve allowed the doubts from the previous month to creep back in. This is a bad time of year to show any signs of weakness; BC literally had none last year from February on, and they were rewarded with another national title. If this team wants to hoist the trophy again, they had better get back to what worked for them last week.

The 2012-13 college hockey regular season is racing towards its exciting conclusion, and the #4 Boston College Eagles still find themselves on the top of the heap. There are still many questions to be decided, including (1) if BC will add another trophy to their collection before the start of the 2013 Hockey East Tournament, (2) who BC’s quarterfinal opponent will be, and (3) which two unlucky teams will be left behind.

As of Thursday morning, these are the men’s standings in Hockey East:

New Hampshire lost on Wednesday night to Providence; the Wildcats had an opportunity to leap over Boston College for first place in Hockey East (which is typically the highlight of any decent UNH season), but they suffered a critical loss. It was important for several reasons: BC retained the top spot in the conference just as they’re starting to heat up again, the Eagles now have a game in hand over the Wildcats in addition to their one-point lead, and now Providence slides up into the conversation, though BC has an extra game to play.

If the Hockey East Tournament began today, Boston College’s best-of-three quarterfinal would be against the Vermont Catamounts. The Eagles end the regular season with a two-game road series in Burlington, so it is conceivable that BC could play four or even as many as five consecutive games against Vermont in March. In the one previous meeting they’ve had just two weeks ago, BC came away with a 4-1 win at Conte Forum.

Vermont’s spot in the Hockey East Tournament is not assured. With still more than a handful of games to go, the Catamounts lead Maine by a single point, while Northeastern lags three behind. It is also possible that a team like UMass could slide into a quarterfinal matchup with BC, which would be a rematch of last season’s sweep. Because Vermont plays the Eagles twice to end the season, they might need those games to get into the tournament at all, and BC might not be so willing to fork over the four points.

BC’s top spot isn’t secure, either. The thing about having the Merrimack Warriors right on their tail is that the Eagles get to face them twice in their eight remaining games. Both of those games are in North Andover, both are in February, and both will have a lot to say about who goes into the Hockey East Tournament as the #1 seed. So too could the home-and-home games against Providence and the lone remaining game against New Hampshire at Conte Forum on February 17.

One could say at this point that Boston College controls its own destiny as March approaches. If they win their games — and we all know it’s possible if last year is any indication — then they’ll be the #1 seed and that will be that. If they don’t, there are several teams that could push them into a less-favorable quarterfinal matchup. At this time of year, a top-five team like BC is playing for conference tournament seeding and national tournament seeding, in both cases to try to give themselves the most reasonable path possible to their goals of more trophies. In that respect, the regular season does matter, chasing the top spot in Hockey East definitely matters, and BC has more than a good chance of securing themselves, but they’re far from running away with it.

Never a doubt.

On Saturday night at the TD Garden, the #1 Boston College Eagles men’s hockey team beat the Maine Black Bears, 4-1. The Eagles have won the 2012 Lamoriello Trophy and taken the Hockey East Tournament; it is BC’s third-straight championship in their conference and their fifth in the last six seasons. Boston College will head into the NCAA Tournament on a 15-game win streak, a new record for the longest in Jerry York’s BC tenure.

From the start of the game, the Eagles appeared to be in firm control. More succinctly, Johnny Gaudreau was in firm control. At 5:24 of the first period, Gaudreau found the puck in front of Maine’s net and shot it past Dan Sullivan to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead (Alber assisted).

Gaudreau was still not satisfied, however. At 7:22 of the same period, Maine’s Joey Diamond went to the box for interference, and just nine seconds into the man-advantage, the freshman sensation stuck another one in the goal. This score gave BC an early 2-0 lead (Mullane and Kreider assisted). Gaudreau’s two goals were two of 20 Eagles shots during the frantic first period.

In the second, Maine was finally able to break through after some very solid goaltending by BC’s Parker Milner. At 7:37, Brian Flynn scored his 18th goal of the season to make it a much tenser 2-1 game (Diamond assisted).

