|From: greenie <[log in to unmask]>
 
|One can only judge so much from the box score -- did the Terriers simply
|play "ugly" and beat up on the Eagles to win Saturday's game? Were the
|Eagles shooting blanks, or was Laroque on fire this night? Were the Terrier
|goals the result of solid shooting, hard work, or lucky counterattacking
|breakaways?
|
|
|questions, questions, questions...
|
|greenie
|
 
 
The Terriers certainly came to play. That's not to say that the Eagles
didn't. The Eagles certainly had their power-play chances and a lot of that
time was spent set-up in the Terrier zone. However, a lot of the point shots
from Allen and Mottau were hurried and from far out. The ability of players
like Degerman and Hanson to get out to the points quickly made a big
difference in this respect. Also, the defense kept guys like Farkas off
balance so the rare Larocque rebound wasn't such a threat. Gionta didn't
seem to venture into the slot as much as he usually might.
 
The hitting by B.U. was hard, often and crushing. The Eagles threw a lot of
hits themselves but the Terrier physical play was relentless ... 20 minutes
a period and all three periods. Ronan even had a patented hip check that
sent an Eagle head over heels (shouldn't that phrase be heels over head?).
I'm not sure I would use the word "ugly" except to describe the play of
O'Connell at times.
 
Larocque was steady. It wasn't like he was making spectacular plays because
a lot of the shots were either from a distance or in too tight. He played
great positionally and stayed on top of the play at all times. Yes, he was
hot ... but not on fire.
 
The counterattacking? I'd say it was far from lucky. It was surprising to
see how quick the B.U. forwards were. This was a good test for the Eagles
defense and clearly showed their vulnerability. The Eagle defense is such a
crucial part of their offense that they are consequently going to give up
some breakaways and two-on-ones. Degerman had two breakaways that Clemenson
stopped cold. O'Connell scored on a breakaway (to make it 4-2) that no one
saw go in except for the ref. He must have believed that Clemeson carried it
over the line with him as he went down to block the shot and slid back into
the net a bit.
 
Clemenson is getting a lot of flack for his play. He certainly doesn't have
a great save percentage but he's not facing a lot of shots and its hard to
get good stats in that situation. Add to that the fact that its hard to stay
in the flow of the game when you don't see the puck very often.
 
First time witnessing the great BU-BC rivalry in one the combatants home
arena. I must say it was raucous! The fans certainly get at eachother. B.C.
fans didn't really stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting any serious
chants going. They were instantly drowned out ... unless the B.C. fans were
chanting at the B.U. fans. In that case, the Terrier fans would figure out
what they were chanting and come up with a retort. And vice-versa of course.
B.U. fans started chanting overrated and the Eagle fans responded with
"you're not rated".
 
There was the appearance of Sasquatch which always riles up the fans.
Sasquatch seemed to have a real beef with the press box ... as he targeted
them with his middle finger. The press was directly over the B.C. fans so
I'm not sure why his taunts were directed up high instead of directly at the
fans below. Maybe he was taunting the B.C. people in the press box....was he
badly treated at the Conte Forum the night before?
 
Many face to face yelling outside the rink afterwards. There is nothing like
home fans pumped after a big win and really keeping the visiting fans from
licking their wounds without some high-spirited hollering.
 
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