For the second time in less than a month, BC visited Amherst to play UMass
as another messy, icy winter storm was finishing up.  And for the second
time, BC escaped with an overtime victory.

Those were about the only similarities in the two games, however.  In early
January, BC came in on something of a roll, having gone 10-3-1 in their
last 14 games.  Last night, they came in badly needing a win, having lost 6
straight (the last victory being the win at UMass on January 7).

In the January game, BC had looked a lot like the defending national
champs, absolutely dominating play for much of the first half of the game,
with a stirring 3rd period comeback by UMass forcing the game into OT.
Last night, on the other hand, the game seemed fairly evenly matched for
the first two periods, with UMass probably having the better chances and
shutting BC's offense down pretty effectively.  In the 3rd period (and OT),
however, I'd estimate that fully 75% of the action took place in the UMass
end, with BC constantly on the attack.

BC got on the board first midway through the 1st period when Dave Spina
stole a pass just inside the UMass blueline, skated in, and snapped the
puck past UMass goalie Mike Johnson from about 25 feet out.

UMass tied it up early in the second period when new Minuteman Josh Hanson
continued his scoring (4 points in his first-ever 3 games), knocking the
puck in from just in front of the net on a nice feed from Toni Soderholm.
UMass then took a 2-1 lead when freshman Greg Mauldin stole the puck
outside the blue line, skated in, and blasted it under the crossbar.
Mauldin had a number of nice plays and good chances all night, including
one beautiful rush in the first period in which he nicely avoided the
defenseman and faked out the goalie, but somehow ended up in the net
himself, strangely without the puck making its way in.

BC came out fired up and completely outplayed UMass in the third period,
while the Minutemen seemed to be playing mostly to preserve their one-goal
lead.  As seems pretty common in that circumstance, the lead was ultimately
NOT preserved, although it took BC most of the period to get the equalizer.

It finally happened with 3:51 left in the game, with a superb individual
effort from Ales Dolinar, who came into the UMass end, outmuscled the
defenseman to keep the puck, made a super pass over to Ty Hennes, who
sprawled forward and managed to knock the puck into the net.

BC kept the pressure up in overtime, stole the puck in the UMass end, and
Dave Spina fed Ryan Shannon from behind the net to give the Eagles the win.

Surprisingly large crowd at the game, considering the fact that all of
western Massachusetts was covered in a glaze of ice.  Still, even a
relatively large crowd for UMass hockey (officially 3000+) seems pretty
quiet and lost in the large Mullins Center.

UMass has now gone into overtime in an amazing 6 of their last 10 games,
and has lost what has to be an extremely depressing 4 of those 6 OT games
(with one win, one tie).  BC came away with a much-needed win heading into
their big Beanpot matchup with BU on Monday night.

Dan McMurrer