For a while, it did not look like the Eagles would get that goal back in the second period, but as this team typically does, they found a way. At 18:39, Pat Mullane came up with a big goal to extend Boston College’s lead back to two at 3-1 (Gaudreau and Carey assisted). The Eagles would ride this advantage deep into the third period, but they added to it on an empty-netter by Barry Almeida with a little over one minute to go (Whitney assisted).

Parker Milner stood up to some heavy scrutiny, facing 42 Black Bears shots-on-goal and stopping 41 of them. To his credit, Dan Sullivan of Maine had 39 saves against a quick, aggressive BC offensive attack, but it was the three-spot he allowed that made the difference.

The tournament MVP, deservedly, was freshman Johnny Gaudreau, who keeps coming up big in big games. However long he ends up staying at BC, it will be a pleasure for Eagles fans to watch him work his magic. He may look young, but don’t be fooled: his talent is undeniable.

Boston College managed to convert on one of their three power play opportunities, but their penalty kill was even better, stopping all five of Maine’s chances. This is in stark contrast to when these teams last met almost two months ago, when the Black Bears scored four power play goals en route to a weekend sweep of the Eagles (coincidentally, those were the most recent losses by BC). The Eagles’ kill was crisp and produced some quality short-handed opportunities, despite no conversions.

Boston College is locked and loaded for the NCAA Tournament; the selection is on Sunday morning and they figure to get a regional in Worcester, though Bridgeport is another viable (and welcome, for New York-area alumni) option. The rest of the field of sixteen should be worried about facing such a good team on an extensive hot streak.

Now let’s win the whole damn thing.

On Friday night at Boston’s TD Garden, the #1 Boston College Eagles defeated the Providence Friars in the Hockey East semifinal, 4-2. The Eagles have advanced to the Hockey East Championship Game against the Maine Black Bears, who defeated Boston University in the second semifinal. With the win, Boston College has won fourteen games in a row, which is the longest winning streak since Jerry York became coach in 1994. York is now only 16 wins behind Ron Mason for the most all-time, making it all but certain that he will break the record next season.

The first few minutes of the opening period saw the most action. It appeared that Boston College had a tremendous chance to take a 1-0 lead very early in the game, but Steven Whitney’s wraparound attempt sailed along the goal line but never crossed it. Paul Carey made sure his forthcoming attempt did clear the line, however, as at 1:15, he gave BC a 1-0 lead (unassisted).

Providence hit back very quickly. Eagles goalie Parker Milner, who looked very good in previous games, got off to a shaky start. About a minute after BC took the lead, at 2:28, Barrett Kaib scored his first goal of the season to tie the game, 1-1 (Balysky and Army assisted).

Unfortunately, even the tie was short-lived, as Derek Army filled in the goals column on a soft one for Providence at 4:33 to give the Friars a 2-1 lead (Cross assisted).

By now, with the fast Providence start, Eagles fans were thinking bad things, but BC did not panic. In fact, not only did they not panic, they didn’t trail for long, either — Destry Straight made sure of that. At 8:35, still in the first period, he notched his third goal of the game in a big spot to retie the game, 2-2 (Hayes and Kreider assisted).

From there, Parker Milner buckled down and his team responded as well. The frantic scoring stopped, but Boston College was not done finding the net. At 3:45 of the second period, the Eagles went on the power play thanks to a Daniel New hooking penalty, and thirteen seconds later, John Gaudreau ended the man-advantage. The freshman phenom’s 17th goal of the season gave the Eagles a 3-2 lead which they would not relinquish (Carey and Kreider assisted).

Later in the same period, the Eagles appeared to have a fourth goal, but it was reviewed and taken off the board on a contention of goalie interference.

It mattered not, as Boston College got the fourth goal, anyway. It came at the eight-minute mark of the third period off of the stick of Steven Whitney, giving BC a 4-2 lead (Almeida and Arnold assisted). The Eagles held it there for the final score.

