Last night's beanpot lived up to all expectations and was a great game.
Especially for BU fans :)
 
1st period:
BC seemed to have the better of the play early on, helped out by an early
BU penalty.  They were easily outshooting BU and getting most of the
chances.  BU seemed out of synch.  I don't know if it was the new lines, or
what, but they just couldn't seem to get a good handle on the puck.  The
few times around the BC net that they did get a handle on it, Taylor was a
brick wall.  Noble was equally impressive on the other end.  BC's goal came
off the face off.  One of the Masters brothers won the draw back to the
other.  He fired the shot and it was deflected by a BU defenseman's stick
and in the net.  1-0 BC.
 
The rest of the period saw BU pick it up trying to get the equalizer.  They
outshot BC 9-1, the rest of the way and Taylor made a bunch of excellent
stops to preserve the lead.
 
2nd period:
BU started off a man down but managed to kill the penalty (come to think of
it, I think both teams came up empty all night on the PP, and there were
many chances each).  I still felt that BC was getting the better of the
play and that BU was having a hard time getting all the players on the same
page.  Every play seemed to end with a pass that was a little off, or
someone losing the puck in a place where they would normally never lose it.
There was a lot of good action in this period.  Drury rang a slapper off
the post, and someone on BC got off a shot just before getting drilled that
almost found the net.  I think Noble and everyone else in the building was
watching the hit, and not the puck.  It hit Noble in the leg and bounced
away safely, but I don't think he ever moved after it.
 
3rd period:
I was expecting BU to really come out and take it to BC to start this
period.  They even had about 1 minute left on a PP to start the period.
They had one great chance as the PP was ending, and then a BC player
blocked a shot, picked up the puck and hit Reasoner coming out of the box
to lead a 2 on 1.  Reasoner was coming down the off wing and from high
about the ice you really could see the whole play developing.  Reasoner cut
to the middle and fired a wrist shot in the top corner for the 2-0 lead.
It was a hell of a shot that no one would have saved.  Reasoner really
continues to impress me.  Every game against BU he has been all over the
place.  Even though he plays for BC he is a pleasure to watch.  Except when
scoring to go up 2-0 in the third.
 
I was not too confident that BU would be able to score 3 times to win in
the third, but, before I could even figure out how much time was left (18
plus), they scored to cut the lead in half.  LaCouture picked up a loose
puck at the top of the crease and backhanded the puck over Taylor, and
under the crossbar.  Taylor had no chance.  2-1 BC.
 
That goal really picked up the team, and the up to this point very quiet BU
fans.  Until that point it seemed like a BC home game.  The tying goal came
pretty quickly.  Pierce was leading a 2 on 1 and his pass was blocked.  He
picked up the puck around the circle, curled back to the boards around the
point and passed to Brendan Walsh streaking down the middle.  Walsh got the
puck no more than ten feet from the net and it looked like he just
redirected it through Taylor's legs.  The replay on the news this morning
made it look like he gathered in the pass and then took the shot.
 
Now the Fleet was alive.  BU fans going nuts being back in the game, and BC
fans getting into it to try and get their team back on track.  It was the
first time since the opening faceoff that it felt like there was a game
going on between 2 local teams and not your typical NHL game where the
Bruins are playing some out of town team that no one in the place wants to
see.
 
Unfortunately, a few minutes later the place fell silent as a BC player
trying to receive a pass to break out of the zone was lined up and nailed
at the blue line, and he didn't get up.  He was lying face down on the ice
not moving.  The way he was lying there was eerily similar to when Travis
Roy got hurt.  The circumstances were different, but they way they were
lying there was very scary.  The sound of 17 thousand plus breathing a
collective sigh of relief when the player started moving was really
something.  They still carried him off on a stretcher.  The paper today
says that he had a concussion and some cuts.  There was a lot of blood on
the ice.  I'm not really sure how he cut himself.
 
The game got back underway and I know my friends and I were starting to
think OT.  Fortunately BU scored to erase those thoughts.  Coleman had the
puck deep in his end, passed up the boards to Herron, who dove to get a
stick on the puck so it wouldn't be intercepted, and in doing so, ended up
making a perfect pass to a breaking Pierce who went in alone on Taylor and
scored top shelf. The replay this morning showed that he had a lot of net
to shoot at and that Taylor was a little off to one side as Pierce came
down the ice.  I'll have to see that on the tape to find out if he was out
of position, or if it was the camera angle.  If he was out of position, it
was the only mistake I think he made all night.
 
BC didn't get too much pressure after the goal, although one scrum in front
of the BU net led to multiple penalties with about 6 or 7 minutes left, and
at one point in the deliberations, BU had 3 in the box to BC's 2.  Turns
out they went off 2 men each and all penalties cancelled.  I thought that
was the right call.  A lot of action seemed to happen in the BU end from
this point on, but not that many shots on goal.  BC did miss some glorious
chances with a lot of players fanning on one timer attempts.
 
They pulled the goalie with about 1:15 to go and a faceoff in the BU end.
BU had a chance at the open net but somehow ended up with 3 forwards behind
the goal line, and the puck going back the other way.  I was going nuts.
How could they do that?  Anyway, the play ended up pretty harmless the
other way and led to a long string of faceoffs in the BU end.  And at one
point each team used their time out before the same faceoff with about 25
seconds to go.  The puck stayed in the BU end, but then Drury got it and
shot from around his blue line for the empty netter.  I thought BU might
win one without Drury getting a point for the first time this year, but he
put an end to that.
 
Pierce won the MVP, and NU goalie Marc Robitaille won the Eberly award.  He
stopped 68 of 72 shots to edge Taylor.  Taylor I am pretty sure only
allowed 4 goals as well, but on fewer shots.
 
Travis Roy came out onto the ice to be with the team when they got the
Beanpot.  The players took the Beanpot over to him and they stayed there
for a while.  That was a really nice touch.
 
A couple of other thoughts.  The Fleet is definitely not the Garden.
Sometimes that is good I guess, but not for the Beanpot.  The BC-BU final 2
years ago was a whole different event to me.  One good thing was that I was
12 rows up in the balcony and was able to see everything without any
problem.
 
Got to meet fellow list member John MacKinnon at the Harp.  Unfortunately,
we were leaving when he was coming in, so we didn't get to have a cold one.
But we will do it in Worcester.  Anyone else that is going is welcome to
join us.
 
So that's it from the Beanpot.  Go BU and hopefully this is only the first
jewel in another triple crown!
Dave
 
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