Mission accomplished.

On Saturday night in Tampa, Florida, the #1 Boston College Eagles men’s ice hockey team recaptured the national championship trophy by defeating Ferris State, 4-1. It is the Eagles’ fifth all-time title, fourth under Jerry York, and third in the last five seasons. Boston College ends the season with a record of 33-10-1 and will enter the 2012-13 title-defense campaign on a 19-game winning streak.

The Eagles got the scoring started in the first period relatively early as Steven Whitney, just like in the semifinal against Minnesota, got his team on the board. This goal at 3:18 put BC ahead, 1-0 (Almeida assisted).

Ferris State put some doubt into the minds of Eagles fans with something BC had not seen in this NCAA Tournament: a response. Garrett Thompson notched the Bulldogs’ score two minutes and one second after the Eagles went ahead, tying the game, 1-1 (Huff and Oullette assisted).

Boston College would get that goal back on a bit of luck as Paul Carey’s stick deflected a soft goal past Ferris State’s Taylor Nelson, giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead (Dumoulin and Mullane assisted).

From there, both teams had enormous opportunities, but both Nelson and BC’s Parker Milner held strong. For much of the contest, the Eagles appeared to be frustrated by Ferris State’s tenacious defense which managed to keep the game at a slow tempo which was more favorable to the Bulldogs. It’s not as though the Eagles didn’t hold their ground, however, as the defense, especially Milner and Patrick Wey, did what they had to do.

As the tension mounted and the Eagles still sat on a tenuous 2-1 lead, a little guy with a flair for big games stepped up. Johnny Gaudreau secured the puck on a breakaway, put on a number of moves, and slipped the Eagles’ third goal past Nelson with 3:02 to go (Hayes and Wey assisted).

Boston College and its fans were able to breathe a little easier from then on, but Steven Whitney scored his second goal of the game on an empty-netter at 18:57 to put the cherry on top at 4-1 (Arnold assisted).

Ferris State played a tremendous game and they should be proud of how they conducted themselves both on Saturday night and this season. We knew going in that their defense was one of the best in the country, and they showed the world that this was not a mistake. For large portions of the game, they disrupted the Eagles’ offensive flow, but when you have the tournament’s most outstanding player, Parker Milner, you might not need a lot of goals to win.

Milner was again sensational and he deserves a great deal of credit for not only this national championship win, but the other eighteen victories that directly preceded it. The way he and this team came on late in the season is nothing short of extraordinary.

Further, what else can we say about Jerry York? Not only is he the best coach in college hockey history and a very classy individual, he is also the most successful coach we have ever had at Boston College, period. Four national championships for York at his alma mater is an incredible accomplishment and he has built this program into an elite national power. We are fortunate to have him, and it will be a delight to watch him break the wins record early next season.

Celebrate, Eagles fans.

Tonight, #1 Boston College men’s hockey has a date with destiny.

Specifically, the encounter involves Ferris State at the 2012 National Championship Game. The winning team is the last one standing in the 2011-12 college hockey season, while the defeated gets to be the first-place loser.

To reach the title game, Boston College vanquished Air Force (2-0), Minnesota-Duluth (4-0), and Minnesota (6-1) and have won a Jerry York-best eighteen games in a row, still not having lost since their disastrous January weekend in Maine. As for Ferris State, previewed here, they defeated Denver (2-1), Cornell (2-1), and Union (3-1) to clear their path.

A more detailed comparison of Boston College and Ferris State:

Ferris State is very much a defensive team, and as their results from this tournament suggest so far, they’re more likely to win a low-scoring game with strong goaltending and blue-line play. The Bulldogs are a very good team, but the problem for them is that they are facing a team that has still managed to be better than them in every major metric available to us this season. Everything Ferris State has done, Boston College has done better. The Eagles have also managed not only to beat some excellent teams in the process, but blow them out of the water.

Still, what matters is not who has been the best of these two teams all season; if that were the question, with all due respect to Ferris State, the answer would have to be BC. The only important thing is being the better team on Saturday night.

Winning never gets old.

On Saturday night, the #1 Boston College Eagles men’s hockey team will have an opportunity to win one more game this season and get the trophy that comes along with it. They were afforded this opportunity via their blowout win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the 2012 Frozen Four semifinals on Thursday night, 6-1. The Eagles will face the Ferris State Bulldogs for the national championship in two days, in just the third-ever meeting between the two programs.

During the first period, Boston College did not play to their potential, but they did put a score on the board when Barry Almeida fed Steven Whitney at point-blank range, whereupon Whitney found the empty part of the net to get the Eagles’ first goal at 6:03 (other assist: Arnold). Throughout the remainder, there was no more scoring, but Eagles goalie Parker Milner kept making big save after big save.

