Subject: BC at UMass-Amherst, Sun. 10/13/2002, box/comments
(Box from my notes and online reports)
Sunday, October 13, 2002 at Mullins Center, Amherst, MA
BC 6, UMA 0 HOCKEY EAST GAME
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BOSTON COLLEGE (HE) 2 3 1 - 6 (1-0-0 overall, 1-0-0 HE)
UMASS-AMHERST (HE) 0 0 0 - 0 (0-1-0 overall, 0-1-0 HE)
Shots on Goal Pen - Min Power Play
BC 10- 9- 9 -- 28 7 - 14 3 - 7
UMA 7- 6- 7 -- 20 9 - 18 0 - 6
BC - Tim Kelleher 7- 6- 7 - 20 saves/0 goals (60:00)
UMA- Tim Warner 8- 6- x - 14 saves/5 goals (40:00)
Gabe Winer x- x- 8 - 8 saves/1 goal (20:00)
Referee - Scott Hansen
Assistants - Chris Low, Glenn Cooke
Attendance - 3092
1st Period
BC1 Pat Eaves 1 (Forrest, Shannon) PPG 5:47 GWG
BC2 Pat Eaves 2 (Voce, Ben Eaves) 16:50
Penalties
UMA- Fetzer (obstruction-interference) 3:44
UMA- Kuiper (cross-checking) 5:19
UMA- Alden (tripping) 17:25
2nd Period
BC3 Tony Voce 1 (Shannon, Ben Eaves) PPG 11:38
BC4 Dave Spina 1 (Shannon) 17:09
BC5 Chris Collins 1 (Walker, Havern) 19:21
Penalties
BC - Dziama (holding) 8:25
UMA- Pock (cross-checking) 11:29
UMA- T. Turner (charging) 13:19
UMA- T. Turner (roughing) 13:19
BC - Murphy (roughing) 13:19
BC - Adams (tripping) 14:51
3rd Period
BC6 Anthony D'Arpino 1 (Forrest, Dziama) PPG 17:20
Penalties
UMA- Sickavish (high-sticking) 0:44
BC - Dziama (obstruction-interference) 2:43
BC - Alberts (tripping) 4:13
UMA- Fetzer (boarding) 8:25
BC - Collins (tripping) 12:05
UMA- Anderson (roughing) 16:51
BC - Dziama (boarding) 17:30
3 Stars - 1. BC - Pat Eaves (2G)
2. BC - Tony Voce (1G, 1A)
3. BC - Tim Kelleher (20 saves, 0 goals)
Boston College
F PAT EAVES, BEN EAVES, TONY VOCE
Ryan Murphy, Ryan Shannon, Dave Spina
Chris Collins, A.J. Walker, Ned Havern
Anthony D'Arpino, Ty Hennes, Justin Dziama
D ANDREW ALBERTS, J.D. FORREST
John Adams, Peter Harrold
Brett Peterson, Bill Cass
G TIM KELLEHER, Matti Kaltiainen, Robbie Miller
University of Massachusetts - Amherst: (pairings may not be accurate)
F TIM TURNER, STEPHEN WERNER, THOMAS POCK
Greg Mauldin, Justin Rafferty, Tim Vitek
James Solon, Matthew Anderson, Peter Alden
Peter Trovato, Matthew Walsh, Michael Mullen
D MATTHEW FETZER, NICK KUIPER
Marvin Degon, Kelly Sickavish
Jeff Lang, Sean Regan
G TIM WARNER, Gabe Winer, Michael Waidlich
COMMENTS
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Boston College opened the Hockey East season with a strong 6-0 win at
UMass. Freshman Pat Eaves scored twice in the first to set the tone,
UMass was unable to generate much significant offense in the game, and
Tim Kelleher came up with the necessary saves to get the shutout. Special
teams were significant, with BC scoring 3 power play goals and the
Minutemen failing on all 6 of their attempts.
It was a quiet start to the game, both teams feeling each other out as the
sparse crowd filtered in to their seats. The pace was fairly fast, as UMass
had lots of energy, but mostly the play was along the boards or in neutral
ice and shots were not plentiful. Tim Turner was blocked on a wraparound
attempt early, then 2 UMass penalties gave BC a 5-on-3 power play. The
Eagles couldn't score with the 2-man advantage, but tallied before the first
UMass player could rejoin the defense as he came out of the box. The puck
was worked around to Pat Eaves located to the left of the goal. He was
unattended, and after looking for a passing angle, turned and fired a low
shot from a sharp angle that beat Warner for the first score. Action picked
up at that point, with UMass getting several good shots but either firing
high or being blocked by Kelleher. BC had their chances, too, with one
rebound lying in the crease behind the keeper, but the UMA defense managed
to clear it in time. The action settled down to a lot of up-and-down motion
but few good shots, with the defenses forcing the play to the outside. BC's
top line made it 2-0 late in the period as Ben Eaves skated out of the left
corner and passed to Voce in the left circle. His quick shot was saved but
the rebound popped right out in front, and Pat Eaves got his second by
skating
to the puck with no defense in sight and slid it around Warner and inside
the far post.
