Wednesday, December 6, 2000

  1 2 3 OT Final
Northeastern 0 0 0 0 0
Boston College 0 0 0 0 0

vs.

Northeastern tied the number three Boston College Eagles in a mutual shutout at Historic Matthews Arena in front of  4114 people for their second consecutive shutout.  The lack of scoring in the game did not mean that this was a boring or uninteresting game by any means.  This was one of the great cross-town rivalry games that featured outstanding goaltending by both Northeastern's Mike Gilhooly and BC's Scott Clemmensen.  Northeastern was held to fewer shots in the game than BC, including a shotless overtime period, but the Husky defense played their best game of the season.  Brian Sullivan was not sitting out a one game suspension as his 5-minute penalty Sunday in Portland against Maine did not carry the mandatory punishment.  Captain Jim Fahey, Junior Rich Spiller, Sullivan, and temporary defenseman Trevor Reschny swept rebounds to the corners and took BC forwards to the boards throughout the contest.  The tie gives the dogs a point in the Hockey East standings and continues a successful streak of games without a loss against nationally ranked teams.  Now a number three settles for a scoreless tie.

Assistant Captain Brian Cummings made his presence felt early and often in this game.  Local boy Cummings, from West Roxbury, truly understands the competitive nature of these cross-town games, and he punished BC forwards wherever opportunities arose.  Once again BC's Jeff Giuliano tried to go one-on-one with number 13 and got knocked down for his troubles.  You may remember last season when Giuliano got thwacked by Cummings and fell bass-ackwards to the ice.  BC defenseman Bobby Allen also paid a heavy toll when he was demolished by Cummings late in the third period.  Allen suffered a concussion and missed the rest of the game.  The scary part is that Hockey East's worst referee, Bunyon, allowed play to continue in the BC zone around Allen.  When Allen three times tried to get to his feet only to fall over Bunyon still did not stop the play.  This is the second time this season that we here at the unofficial fan page have seen Bunny-boy allow play to continue when a player was down; last time was in Providence.  This has to stop, the health of players is just too important.  We here at the unofficial fan page like to se as many BC players get knocked down as often as possible, and if they spit out the odd tooth, all the better.  But concussions are a serious thing, and Bunyon should have stopped play much earlier to get aid to Allen.  No one wants to see a player seriously hurt.

In the first period, Chris Lynch missed the BC net by about two inches.  Late in the third, Brian Gionta shot a puck off the post of the Northeastern net that the Husky defense swept out of the way.  The best parts of this game were the nonstop shifts that lasted three and four minutes without a whistle.  Constant action up and down the ice adds to the riotous atmosphere of any college hockey game.

Kudos to the girls in section 49 for their slight alteration of those despicable yellow BC t-shirts.  "I spent 2 hours on the T and all I got was this GEA t-shirt."  "BC sucks."  And, "I spent $10 of my dad's money to buy this stupid t-shirt."  And what about the "GO DAWGS/BC SUCKS" boys at the end of the balcony?  Also, the eagle in a noose next to the DogHouse is always welcome.  To face painters everywhere, you rule.

Next the Huskies travel to Dartmouth to take on the Big Green.  The Huskies play RPI in game one of the RPI tournament in Troy, NY on December 29, 2000; game two is December 30.  The dogs next home game is Thursday, January 4, 2000, against UMass-Lowell at Historic Matthews Arena.

Let's go Huskies!