Boston College completed a two-game sweep over Vermont on Friday night, winning 5-2 in front of 6,764 at BC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kelley Rink. <\/p>\n
While the goal differential was an identical three goals, following Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 4-1 victory for the Eagles, the game itself could not have been more different. <\/p>\n
Vermont followed up arguable its ugliest performance of the year with a gritty, hard-fought battle on Friday night. Though on the losing end of the final decision, the Catamounts were but a couple of bounces of the puck away from a better fate. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wednesday night, we beat ourselves as much as they beat us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We tried to drive home the point that we needed a team full of guys to bring the competitiveness to at least give ourselves a chance.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
That Vermont did. After falling behind early, 2-0, the Catamounts battled back to even the game at two through one. And even after spotting the Eagles another two-goal lead heading to the third, the Cats had glaring chances to draw closer only to be stonewalled by BC netminder John Muse (17 saves). <\/p>\n
Early in the third, Vermont\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Corey Carlson walked in alone on Muse with a head of steam. He made a nice move and tried to stuff the puck five hole, but instead was pushed toward the right post, where Muse made a spectacular right pad save to deny him. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No question that was a turning point,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said BC head coach Jerry York of the save. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[Carlson] beat our defenseman and walked right in. That was a hard save, because he was coming hard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
For the second straight game, the Eagles benefited from the return of senior winger Brock Bradford, who missed 17 games with a broken arm. Bradford followed up his goal and assist in Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game with two goals on Friday, one shorthanded and one on the power play. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been almost nine months since he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been in a game,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said York of Bradford, who played the first period of BC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opener this year against Michigan before suffering his injury. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He came right back almost in game shape. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great boast for [his linemates].\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Eagles picked up where they left off on Wednesday, dominating the Catamounts in the early going. <\/p>\n
Joe Whitney got the Eagles on the board at 1:35, tipping home a rebound at the right post. Bradford scored his first of the night and second in two games, this one shorthanded, set up by Nathan Gerbe at 6:18. <\/p>\n
But unlike Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game, Vermont had an answer. <\/p>\n
The Cats got on the board at 11:11 when Dean Strong picked up a puck at the left halfboards, skated to the slot and beat Muse under the right arm to pull Vermont within a goal at 2-1. <\/p>\n
The Catamounts drew even just 78 seconds later when rookie Jack Downing one-timed a blast from the left point on the power play to knot the game at two.<\/p>\n
BC, which finished Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game even in the shot total with Vermont, despite the 4-1 score, outshot the Cats, 15-4, in the first but had a 2-2 tie to show for the effort. <\/p>\n
In the second, though, BC began to take control. Nathan Gerbe extended his goal and point scoring streaks to eight games with a quick wrist shot from the right circle at 4:50 that beat Vermont netminder Joe Fallon (35 saves) between the legs. <\/p>\n
At 14:32, the Eagles regained a two goal cushion when Mike Brennan netted his second goal of the year. Skating four-on-four, Brennan joined the rush on a two-on-two, take a pass as the trailer and snapping it over Fallon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left shoulder for the 4-2 lead heading to the third. <\/p>\n
In the third, it was Muse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s turn to shine. After stopping Carlson in the opening minute, he made another spectacular save when Colin Vock walked in alone with 4:52 to play. <\/p>\n
Minutes later, Bradford pushed him his second goal of the game, tipping a rebound past Fallon on the power play at 16:50 to seal the victory. <\/p>\n
The win allowed BC (10-5-5, 6-3-4 Hockey East) to keep pace with front-running New Hampshire, a 3-2 winner over UMass on Friday, and catapult past Northeastern, which fell, 4-2 to Merrimack, into second place. The Eagles sit just a point New Hampshire for the top spot in Hockey East. <\/p>\n
Vermont fell to 4-9-5 (3-5-3 Hockey East) and is now tied with Merrimack for eighth place in the conference standings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boston College completed a two-game sweep over Vermont on Friday night, winning 5-2 in front of 6,764 at BC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kelley Rink. While the goal differential was an identical three goals, following Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 4-1 victory for the Eagles, the game itself could not have been more different. Vermont followed up arguable its ugliest performance of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8591"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}