At times early on in the game, this one looked very dicey as Parker Milner did not seem himself. After that soft goal he allowed to Army, however, Milner settled himself down and was able to contain every other shot the Friars sent his way. Given the difficulties Alex Beaudry has had this season, one knew that the same might not be able to be said about him. Boston College kept the pressure on him and broke him four times for the victory. Beaudry managed 30 saves to Milner’s 27, but it’s Milner who picks up the victory (his fourteenth in a row to rise to 24-5 this season).

The Eagles will face Maine on Saturday night at 8pm for all the marbles. Like the semifinal, the game will be televised locally on NESN and nationally on NBC Sports Network.

If all top seeds had won last weekend, Boston College would have a tough semifinals date with the Maine Black Bears tonight. A funny thing happened on the way to the TD Garden, however: The #2 seed UMass-Lowell River Hawks lost to #7 seed Providence in the quarterfinals, meaning the Eagles draw the Friars. This is particularly good news as BC is just two wins away from defending its Hockey East crown.

In the playoffs, one does not want to take any opponent lightly, and the fact that Providence made it to this game suggests that they had to have played much better than when BC last saw them, but it is still a fortunate turn of events.

One part of why is that the Eagles haven’t lost to the Friars in a long time. Boston College has won eleven games in a row against Providence, and thanks to a 13-0-2 record have not last any of their last fifteen meetings. In case you’re wondering how long it’s been since the Friars beat BC, it’s been a little over four years.

Another part is how hot Boston College has been in general. The Eagles ride into this Hockey East semifinal on a thirteen-game win streak, as they have not lost in almost two months since getting swept at Maine. Providence accounted for two of those 13 wins, with the Eagles shutting them out 3-0 and 7-0 over their weekend home-and-home series in late February.

As a matter of fact, if Boston College wins tonight for their fourteenth victory in a row, it would be the longest winning streak Jerry York has had as the Eagles’ coach.

For some insight into why BC is doing so well lately, start with the goalie, Parker Milner. He has been in-net for all thirteen of BC’s consecutive wins and has done an exceptional job. This team-wide hot streak has also given rise to a personal hot streak for Milner, who has improved his numbers to the point where he’s got the fifth-best GAA in Division I college hockey at 1.8396. His save percentage is also quite good, sitting at .928 — tied for eighth-best in the nation and only a few ticks behind UML’s Doug Carr for best in Hockey East.

It’s not just goaltending, though: #1 Boston College has also established itself as an offensive threat. BC’s scoring is tied for fifth-best in college hockey with 3.50 goals per game, and there’s a long list of characters responsible: Chris Kreider, Bill Arnold, John Gaudreau, Paul Carey, Barry Almeida, so on and so forth.

As for Providence, the numbers on either front aren’t very settling (from their perspective, that is). The Friars average about 2.5 goals per game, but they give up 3.2. Goalie Alex Beaudry allows approximately three goals per game, a far cry from Milner’s sub-2 GAA. Furthermore, his save percentage is at .896, which is well down the list nationally and third from the bottom in Hockey East.

One could approach this game by saying “be careful what you wish for” in drawing Providence, since there are no guarantees in playoff hockey, but BC fans should feel good about the matchup given BC’s recent overall dominance and their particular dominance over the Friars for the last four years. It’s always possible to lose, but while we fans might take the Friars lightly, Jerry York and his boys will not.

The puck drops at approximately 5pm Eastern; it will be carried on NESN locally and NBC Sports Network nationally.

The race for the Lamoriello Trophy is on, and the #1 Boston College Eagles were the first team to punch their ticket to the TD Garden for the 2012 Hockey East semifinals. The other three berths were sealed on Sunday in decisive Game 3s, and the results were mostly favorable to BC.

(1) Boston College Eagles vs. (8) Massachusetts Minutemen
Eagles win series, 2-0

It was certainly not easy, but the Eagles were the only team in this tournament to be able to take care of business in the minimum two games. With two one-goal victories, the Eagles advanced to the Garden for a chance to defend their trophy once again. BC took Game 1 2-1 and Game 2 3-2; full recaps are available.