The second period again featured some back-and-forth action, but neither
team could take advantage of early power-play chances. The game seemed a
bit dull at this point, with the defenses having most of the success. A bad
clearance by UMass was intercepted by Pat Eaves and he rushed the net. The
shot fanned softly wide of the goal but he had been cross-checked by the
defense and BC quickly capitalized on the next power play. Another set of
quick passes got the puck to Voce at the low right edge of the crease, and
he was able to fire it low to the far side for a 3-0 lead. (It would turn
out that 4 of the BC goals were scored from tight, low angles. Perhaps
Warner wants to work on his positioning, as well as ask for quicker coverage
by his D.) A brief scrum after Tim Turner ran over Kelleher on a lob to
the net led to more penalties and another BC power play, but they gave it
back with their own penalty and no scoring resulted. Late in the period a
quick counterattack led to a 3-on-2 BC rush, and Ryan Shannon carried the
puck all the way to the right goal line after faking the goalie out. His
almost-90 degree angle shot slid through the crease and off the far post,
and Dave Spina was on the other side to reach in and poke it in the net just
before the defense crashed to the crease. UMass was fading a bit at this
point and BC scored again in the last minute. Following a UMass icing, a
tight pile of bodies resulted from the scramble off the faceoff. With all
the defense tied up, Chris Collins got the puck free below the faceoff
circle, turned and fired a flat shot that hit the inside of Warner's pad
before he could close his legs and deflected into the net.
There was no mystery left in the game, and coach Cahoon put freshman keeper
Gabe Winer in for the start of the 3rd period. He looked pretty good on his
stops, though he didn't have to face the type of close range shots that his
predecessor had. Still, there were some good saves on a power play, keeping
his balance and handling rebound chances. Kelleher came up with his own
best saves, stopping 2 quick rebounds on a UMA 5-on-3 early in the period.
It just wasn't going to be a good offensive night for the Minutemen. Play
was rather slow for most of the period, lots of defensive work to keep shots
to the outside or clear rebounds, and there was no doubt about the outcome.
BC finally scored their last power play goal when Anthony D'Arpino was
camped
in front of the crease and deflected a J.D. Forrest center point slapper
past Winer. I'm not even sure the goalie saw the shot with the number of
bodies in front of him.
Given the tough games that UMass gave BC last year (2 OT games out of 3, all
won by BC,) I was surprised by the absolute lack of offensive production by
the Minutemen. They had lots of skating, some speed and skill, but no
success
at turning that into sustained, coordinated offense. They were particularly
inept on power plays, rarely getting any good shots or rebounds. BC was
usually quicker to the puck and was able to support Kelleher in his bid for
the shutout. BC played well enough on their power plays, and were quick
to rebounds at other times, but this was not a tough test in many ways.
The BC freshmen (1 Defense, 2 Forwards) looked all right; Pat Eaves is a
smooth scorer and is off to a strong start. By and large BC is an
experienced
team with some speed and skill, and they will be competitive in Hockey East.
It remains to be seen if they can play strong enough defense and get some
supportive scoring from their 3rd and 4th lines. (All 4 lines scored in
this game.)
UMass will certainly play better than they showed in this game as they learn
from their mistakes and the young players adjust. They played 16 freshmen
and sophomores among the 20 that were in the game, so they have to learn
what it takes to compete in Hockey East. There is some underlying talent
there, and a fair amount of skating ability. They could use a lot of
improvement in positioning and defense, though. Some sharpshooting lessons
wouldn't hurt, either, but that may just take time. Winer looked better in
the nets in his one period than Tim Warner did in his two, and I wouldn't
be surprised to see him get some more time soon.
BC dives into some non-conference action next week, hosting a very good
Denver squad Friday night and then entertaining Vermont on Sunday. UMass
gets another chance to get into the win column next Sunday as they host
RPI, a team that surprised people with a good win at Wisconsin this past
weekend.
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