Friday: at Cheel Arena, Potsdam, NY
Score Shots on Goal Pen - Min Power Play
BC 1-1-1--3 10- 11- 8-- 29 8 - 16 1 - 6
Clarkson 4-1-1--6 16- 7- 10-- 33 9 - 21 2 - 5
Saturday: at Appleton Arena, Canton, NY
Score Shots on Goal Pen - Min Power Play
BC 2-0-4--6 7- 12- 14-- 33 9 - 28 0 - 2
St. Lawrence 0-4-0--4 10- 17- 12-- 39 6 - 12 1 - 4
Perhaps the long trip up to the North Country explains the poor first
period by BC (and the weekend-long funk of BU??) Though the weather was
reasonable (warm and cloudy/rainy rather than snowbound and frozen), it
is always a tough trip to combine these two opponents in one weekend.
Friday, at Clarkson, Clarkson 6, BC 3
-------------------------------------
1st - Jerry York failed to get his career 500th victory at his old coaching
grounds of Clarkson. Clarkson came out flying in the first period and
cashed in at 0:42 when Chris Clark lifted one over Mike Correia. BC got
that back on a similar defensive breakdown just 13 seconds later (Blake
Bellefeuille's 7th of the season.) But from that point on Clarkson
dominated the period, forechecking hard and keeping BC from getting any
serious opportunities. Clark got his second by taking a long pass, beating
the BC defenseman to the outside, sliding to the net, and lifting another
past Correia with his backhand. Clarkson's 3rd goal was also announced as
a Clark score, but was later corrected to give credit to his roommate,
Buddy Wallace, the first career goal for the junior. Relentless Clarkson
pressure near the BC goal kept the puck in play until Clark could slide the
puck over to Wallace, and he popped it into the net from the right side.
The 4th Clarkson tally came on a Matt Pagnutti power-play slapshot that
flew through a screen and over Correia's shoulder.
2nd - This period and the third were more even, and the scoring reflected
it. Clarkson made it 5-1 at 7:19 when Swedish freshman Carl Drakensjo
got a clean breakout while skating 4-on-4. His first slap shot was stopped,
but the rebound went straight to him and he nailed the second chance. BC
got its lone power play goal at 9:19; a frantic scramble near the crease
and two or three stuff attempts resulted in the puck sitting unattended and
unnoticed in the crease while all the players were focused on the pileup.
Defenseman Joe Harney cruised in from the point and tapped it home from
about 6 inches. BC had numerous power play chances in the period, and
could have gotten close if they scored, but the CU defense shut them down.
3rd - The outcome was never really in doubt, and Clarkson sat back a bit
to protect their lead. Todd White got his 9th of the season for the
Golden Knights on a power play, and BC freshman Mike Mottau notched his
second of the season on a late 4-on-4 chance. The relatively light (2796)
holiday crowd went home happy.
Notes - We were sitting near the train whistle that they blow when Clarkson
scores a goal, and it is VERY loud. The Clarkson band, rated highly among
the ECAC crowd, was missing, and music critic Linda determined that the
canned music that they played in their absence "sucked worse than
Northeastern's canned music." (Saturday, the SLU canned music was pretty
good.) The crowd was quiet without the students, with only minor heckling
and some empty seats. Everyone was enthused when they announced that SLU
was beating BU 2-0.
Saturday coaches' brunch at Clarkson
------------------------------------
The CU dining service, which has a nice buffet dinner at moderate cost
before the games, decided to try out a coaches brunch on Saturday. If
they do this again, I highly recommend it! With a discounted coupon we
picked up on Friday, it cost us $6.00 apiece and included (all you could
eat/drink): fresh fruit, scones, muffins, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage,
cheesy pasta casserole, hash browns, cereal, cakes, desserts, juice,
coffee/tea, and CHAMPAGNE. This was spectacular! Unfortunately, it
wasn't very well advertised, and attendance was light. The CU/SLU folks
were very excited about having BC/BU in for the weekend, and this was
part of their effort.
The 4 coaches (CU, SLU, BU, BC) showed up and each gave a brief talk about
their season, the Friday night results, some friendly insults and memories,
and then there was a question-and-answer period. BU's Jack Parker noted
that his team has had a light league schedule so far, and that they had
problems getting to the net on Friday night in the loss to SLU. He also
noted that they are short of players this year and will be losing Poti and
Lacouture to the World Juniors, so they may have to play in January with
fewer than 18 skaters. (He briefly noted that Lacouture may be back in
school next semester but said he would not be available for hockey.)
