at BU 5, BC 1 UNH 7, at Mass Lowell 2 NU 3, at Maine 3 (NU wins SO, 3-2) Merrimack at Alaska-Fairbanks (NC, still underway) With BU's win and Maine's SO loss, Maine holds a 10 point lead on BU (in 2nd) with each team having 9 HE games left. That's the equivalent of two wins. UNH remains only 2 points behind BU, also with 9 left, and the Wildcats have a big home and home upcoming with BU next week. UML's loss combined with NU's SO win means UML is in 4th, 1 point up on NU, with 2 games in hand on NU. And in another big home and home, these two teams will also meet this coming weekend. *** BU-BC comments... *** Unofficial line - all info gleaned from the tv broadcast. BC (6-15-2, 4-9-2 HE 7th) 0 1 0 - 1 shots 7--6--5 = 18 BU (16-4-3, 9-3-3 HE 2nd) 1 4 0 - 5 shots 25-24-16 = 65 BC goalie Greg Taylor smashed the HE single game regular season record for saves in a game with 60, according to WABU-68. That is one save a minute. However, it was not nearly enough as BU won easily. The Terriers unofficially outshot BC 65-18 for the game, 103-34 on the weekend. This marks the third time this season that an opposing goalie has set the record against BU. It also comes only 8 days after Merrimack's Eric Thibeault stopped 54 of 56 BU shots to break the record set by Mass Amherst's Dave Kilduff (50 of 57) back on 11/18/94. Kilduff had broken a record that was set by PC's Chris Terreri (49) vs BC on 11/4/84, only a few weeks into the inaugural HE campaign. Terreri's record had stood for over 10 years but has been broken 3 times this season alone. With the way BU has been launching shots on opposing netminders lately (210 in last 4 games, avg 52.5), I wouldn't say Taylor's record is firm by any stretch of the imagination. At least one other HE record was set tonight, this one for most penalty minutes in a period, with the teams combining unofficially for 25 penalties and 76 PIM in a chippy second. Unofficial totals for the game were 56 for 138 - not a record, btw. Taylor should sue his teammates for lack of support. Without him, BC could have easily lost 15-1. He was forced to make perhaps 15-20 saves from point blank range this evening. BC also continued to take numerous very bad penalties that destroyed any hope they had of remaining in the game. When the only reason you are in it is because your goalie is playing superbly, this is the last thing you do. BU took a 1-0 lead after the first, in which the Terriers outshot BC something like 25-7. But after a period-plus of outstanding netminding, in the second Taylor allowed a soft goal on a shot from the circle by Linna that went through his pads to make it 2-0, and the game deteriorated after that. BU would take a 5-1 lead after two and it stayed that way, with the only suspense being whether Taylor would get the record, as he had 44 saves through 40 minutes. BU's Mike Grier was ejected along with BC's Jerry Buckley in the wild second. The two never dropped their gloves, but there were some clear punches thrown on both sides after Buckley harassed the Terrier forward. Technically, it was fighting, but it came at a time when the game was beginning to get out of hand and the referees had apparently decided to start calling things VERY tightly. Had it happened in a different situation, the call would have probably been double roughs. But as I am pretty sure the call included game DQs (as opposed to game misconducts), Grier and Buckley will both miss their first games of next weekend, BU vs UNH and BC vs PC. The funny thing was that Sports Illustrated had sent a photographer to get some shots of Grier for the swimsuit issue article on him, and once he was ejected, WABU showed the photographer quickly packing up and clearing out - although he did reappear for a second intermission interview with Howard "It's Not Easy Being" Green. Another oddity came after a BU penalty put BC on the power play, but before the puck was dropped, referee Jim Fitzgerald whistled a bench minor against the Eagles - apparently on the manager. Don't know if I have seen that before. BC's only goal came late in the second with the score 5-0 as David Hymovitz stole the puck from Linna deep in the zone and beat Tom Noble with a knuckleball shot. At times the Eagles looked like they had their forecheck working okay and were able to keep play close, but more often than not, they got caught up ice and had to take bad penalties to try to bail themselves out. A TALE OF TWO COACHES In a game that was very chippy, I would think that Parker is satisfied with BU's effort. They handily outshot BC in every period, and despite being stoned by Taylor through the first and beginning of the second, they did take advantage of BC's poor D and penalties to put it away in the second. Unlike Friday at BC, BU did not let up in the third, and only Taylor prevented the score from reaching double digits and beyond. Noble again played well despite not seeing much work. Jerry York, on the other hand, cannot be happy...I thought that in both games, BC allowed their tempers to get the better of them and they continually took dumb, behind-the-play or after-the-whistle penalties. If BC was able to give Taylor any help in their own zone, their record would be better than it is. Out of curiosity, I checked the records of Merrimack and BC to see how they fared in low scoring games, since both teams have outstanding netminders who need their team defense to be solid in order to have success. Merrimack has held the opponents to 3 goals or less in 13 of their 24 games with a record of 8-2-3, including games against Maine (2), BU, UNH, NU, and RPI. BC has done this in only 6 of their 23 games, going 3-3-0, and only Clarkson, Maine, and UML (once each) were quality opponents. The difference is that MC's D has played much better than BC's has. BC has a decent offense, but their inability to play total team defense is what has hurt them. BC has now allowed 5.07 goals/game in HE play, 8th ahead of only UMA. A team with a goaltender as good as Taylor should not be doing that. It just goes to show you how important defense is. Tonight, BU buckled down and contained BC much better defensively than Friday night, meaning BC would have to do the same in order to have a chance. But it did not happen. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93