The second period is when the flood gates began to open. Boston College apparently got the first intermission message from its coaches and played with more confidence and authority in the second, and it showed on the scoreboard in a big way.

Once the Eagles got on their first power play, it only took them a matter of seconds to cash in. Kevin Hayes sniped the puck past Kent Patterson at 6:35 of period two, doubling the Eagles’ lead at 2-0 (Whitney and Cross assisted). For a while, Boston College looked content to sit on that lead going into the second intermission, but at 17:45, Chris Kreider discovered that he was not content. He scored the Eagles’ third goal to make it 3-zip (Straight assisted). Finally, about two minutes later, Paul Carey put Minnesota on notice with the Eagles’ fourth goal at 19:43, making it a steep 4-0 advantage (Mullane and Gaudreau assisted).

Minnesota would not go as quietly as Boston College’s two previous opponents did. Jake Hansen finally ended Parker Milner’s streak of nine-straight goalless periods by scoring, making it a 4-1 game (Haula and Warning assisted). Boston College was quick to show the Gophers that they meant business, however, as the Eagles answered back just 22 seconds later thanks once again to Paul Carey; this back-breaking goal made it a 5-1 BC lead (Gaudreau assisted).

For the cherry on top, the Eagles converted on a second power play at 5:51 as Brian Dumoulin gave Boston College a 6-1 lead which would remain untouched thereafter (Kreider and Mullane assisted).

The Eagles converted on two of their four power play opportunities, while stuffing Minnesota on all four of their own. Gophers goalie Kent Patterson, who had had a tremendous season until Thursday night, stopped only 19 Boston College shots on goal. His BC counterpart, Parker Milner, stopped 30 of his 31 shots.

Let’s call this game what it was: an unmitigated ass-kicking. It did not at first appear as though it would be, but when the clock hit all zeros, that’s what we had. Minnesota should still be commended for their excellent season.

Respecting one’s opponent is key, and there are plenty of good things to say about the sort of season that Ferris State has had. Indeed, regardless of Saturday’s result, this will be a year that their hockey fans won’t soon forget. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine that they were thrilled to watch the Eagles dismantle one of the best teams in the nation with both good offense and spectacular goaltending. If the Bulldogs win, they are going to have to earn it, assuming Thursday night’s keister-whooping is any indication of how Saturday might go.

Each game is its own entity and Boston College’s results on Thursday night will not necessarily translate to Saturday night — but seriously, if you’re a BC fan, how could you not feel like your team is the odds-on favorite to win the whole enchilada after the NCAA Tournament they’ve put together so far?

Both of these teams are exceptional, or they wouldn’t be here. We know what Boston College brings to the table, including a Jerry York-best 17-game win streak, and we know that Minnesota is a strong offensive team that can ride big waves of momentum if they get hot.

How do these two teams compare head-to-head? See for yourself:

It is somewhat amazing that as good as Minnesota has been this year in a variety of categories, Boston College has been even better in most.

All of this adds up to an exceptional battle between two very good teams.

May the best team (BC) win.

This is the final of three Soaring to Glory analyses on the non-Boston College participants in the Frozen Four. Today’s subject is Union, a potential national championship foe. See: Minnesota and Ferris State

There is one more non-Boston College entry in the 2012 Frozen Four, and this one makes its home much closer to Boston than the previous two. From Schenectady, New York, just a short highway drive outside the capital of Albany and about an hour and a half from STG Headquarters, I give you the Union Dutchmen.

Union are not only the champions of the ECAC, but of the East Region in this year’s NCAA Tournament. To get this far, the Dutchmen knocked out Michigan State and BC’s Hockey East compadres UMass-Lowell. On Thursday afternoon, they will face Ferris State, who are also in the Frozen Four for the first time ever (note: Union, while a member of Division III, made some deep tournament runs, but never before in Division I).

The most productive players for Union this season in terms of points are junior Jeremy Welsh and senior Kelly Zajac. Welsh has 43 points while Zajac has 42, but Welsh has 27 goals and Zajac has only eight. Those 34 assists have Zajac essentially in the top five nationally, while Welsh’s 27 goals are good for fourth-best in Division I. The Dutchmen have also gotten results from sophomore Daniel Carr, cracking the top thirty with 19 goals so far this year. Welsh, Carr, and junior Wayne Simpson have all scored nine power play goals each this season.