(2) UMass-Lowell River Hawks vs. (7) Providence Friars
Friars win series, 2-1

The only major upset took place in Lowell, Massachusetts, as the 2-seed River Hawks were dropped in three games by the Providence Friars. This is a PC team that was sinking badly during the 2012 portion of their schedule, and just recently suffered consecutive shutout losses to the Eagles, whom they will face next.

By Sunday afternoon, the Friars had played five straight games against the River Hawks, the last four of which were in Lowell (and the first two of which were in the regular season). Providence lost those first two, but took two of the last three, and luckily for them, the latter games mattered more.

Game 1 was a 5-3 win on Friday night (the fifth PC goal coming on an empty-netter) featuring 41 Providence shots on goal and 36 UML shots.

Game 2 was an 3-2 overtime win on Saturday for the River Hawks to force a deciding third game. Both Alex Beaudry and Doug Carr were solid in net for their respective teams, but Beaudry was the one who cracked in the end.

Game 3 was a 1-0 shutout victory for Beaudry and his Friars to clinch the series. Only two penalties were called in the entire contest and the sole score came after just seven minutes, followed by 53 minutes of saves.

The Friars will face the Eagles Friday afternoon at 5pm on NESN or the NBC Sports Network; full preview to come on STG this week.

(3) Boston University Terriers vs. (6) New Hampshire Wildcats
Terriers win series, 2-1

New Hampshire looked like they had it in the bag. Until they didn’t.

The Boston University Terriers, in a three-game series that saw more than its fair share of bonus hockey, skated by (no pun intended) the UNH Wildcats to advance to the 8pm Friday semifinal against the Maine Black Bears.

Both Game 1 and Game 3 went to double overtime; the former was won by New Hampshire and the latter by the Terriers. Game 2 in the middle on Saturday was a 4-2 BU win. Here’s a selection of cumulative stats for the series:

• 228 minutes, 42 seconds of game time (48 minutes, 42 seconds of overtime)
• 159 New Hampshire shots on goal
• 127 Boston University shots on goal
• 150 saves for Kieran Millan
• 116 saves for Casey DeSmith

The worst part from a non-BU fan perspective is that the Wildcats didn’t just lead in Game 3, but they had a 4-1 lead in Game 3. It’s shocking how totally out-of-character it was for UNH to choke in a postseason game (denote heavy sarcasm).

(4) Maine Black Bears vs. (5) Merrimack Warriors
Black Bears win series, 2-1

The Warriors and Black Bears played an interesting series which resulted in Maine advancing to the semifinals against Boston University, but it was more noteworthy for its chippiness. An extraordinary number of penalties were called over the course of the three games; here’s the long and short of it:

• Game 1: 10 penalties on Merrimack; 12 on Maine
• Game 2: 26 penalties on Merrimack; 24 on Maine
• Game 3: 10 penalties on Merrimack; 5 on Maine
• Series: 46 penalties on Merrimack; 41 on Maine (Grand total: 87)
• 20 hit-after-the-whistle penalties
• 7 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties
• 6 10-minute misconducts (not including game misconducts)
• 4 game misconducts

Play nice, kids.

On Saturday night at Conte Forum’s Kelley Rink, the #1 Boston College Eagles defeated the Massachusetts Minutemen for the second-straight night, this time by a 3-2 score. The win gives BC a sweep of the best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinals series and will send them to the TD Garden next weekend for the semifinals. Additionally, Boston College has now won thirteen games in a row and have not lost since their second of two weekend defeats in Maine on January 21.

Much like Friday’s game, Saturday’s match against the Minutemen was a close affair. This one, however, began with UMass striking first. Conor Sheary got the Minutemen on the scoreboard just 2:54 into the game with a goal to give UMass a 1-0 lead, striking a little bit of trepidation into the hearts of Eagles fans who saw their team just squeak by the night before (Gracel and Syner assisted).

That lead by the Minutemen had a particularly short lifespan. Just thirteen seconds after the goal, Bill Arnold was sent to the penalty box for roughing, and 32 seconds after that, Steven Guzzo of UMass unleashed a hit from behind and was served with a five-minute major and a game misconduct. This ended the UMass power play and the Eagles put all of that extra penalty time to good use. On the ensuing four-on-four, at 4:25, Pat Mullane slipped one past goalie Kevin Boyle to tie the game at one (Gaudreau assisted).

