Went out to B.C. last night courtesy of Hockey-Leer Rick McAdoo. I had
been in Conte Forum ( or is it Kelly Rink? ) once before and I'd have to
say B.C. has the nicest facility I've seen yet in Hockey East. (I haven't
seen UNH's new facility, Maine's, Amherst's or P.C.'s) Too bad the B.C.
program doesn't see the need to regularly show replays on their very
sweet Video Scoreboards at EACH end of the rink. Shows you how
advantageous it is to have a national collegiate basketball program. I
actually didn't sit in your seats, Rick ... because there were plenty
available at center ice. Only had to move once and the ushers were quite
cooperative.
 
The game started off with B.C. displaying their highly skilled talent. After
they assumed and 8-1 lead in shots, I began to start dissecting my own
team's weaknesses. Ever do that? When you see your team being
outplayed, small things that were once tolerable suddenly seam
excruciatingly painful. I tell you, Chris Libbet looks great in practice but
something happens to his puck-handling skills come game time. Anyhow,
Chris does a decent job defending our crease so I'll get off his case.
 
Lowell happened to jump out front 1-0  on a Doug Nolan, but B.C. tied it
up before the end of the first. Shots were 12-6 after one. B.C. took a 3-1
lead in the second and although I haven't remembered their scoring
players in any order, I know Reasoner had B.C.'s and his own first goal
and the kid is looking great. I also know a scrappy defenseman #7
(Harney?) scored one. This B.C. freshman Mottau was powerful and
looks to be a great offensive threat from B.C.'s blue line. Farkas was
often threatening but could never really finish. That's basically how I'd
sum up my entire B.C. appraisal of last night's play. "Often threatening
but hardly ever finishing".
 
Once Lowell seemed to get a hold of the notion that they somehow could
hold back this powerful squad, they started to get some pretty
threatening opportunities of their own. They tied it up at three with two of
the four freshman goals for Lowell. Craig Brown scored one to make it
3-2 and Greg Koehler ( read possible Rookie accolades ) scored his first
on the second or third rebound in a Lowell net-crash. B.C. came back
with a net-crash of their own to regain the lead. I'm not sure if this was
in the second or third period because they had a power outage
(momentary) that left some flood lights out. So they cleared the ice and
played the last few minutes of the second along with the third. They also
switched ends half way through the third for an unknown reason. They
had done that peculiarly the last time I had visited this rink.
 
The officiating was horrendous as Fitzgerald once again proves his
ineptitude. It was equally bad for both sides so I really can't complain. At
least he's consistent.
 
Lowell ties it up again at four on a Salsman goal I believe and Koehler
scored his second, the ultimate game-winner, to put Lowell up 5-4. This
is where Lowell's defense tightened up extremely effectively.
Reminiscent of that time the held B.U. off at 5-4 after surrendering a 5-2
lead in the second game of the weekend sweep last year. B.C. simply
couldn't get the offense going except for a brief threat with about 1:30 to
go. B.C. pulled their goalie at exactly 1:00 and had an offensive zone
faceoff ... but Lowell won it and got the puck out eventually without a
B.C. shot. With just :04 left, Salsman (I believe) broke in on the empty net.
Now, I think freshman Leblanc (Cushing Academy) scored one so that
must have been Lowell's fourth that I mentioned above.
 
Also, Fankhouser was pulled with ten minutes to play ... for why, I don't
know. The kid looked real good.
 
B.C. finally scored one on Lowell's penalty-killing unit. I think Lowell had
been 12-0 for the season up til that point.
 
The level of play was never really as lopsided as the first for B.C. Lowell
was outshot again in the second, but this time it was 17-13. There were
a lot of scoring opportunities in the second! Lowell outshot B.C. in the
third by a 12-8 tally. Lindsay had 8 saves so either B.C.  was shotless in
the first 10 minutes of the third, or I missed the goalie switch. I do
remember noting B.C. being shotless after 6:00 minutes.
 
Well, I hope my grammar and choppy writing wasn't too irritating. Its easy
to write about things you're passionate about. I'm heading up to Billerica
for the rematch in an hour. If we win, I'll write some more ... otherwise, I'll
be licking my wounds of mediocrity as Lowell would once again fail to
complete a weekend sweep ... for the second time in this early season.
Being a relatively young Lowell fan, I'm more used to 20+ winning
season this what the projections say about this team's chances. I hope
Lowell proves them all as wrong as they did the last several years.
 
I expect things will be a little rougher tonight. Hopefully, Basaraba will
show up, I hardly noted him at all last night. Nicholishen and freshman
Bertram are definitely my favorite blueliners on Lowell.
 
Go Riverhawks!!!
 
- Paul.
 
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