As a team, Union is cranking offensively. The Dutchmen average 3.55 goals per game, fourth-best in the nation and two spots ahead of your Boston College Eagles (though the two teams are only separated by an insignificant five-hundredths of a goal). Even more impressive, however, is how Union defends. The Dutchmen are, in fact, the top defensive team in the nation, allowing only 1.80 goals per game. Sophomore Troy Grosenick has been terrific in goal for Union this year, sticking to a 1.6419 GAA and .936 save percentage, giving him some of the best individual numbers of any goalie in the nation. To his credit, he has also put together five shutout wins over the course of the season.

On the power play and penalty kill, Union is doing just as well. With regards to their own man-advantages, Union converts 24.34% of the time, fourth-best in the nation. When the other team has the power play, the Dutchmen kill them at an 84.8% rate, tenth-best in Division I.

This is a very good Union team and they should not be discounted. Clearly, no team that has reached the Frozen Four should be dismissed, but when one examines the Dutchmen’s body of work this season, they see a complete team that has been successful in several phases of the game. If Boston College is fortunate enough to advance to the national championship game on Saturday, this may very well be the Eagles’ opponent (with all due respect to Ferris State, who are a tough team themselves).

This is the second of three Soaring to Glory analyses on the non-Boston College participants in the Frozen Four. Today’s subject is Ferris State, a potential national championship foe. See: Minnesota

So, you’ve heard that FSU is in the Frozen Four. No, definitely not Florida State — that would be Ferris State University, hailing from Big Rapids, Michigan (which, for those not familiar with the town, is located somewhere roughly in the center of Michigan’s lower peninsula).

The Bulldogs are in the Frozen Four for the first time ever, having joined Division I and the CCHA in 1979 but never reaching the national semifinals until now. On Thursday afternoon, they will face Union for the right to play the winner of the Boston College/Minnesota game.

If not a fan of the CCHA, one would have to be a college hockey buff to be familiar with the program, but nevertheless, they are a legitimately good team in 2012. The Bulldogs have gone 25-11-5 in getting this far, winning the CCHA regular season title; they got a bye in their conference’s tournament but fell in the quarterfinals to Bowling Green.

You can scan the top 50 point leaders in the nation all you like, but you won’t find any Ferris State Bulldogs there. Their team leader, Jordie Johnston, has 36, putting him just outside of that list. He is also the team leader with 20 goals, so one can probably make the case that he is the best offensive player on the team. Only Kyle Bonis comes close to his goal-scoring production with 18 of his own. Then again, Bonis and Johnston have easily taken the most shots of anyone on the team.

Offensively, Ferris State is not one of the heavy hitters, averaging 2.93 goals per game (21st in the country). Their power play is similarly-ranked, coming in at #25 with a 19.17% conversion percentage.

Ferris State makes its money on defense. The Bulldogs are fifth in the nation with just 2.17 goals allowed per game, and they have the sixth-best penalty kill in Division I at 85.8%. The goaltender, Taylor Nelson, is a big part of why they’re so successful in these areas. He has won 20 of the 29 games in which he’s recorded the decision and allows a few thousandths of a point over 2.1 goals per game. His .923 save percentage is also high up the national list.

When facing Ferris State, you won’t be blown away by their offense, but they will fight you tooth-and-nail on defense.

This week, Soaring to Glory will examine the three non-Boston College teams in the Frozen Four, beginning with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, BC’s semifinal opponent. Should the Eagles win on Thursday, they will face either Ferris State or Union, and wouldn’t you like some advanced scouting on them, just in case?

Minnesota: the land of 10,000 lakes. For a large portion of the year, those lakes are frozen, making it very easy to play hockey on them. Luckily for local athletes, the University of Minnesota’s hockey team has no need for outdoor facilities, as they have been quite good indoors this season. The Golden Gophers arrive in Tampa as the West Regional champions and face the #1 Boston College Eagles at 8pm on Thursday.

Offensively, Minnesota is a very good team. In Boston College’s previous game, they played the top team in scoring in Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs have since been supplanted in that national list — by Minnesota. The Eagles, for the second-consecutive game, will play the team with the most average goals per game in the country. In case you were wondering what the number is for the Golden Gophers, it’s 3.67.

In particular, Minnesota is led by sophomore forward Erik Haula, who has racked up 48 points (20 goals) so far this season and is one of the nation’s top points leaders. He has also been solid on the power play, scoring eight times for the Gophers on the man-advantage.

As a matter of fact, Minnesota is very good at the power play in general, coming in fifth nationally with a 23.24% conversion percentage.

When Boston College faced Minnesota-Duluth, the Bulldogs had all sorts of tremendous statistics in their favor, but they did have one glaring flaw: the penalty kill. Likewise, the other team’s power plays seem to be their Achilles heel, if they have one at all. Granted, their PK is not as far down the list as Minnesota-Duluth’s was, but it is still a rather pedestrian 36th at just 81%. Nevertheless, they are up there with regards to shorthanded goals, having put seven in the net this season, so it can’t all be bad.