Of course, soon thereafter, the Eagles would still have several minutes of power play time, and Paul Carey made sure it wasn’t wasted. At 8:18 of the first, shortly before the five-minute major expired, the red-hot Paul Carey gave the Eagles the lead on the power play for his fourteenth score of the season (Arnold assisted).

For a little while, the fears of BC fans were assuaged, but late in the second period, UMass let the Eagles know they were still around. With a bit less than two minutes before the end of period two, following a Patrick Wey elbowing penalty, Joel Hanley of the Minutemen scored his seventh goal of the season and tied the game at 2-2 (Marcou and Sheary assisted).

Once again, however, UMass’s success was brief. About one minute later, at 19:11 of the second period, Brian Dumoulin shot the game-winner with both teams skating four per side; the Eagles took a 3-2 lead which they would not relinquish (Kreider and Milner assisted).

In the third period, the officials called just one penalty — an Isaac MacLeod hold — but the Minutemen were unable to convert on that only power play and goalie Parker Milner held tough for the win.

Massachusetts played a hard-fought series and even Eagles fans have to give them credit. Boston College lost the regular-season series to them and UMass played like a team that knew it could hang with the Eagles. Over the course of both games of this Hockey East quarterfinal, the Minutemen put more pucks on the net than BC did, and in Game 2 in particular, they outshot the Eagles 35 to 22. As it was in the first game, though, Boston College had the difference-maker, and his name was Parker Milner.

At the beginning of the season, perhaps we thought Milner might not be the guy going forward. After all, the extent of our file on him was “he’s the dude who backs up John Muse,” and when your predecessor wins two national championships, that’s a tough act to follow. Now, nobody gets to question who the starting goalie is for this BC team going forward. The Eagles have won thirteen consecutive games, and Milner has been in-net for all of them. On this weekend in particular, Milner earned his keep against an aggressive UMass squad. He even got an assist on the game-winning goal; how’s that for coming up big?

As all three remaining quarterfinals series are undecided, BC’s next opponent is not yet known.

On Friday night at Conte Forum, the #1 Boston College Eagles defeated the Massachusetts Minutemen, 2-1, to take Game 1 of the Hockey East quarterfinals series between these two teams. The Eagles have now won twelve games in a row and can advance to the semifinals if they beat UMass again on Saturday night.

With only one penalty called on either team all night, this game was what one might hope playoff hockey would be: a loosely-called contest. As such, there was action, but in the first period, no scoring. It was not until the second that the Eagles got on the scoreboard. Pat Mullane did the honors for BC, giving the Eagles a 1-0 lead at 17:46 for his seventh goal of the year (Gaudreau assisted).

Both of Boston College’s goals were scored within a minute of each other, because the second came at 18:25 of the same period. For that one, you can thank captain Tommy Cross as the Eagles went ahead 2-0 (Gaudreau and Carey assisted).

From there, the Minutemen did not go away. As a matter of fact, on the whole, they put more pucks on the net than the Eagles did. One of them eventually got through Parker Milner, and that came off of the stick of Steven Guzzo at 6:55 of the third to make it a 2-1 game (Marcou and Pereira assisted). This created 13+ minutes of more tension than Boston College fans expected in a game such as this, but when all was said and done, it was a win and the Eagles keep rolling.

The Eagles can take comfort in the fact that they did not play their best game last night and yet still won. As the competition gets more difficult, however, they can’t afford to have any off-nights. Luckily, for now, they can still manage.

As previously mentioned, the Eagles can close out the Minutemen tonight with a win; puck drop is at approximately 7pm, and hopefully there will not be any power outages.

Special note: the women’s hockey team is playing their first round NCAA Tournament game today for a chance to go to the Frozen Four; tickets will be sold at the doors of Conte Forum. Be sure to head out and support this team. The puck drops at 1pm.