HOCKEY EAST CHAMPIONSHIP AT STAKE THIS WEEKEND
Officially the post season doesn’t start until a week from Friday, March 12. But for all intents and purposes, the playoffs begin this weekend when UNH and Boston College face off to determine who wins the Hockey East regular season championship. The Wildcats lead BC by three points and need only a tie this weekend to clinch. On the other hand, the Eagles will need to sweep the two games to gain the title. Game time on Friday is 7:30 PM at the Whit, and 7:00 PM on Saturday in Boston.
As we Wildcats fan well know, UNH has been at the top of the Hockey East standings since mid-November. Sometimes they have led their closest challenger, in most cases BC, by as many as five points. But as successful as UNH has been, the Eagles have been nipping at their heels for the better part of four months.
BC has been pretty consistent the whole year. Except for a bit of a dip during the holiday break, they have not lost more than two games in a row all season. Despite UNH’s lead in Hockey East, most observers look at the Eagles as the top team in the league given their #5 ranking in the national polls and #6 position in the most recent Pairwise Rankings (UNH is #10 in both).
Given the Eagles history, it should come as no surprise that they are at the top of the league in scoring, tied with UNH with a total of 93 goals in league play and a 3.72 goals per game average. What has been surprising, not only to their fans but the BC coaching staff as well, is the play of their defense. Currently they lead the league with 56 goals allowed (15 ahead of UNH) and penalty kill (UNH is dead last). Just about the only thing they haven’t done is move ahead of the Wildcats into first place.
The Eagles have always had the fire power up front and this year it is no different. In all they have eight players who have scored at least 20 points (UNH has seven). They are led by their first line of Brian Gibbons (15 goals, 27 assists), Cam Atkinson (21-18-39) and Joe Whitney (12-18-30). Another contributor is freshman Chris Kreider (11-4-15), who was a first round pick of the New York Ranges and a standout in the World Junior Championships in December. He is fourth on the team with 11 goals.
On the back line BC relies on senior Carl Sneep (8-13-21), whose most memorable moment for UNH fans is shooting the puck into his own goal last year in a 4-2 Wildcat win at the Heights. Another blueliner to watch this weekend is freshman Brian Doumoulin, who is the second leading scorer among all freshmen with 14 points, all assists.
Where it becomes interesting for BC is in goal. The anointed one for the last two years has been John Muse, who backstopped the Eagles to the national championship two seasons ago. Although he has performed admirably this year (2.29 goals against, .913 save percentage), he has lost playing time in the last month to freshman Parker Milner. All Milner has done is gone 8-1-0, with a 1.88 goals against and .924 save percentage, and just this week was named Hockey East Goalie of the Month. You can expect to see Mr. Milner (below) in net on at least Friday night. 
UNH holds a 62-58-11 all time record against BC, dating back to 1937. There was a time in the recent past when UNH truly dominated the series against the Eagles. In a six year period, from 1991-1997, the Wildcats lost only twice to BC. But in the last couple of years, fortunes have turned, a fact brought home last March when the lower seeded Eagles swept UNH in the Hockey East quarterfinals. It extended BC’s win streak against UNH in the playoffs to seven games.
In their only meeting this season, on November 6, UNH spotted BC a 4-1 lead (including three power play goals) before roaring back with three third period goals to gain a 4-4 tie. Mike Sislo and Paul Thompson scored in the first 10 minutes before Bobby Butler got the equalizer with 53 seconds to go. Brian Foster had 32 saves in the game.
Butler and Sislo are the active leading scorers against the Eagles with 10 points. Brian Foster is 2-3-1 with a 2.82 goals against average and a .905 save percentage.
One historical note that should be mentioned is how the circumstances this year are eerily similar to those of 2003. Seven years ago second place UNH was two points behind Boston College as they began a home-and-home series the last weekend of the regular season. The ‘Cats needed at least three points against BC in order to get the number one seed in the tournament.
In the Friday game at BC, UNH was down 3-2 in the last minute and had pulled their goalie. Michael Ayers. The ‘Cats tied the game with 42 seconds left when Colin Hemingway beat Bruins draft pick Matti Kaltianen (anybody remember him) from the low slot. That tie gave UNH the opportunity they needed, and the next night they seized it, beating BC 4-1, behind two goals by Sean Collins. UNH went on to win another seven straight, including the Hockey East and NCAA Northeast Regional championships, before losing to Minnesota in the NCAA final.
Let’s see what happens this year. See you at the rink!