The man who will have to quiet Boston College’s offense is Kent Patterson, Minnesota’s senior goalie, who has been primarily responsible for his team’s eighth-ranked defense at just 2.21 goals per game. One big number for Patterson that sticks out is his number of shutouts, which is tied for tops in the nation with seven. Minnesota has also leaned upon him heavily, as he has played the second-most minutes of any player in college hockey so far this season — clearly, this is due to the fact that he has started every single game. If you had a goalie playing that well, why not? Patterson also sports a .911 save percentage, a 2.23 GAA, and 28 victories on the year.

Minnesota is a solid hockey team with good talent. This bunch, like everyone else in the Frozen Four, has all the pieces to win a national championship. The knock on them, however, has been occasionally hitting the wall. From Inside College Hockey:

Watch Minnesota in games in which it doesn’t control the tempo and has a hard time moving the puck; it’s like they’ve never played together before. The Golden Gophers are creative, but not particularly adept at making something out of nothing—the garbage goal off a rebound, for example. And as you may have seen [pre-NCAA Tournament], once you get the Gophers on their collective heels, they really struggle to bounce back. Just like that Range Finder game on “The Price is Right,” once you hit the stop button, it takes a while for the machine to restart.

Boston College is a team quite adept at controlling tempo, but it remains to be seen what will happen on Thursday. All we know is that Minnesota is a worthy opponent.

On Sunday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, the #1 Boston College Eagles defeated the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, 4-0, and have reached the 2012 Frozen Four to be played in Tampa. The Eagles ride into the national semifinal against the Minnesota Golden Gophers having won seventeen games in a row and notching consecutive shutouts in regional play.

Throughout the first period, there was a great deal of activity, but neither team managed to score any goals. Boston College at times looked like they were moving the puck well and generating opportunities, but much like in Saturday’s game against Air Force, the Eagles had little to show for their productivity.

In the second period, however, BC came alive. Pat Mullane got the scoring started for Boston College by slipping the puck beyond Kenny Reiter on a second effort; this made it a 1-0 Eagles lead at 4:01 (Carey and Gaudreau assisted). We did not have to wait too much longer for the Eagles to do it again, as at 5:27, Bill Arnold found the net and put BC ahead 2-0 very quickly (Whitney assisted).

The Eagles played with a lot more confidence throughout the second and into the third period, being aggressive in their offensive chances and fighting hard to get after the puck. During that latter period, Boston College put the game away.

Just 1:13 into the final frame, Patrick Wey chipped the puck towards the net, lobbing it over Reiter for the Eagles’ third –and very lucky — goal (unassisted). The score was reviewed because the net moved, but it was upheld as the puck had already cleared the goal line prior to Reiter shaking the moorings. From here, Minnesota-Duluth let a little bit of frustration set in.

BC still was not done, because Johnny Gaudreau added one more for good measure. On the power play at 11:47, the freshman converted to give the Eagles a 4-0 lead which they would not alter (Wey assisted).

Eagles goalie Parker Milner was as rock-solid as it gets in his second tournament start. Keeping in mind that Minnesota-Duluth is a dangerous offensive team, Milner stood tall and halted all 33 of their shots, making a number of impressive saves in the process. In particular, BC’s strong penalty kills in the third made a big statement to the rest of the field. The defense in front of him also played well, but BC’s netminder should get the game’s first and second stars for how he performed on Sunday night. He has been integral to the Eagles’ success during this very long win streak, and he proved why he’s the starting goalie yet again.

The Eagles seemed frustrated offensively in the first period, just as they did for a sizable portion of the Air Force game. That first intermission pep talk must have been pretty good, however, because the offense (and the general intensity on the ice for BC) looked much better for the second and third periods. With effort like that, it will be hard for any team to take them out.

Boston College is unquestionably the best team in the country right now and have to be the odds-on favorites to win the whole thing in two weeks. Pitching back-to-back shutouts in the NCAA Tournament, with the latter against the top offensive team in the nation, is an impressive feat and ought to strike fear in their opponents. The next team in BC’s way is Minnesota on April 5.

Boston College’s next game is either going to be in about two weeks or seven months.

Two weeks sounds far preferable.

The #1 Eagles can make that possible by advancing to the Frozen Four on Sunday night; the team standing in their way is the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, the defending national champions. The last two teams to hoist the trophy will face off in the Northeast Regional Final at 8pm Eastern. Boston College and Minnesota-Duluth last met on October 10, 2003 in a game which was tied, 2-2.

