The eighth seeded Huskies stunned the top-seeded Eagles last night 6-5 in the quarterfinals of the HE playoffs. This has to be the biggest upset of the college hockey season thus far. NU took its 7-24-2 record into the Snooks Kelley Rink to face a Boston College team that was ranked 3rd in the Nation and had yet to lose a game at home all season. People have been saying all year that this Husky team is more talented than its record would indicate. Well last they proved it! BC had beaten Northeastern 4 times already this season but the fifth was the charm, and now the upstart Huskies take their show on the road to Boston Garden for next weekend's semifinals. The game started out at a slow pace. NU tried a new different strategy last night, having both defensemen stand up at their own blue line, the Huskies were able to slow down the faster skating Eagles. Both teams had one or two good scoring oppor- tunities early but Tom Cole for NU and Sandy Gallupo for BC were true to the task. NU finally got on the board at the 8:09 mark of the first when Paul Sacco's shot from the blue line glanced off of Dinno Grossi's leg and past Gallupo to make it 1-0 NU, add an assist to Sebastien Laplante. BC really didn't seem to turn up the heat, it almost seemed like being down 1-0 to the 8th place team was no big deal. BC came back to tie the game at 1 at the 12:02 mark when David Emma notched his 33 goal of the season, assists to Marty McInnis and Bill Guerin. That was it for the scoring in the first. Northeastern definitely had the edge in play in the first period, outshooting the Eagles 10-8. It was frustrating for the Huskies to be playing their best hockey of the season and still not have the lead after one. NU also went into the locker room knowing that Matt Saunders had picked up a STUPID high sticking penalty at the 20:00 mark and they would be facing a BC power play to start the second. After the first period, I was starting to wonder about the BC faithful. College Hockey games tend to have a late arriving crowd but at this point there were only about 3,000 fans at a facility whose capacity is 7,884. The final attendance was 3,214. Knowing how the Huskies have played all season, the fact that they didn't have to go back onto the ice at the start of the second period and face almost 8,000 screaming mainiacs dressed in maroon and gold was to their advantage. The Huskies came out and killed off BC's big power play opportunity. Then at 3:57 Emma became the all-time career goals leader in BC history (111), surpassing Joey Mullan, assist on the goal to Michael Spalla, BC lead 2-1. This was the first time in the game NU had trailed. The next goal was critical. NU has had trouble coming from behind all season, trouble holding leads too for that matter. At 8:34 NU's Mike Taylor scored on the power play, tieing the game at 2, assists to Will Averill and Laplante. On the ensuing face- off, Rob Kenny took the puck for the Huskies and skated in down the right wing, drew two defensemen as he skated behind the BC net and fed Joel Bishop in front. Bishop wasted no time in wristing one past Gallupo. Just 21 seconds after NU had tied it they went back up, 3-2. Northeastern then went up by two on a goal by Laplante at the 12:02 mark, assists to Taylor and Grossi. Now I think the Huskies had the Eagles' attention! BC was handed a golden opportunity when referee Frank Cole whistled NU's Averill for interference at 13:35. This was a very questionable call as Averill and BC's Ted Crowley just skated into each other at the NU blue line. Jack Callahan scored for BC on the power play cutting the Husky lead to 1, assists to Steve Heinze and Spalla at 14:58. Then with just over 2 minutes left in the period BC knotted the game at 4 when Crowley scored from Joe Cleary and Jeff O'Neill. The teams skated to the locker rooms tied at 4. Shots for the period were NU 9 BC 12, for a two period total of NU 19 BC 20. Coach Len Ceglarski and captain David Emma must have had some "inspiring" words for the Eagles between periods because they came out at the start of the third and skated like a team that is ranked 3rd in the nation should. Ceglarski also decided to make a change in net, pulling Senior Sandy Gallupo in favor of Sophomore Scott LaGrand. The Eagles have alternated these two all season and it should have been LaGrand's start, but word around the press box was that LaGrand's brother is in Saudi Arabia and he hasn't been totally focused on hockey. Ceglarski could have heard between periods of the cease fire and decided to go with LaGrand for the third, but that's just speculation on my part. NU coach Don McKenny also employed some coaching strategy. McKenny decided to take a page out of Coach Walsh's and Coach Parker's books and play the split third period. This was the first time the Huskies have used this strategy at the Kelley Rink. The third period started with a bang, Emma netted his third of the evening at the 0:15 mark regaining the lead for BC 5-4, assist to McInnis. The Huskies didn't roll over and die like they have been known to do this season. NU stuck to their tight checking style of hockey, knowing that their opportunities would come. At the 9:56 mark, just 4 seconds before the teams switched ends, NU's Sophomore Sensation Sebastien Laplante scored his second of the night, 25 of the season, tieing the game at 5, assists to Taylor and Chris Foy. It was now nail bitting time, with just 10:00 to go in the game, and possibly the season for NU, the game was tied at 5, the upset was there if the Huskies could grab it, and they did. At the 11:16 mark junior defenseman Paul Sacco out of Reading Mass. scored only his fourth goal of the season, beating LaGrand from the top to the face-off circle and the Huskies led 6-5 with just under 9 minutes to go in the game. BC began to feel the heat. NU stuck to its tight checking game play and held the Eagles at bay. Then at the 14:28 mark NU was whistled for Too Many Men. BC would put its high powered offense on the ice for their 6th power play of the night. Tom Cole came up BIG in net for the Huskies, stopping both Emma and Heinze point blank. NU successfully killed off the penalty, then with 55 seconds to go and the BC goalie out of the net referee Cole decided it was time for a little fun. Cole whistled NU's top defenseman Rob Cowie to box for trip- ping. I don't know where this call came from. There is sort of an unwritten rule that at the end of a game, especially a playoff game, the referee should not decide the outcome. Cowie's tripping wasn't on a breakaway, far from it. BC had the puck along the boards and went to pass it back to the point. As the players were hurrying to get back into position Cowie's tripped the BC player coming off of the boards. If this call were made in the first period I might have thought it was a bad call, but no big deal. As it turned out, it just made the final minute a litle more exciting. Cole again made two or three unbelievable saves, one I remember in particular was on Emma, point blank. Emma thought Cole would come off his post and tried to slip it past him. Cole stood strong and the Huskies prevailed!!! This was just a spectacular game to watch. Exciting clean checking, hard nose hockey. The Huskies have now beaten Providence College and BC in their last two games. I'm not predicting overnight greatness for this team, but whoever they face in the semifinals at Boston Garden better not take them as lightly as this Eagles team did. If they do, NU could very well end up in the HE final at Boston Garden on March 3. -kap -------