A nice side feature was an appearance by the father of Clarkson freshman
Carl Drakensjo, who is some high level executive in the Swedish hockey
circles. He discussed the differences between Europe and the Americas,
the importance of colleges and education, and how college hockey is a
much larger spectator sport here than the equivalent junior level is in
Sweden.
Saturday, at St. Lawrence, BC 6, SLU 4
--------------------------------------
1st - Jerry York did get his 500th victory in this one, though it was
a seesaw game. BC carried much of the play in the first period, and
New York native Marty Reasoner set up two early goals by Brian Callahan
to give BC a 2-0 lead. Reasoner has family in Canton, and had a Rochester
youth team with various relatives in attendance, so it was an enthusiastic
Reasoner support crowd cheering him on. St. Lawrence started to come on
late in the period, and actually had more shots on goal though none were
serious threats.
2nd - The game turned completely around in this period as SLU scored 4
unanswered goals. BC almost killed a penalty when Paul DiFrancesco
picked up a rebound and slid it low inside the left post for the first
SLU score. Reasoner had a clean breakaway in the 14th minute and lifted
one past Jon Bracco and off the crossbar. It bounced down and then out,
and Marty and many in the crowd thought it was in, but no goal was awarded.
(Marty's younger brother (?) later said it was NOT in, but bounced straight
down and then out.) SLU took the puck, skated to the other end and caught
BC off-balance. Ryan Cassidy lifted a shot past Correia to tie it, 2-2.
A minute and a half later DiFrancesco scored another one as SLU was all
over the Eagles. A BC power play turned to disaster when the puck was
stolen during the BC breakout and Thom Cullen was sent in alone to fire
in a shorthanded goal. BC couldn't score despite some good pressure on the
power play and it ended 4-2.
3rd - The ice must have been tilted toward the entrance of Appleton Arena,
because BC came back with 4 unanswered goals of their own to win it. (All
goals on the night scored at one end of the arena.) Good swarming
pressure by BC on a power play paid off when Farkas found Bellefeuille all
alone about 20 feet out from the left post, and he one-timed it past
Bracco just after the penalty expired. Jamie O'Leary tied it at 4-4 when
he scored on a breakaway 3 minutes later. The BC pressure continued, and
senior defenseman Joe Harney surprised the SLU defense when he carried the
puck up the left side around the defenseman and snapped a pass to Matt
Mulhern between the circles. Mulhern turned and fired it home into the
right side of the net. (Harney's two younger brothers are both freshman
defensemen for St. Lawrence.) Finally, Reasoner completed the BC comeback
by scoring one to go with his 3 assists (the 4 BC goals were scored in
less than 5 minutes.) Mike Correia played solidly the rest of the way to
get the win.
Notes - SLU has done some renovation of Appleton, but the interior still
reminds me of a log cabin, all dark brown wooden walls and "pews" to sit
in. The crowd was almost split between SLU and BC, with the Reasoner and
Harney families filling the visitors' side.
Miscellaneous - I've done this trip twice now, and enjoyed both times very
much. I recommend it if the opportunity arises, and try to stretch the
trip so you can visit Lake Placid or Ottawa as well, which aren't that
far away. Of course, I haven't had any bad weather during my trips, so
that has to be taken into account. Make your reservations early for
motels, as they fill up quick (though it wasn't as bad during the holiday
weekend, with lighter attendance and few students.) We got a chance to
visit with Clarkson alums Rick O'Donnell and his lovely wife, who made the
trip up from the Boston area as well. They told us tales of the old
Walker Arena and referred us to the Bagelry in Potsdam for their "brown
Bazoobies", a monstrously large (and good) chocolate chip cookie.
Next - BU will try to recover from their lost weekend with a Friday visit
to Yale, which is playing much better than expected (though this is their
first game outside the ECAC.) BC hosts Maine for 2 big games this
weekend, and Clarkson and St. Lawrence come to New England this weekend
for ECAC games with Brown and Harvard.
-------------------- ----------------------
Rick McAdoo [log in to unmask]
"Volunteer reporter" A positive BC fan. GO EAGLES!
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