In semifinal action on Saturday, Boston College defeated Air Force, 2-0. Chris Kreider was responsible for both of the Eagles’ goals while Parker Milner continued his personal hot streak by pitching a shutout. The Eagles did not appear to struggle per se, but they were met by a respectable effort from their opponent; BC found a way to win in spite of the Falcons giving the Eagles their best whack.

Boston College will need to find more ways to persevere against the Bulldogs, who erased Maine in their semifinal, 5-2, and prevented a Hockey East title game rematch. Jake Hendrickson led Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday night with two goals while also getting a strong performance by, amongst others, captain Jack Connolly. The Bulldogs were able to wipe out a 2-0 Black Bears advantage and pull away at the end.

Upon a cursory glance of what Minnesota-Duluth has accomplished in their 2011-12 season, one is immediately drawn to the list of national scoring leaders. Two Bulldogs (Connolly and Travis Oleksuk) are in the top five; Connolly is second in the nation with 60 points (20 g, 40 a) while Oleksuk is tied for fourth with 53 (21 g, 32 a). On moving down the list, one will see the Bulldogs’ JT Brown (47 pts — 24 g, 23 a) before reaching the Eagles’ points leader, Kreider, with 44 (23 g, 21 a).

What works for the Eagles is that they have a very slight advantage in goal with Parker Milner. Including Saturday’s shutout win over the Falcons, Milner now has a 1.76 GAA and a .933 save percentage; the former is fifth-best in college hockey and the latter is tied for third. Minnesota-Duluth’s goalie, Kenny Reiter, has also had a very good season, but statistically not as good as Milner’s. Reiter has a 2.39 GAA and a .913 save percentage, neither of which touch the top 20 in the nation. To Reiter’s credit, however, he has played the sixth-most minutes of any player in Division I this year and has well over 900 saves under his belt, so he is not to be taken lightly.

Minnesota-Duluth and Boston College are similar in terms of goals scored per game, but the Bulldogs have the most potent offense in the nation with 3.67; the Eagles are a little behind on 3.49. By all accounts, Minnesota-Duluth is a very, very good team, but they do have one Achilles heel: the penalty kill. The Bulldogs kill off only 77.7% of opposing penalties, which puts them in the bottom-third of Division I’s 59 teams, while the Eagles burn 87.6% of penalties, good for third-best in the nation. If BC can get on the power play a few times during the contest, they may be able to do some damage.

The Bulldogs and Eagles are two strong teams and promise to compete to the best of their ability. Even if Boston College is to win, this is sure to be a difficult test against a team that just last year proved it can scale the mountain. Win or lose, it has been a tremendous season for BC, but some fun in Tampa would make it sweeter.

That was Boston College’s goal on Saturday afternoon, and survival was a large part of their game. At the DCU Center in the Northeast Regional Semifinal of the 2012 NCAA Tournament, the #1 Eagles defeated Air Force, 2-0, in a game that was close throughout. On Sunday night, BC will face the winner of the Minnesota-Duluth vs. Maine game for a chance to go to the Frozen Four.

With the win, Boston College took their 30th game of the season and have now won sixteen games in a row. They remain undefeated against Air Force Academy, now sporting a 6-0 record and they continue their typical winning ways at the DCU Center in regional action.

Boston College’s scoring came from one man and one man only: Chris Kreider. He put the Eagles’ first goal past Jason Torf at 7:39 of the first period, and the last at 18:39 of the third on the power play (Hayes and Straight assisted on goal one; Wey assisted on goal two).

Otherwise, this contest was very much a defensive battle. Air Force faced a number of shots on goal from the Eagles (34) but did a fine job in clogging shooting lanes, disrupting BC’s puck movement, and getting some big stops in the process. Holding a very good offensive team like Boston College to just two goals is a solid performance, but when the dust settled, the Eagles were better.

Air Force did not have as many opportunities to create offense as BC did, and the Eagles were very successful defensively. In particular, goalie Parker Milner came up with several big saves and otherwise shut the Falcons down. While the Eagles had trouble generating offense themselves, despite a number of quality opportunities, Milner held up his end of the bargain and made what was for most of the game a one-goal lead hold together.

It is difficult to say that it was a sluggish offensive performance given the fact that BC put the puck on the net enough times, but they simply did not have much to show for their efforts. Credit is due to Torf and his defense for quieting a potent group of goal-scorers.

Still, Boston College has proven time and time again this season that they can find ways to win games even when they don’t play like an unstoppable juggernaut. Tomorrow is another day, and all that will matter then is that they play well enough to win.