Story of the weekend:

UNH 5, BC 2. Lame.

Molly Schaus got pulled for, I believe, the first time in her career, after BC fell behind 4-1. Backup goalie Keira Kingston did a solid job and BC played hard in front of her, but were unable to pull themselves back into it. Meghan Fardelmann and Danielle Welch scored for BC; Kelly Paton potted three for UNH.

Meanwhile, the men somehow tied awful, awful Providence. Not a good night.

Huge home basketball game tomorrow night in front of what will probably be a packed house. It's a big chance for them to make a splash and regain the 'fan momentum' they lost right after the UNC game. I hear people talking hoops around campus again for the first time in two years. A win tomorrow, and that will only intensify.

UNH women's hockey drops BC 4-2

The Whitt hex continues. If I have time I'll recap tomorrow.

Good Lord

3rd Period Penalty Summary

Team ME 2.Too Many Players 04:06 PP

Dimmen, Jeff ME 2.Tripping 04:09 PP

Dimmen, Jeff ME 2.Roughing 09:26

Brock Bradford BC 2.Roughing 09:26

Orsini, Keif ME 2.Roughing 09:26

Benn Ferriero BC 2.Roughing 09:26

Benn Ferriero BC 2.Cross-Checking 09:26 PP

Benn Ferriero BC 2.Grasping The Facem 09:26 PP

Hahn, Chris ME 5.Hitting From Behind 09:41

Hahn, Chris ME 10.Game Misconduct 09:41

Nick Petrecki BC 5.Head-Butting 18:06

Nick Petrecki BC 10.Disqualification 18:06

Orsini, Keif ME 5.High Sticking 18:06

Nick Petrecki BC 2.Roughing 18:06 PP

"They have beaten them, and tonight, they have beaten them up!"

I'm glad to see that Maine has successfully devolved from talented hacks to no-talent hacks a la Merrimack or Canisius. 

All of Maine's hackery stemmed from two things - their continued failure, and Brian Gibbons' very clean and very awesome open ice hit with about ten minutes left in the game. That hit from behind on Hayes was absolutely awful and deserved a game DQ.

BC was doing a very good job taking the high road, but I'm actually glad Petrecki messed that guy up. It wasn't necessarily the smartest way to do it, as he's sure to get suspended, but whatever... the Zidane-like headbutt was legendary. 

SWEEP! I hope Maine enjoys the long ride home.

Oh... and BC women's hockey dropped Vermont 5-0 - meaning BC athletics went 9-0 this week. Nice.

"They have beaten them, and tonight, they have beaten them up!"

I'm glad to see that Maine has successfully devolved from talented hacks to no-talent hacks a la Merrimack or Canisius. 

All of Maine's hackery stemmed from two things - their continued failure, and Brian Gibbons' very clean and very awesome open ice hit with about ten minutes left in the game. That hit from behind on Hayes was absolutely awful and deserved a game DQ.

BC was doing a very good job taking the high road, but I'm actually glad Petrecki messed that guy up. It wasn't necessarily the smartest way to do it, as he's sure to get suspended, but whatever... the Zidane-like headbutt was legendary. 

SWEEP! I hope Maine enjoys the long ride home.

BC 6 Maine 3 - That was fun!

Yeah, it was just one win, and it was just Maine, but that was a really fun night -

Fun to finally get a win in Conte for the first time since November.

Fun to see: 
-Lyles play and contribute;
-Petrecki play quite possibly his best game of the year - he destroyed a few people at very opportune times and was great carrying the puck;
-Whitney and Ferriero get it going;
-Fast, aggressive, high-flying BC hockey;
-Lombardi score a goal - who works harder than that guy?
-A pretty energetic and full student section;
-Good special teams play.

A few little letups right after goals kept Maine in it, but beyond that BC controlled the game. I thought the 3rd period was particularly masterful. They came out and got their goal to go up 6-3, then played a sound defensive game the rest of the way and never really let Maine get any good chances in the final frame.

Solid B+/A- performance [defense needs a little tightening, but I'm NOT complaining about the overall team effort tonight at all!] - gotta get the sweep this afternoon.

AND - with basketball's win over NC State and women's hockey's 5-0 win @ Vermont, BC athletics moves to 7-0 this week. Men's & Women's Hockey can make us 9-0 tomorrow.

RIP Kay Yow

Best wishes to the NC State community as WBB head coach Kay Yow has passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. Her inspiration has led to thousands if not millions of dollars raised for breast cancer awareness and her legacy will live on in the ACC family.

Donate

Fired up

BC's win over NJIT on Wednesday was nothing to write home about, but a 20 point blowout win over Clemson is. Brittany Johnson and Jaclyn Thoman were assist machines, while Carolyn Swords looked completely unstoppable on the inside, netting 29 points. BC is now 16-4 (4-1 ACC).

I realize blogging here as been pretty spotty lately. I've been busy getting into the groove of the new semester. Plus, I've been doing a lot of writing for EagleInsider.com, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to balance that with the blogging. Once I get further into the semester, I'll post more pictures, previews, rankings, etc.

Big day tomorrow - men's basketball + hockey at home, while women's hockey plays at Vermont.

3-0 on the week?!?!

Suddenly, BC athletics is having a very good week. At 15-4, the exciting, up-tempo women's basketball team appears on the road to an NCAA tournament berth.

BC women's basketball throttled NJIT tonight, 78-50. The game was close at halftime - 29-26 BC - but the Eagles exploded in the 2nd half to blow out an inferior opponent. Basically, they did what they're supposed to do.

BC's up-tempo offense was effective right 'til the very end, and Crawley emptied the bench, allowing Pratt (8 points) and Rusin (7) to shine. The freshmen also got substantial playing time.

Picco extended her 3-pointer streak to 28 games, scoring 13 on the night. Murphy (15 pts) was 6-for-6 from the field and 3-for-3 from the line.

The drought ends

Although I certainly wish BC hadn't turned it into a heart attack game, tonight's OT victory over Georgia Tech for men's basketball was Chicken Soup for the BC Fan's Soul. 

Finally, the long drought is over. A win at home over a mediocre NC State team, and suddenly we're 3-3 in the ACC.

The best thing about tonight's win was the heart and effort displayed in pulling it out. Three guys fouled out, and BC blew a big lead late; last year, they would have folded the tent. But tonight, they stood tall. Well done, BC.

Does the drought end tonight?

January 4. That's the last time the BC men's basketball or hockey team won a game. The Conte drought is even longer - back to Dec. 31. The hockey team's drought goes all the way back to November 30, with the last Conte win coming on November 28.

Simply put the marquee BC athletic programs need to put some wins together, and it has to start with a win tonight for the basketball team @ Georgia Tech. Let's hope...

I feel like I should go to jail

...because I just witnessed a violent crime and didn't report it to the police. Nobody cried for help, either.

BC was just absolutely bludgeoned by BU. The final score was 5-2, but that does not adequately describe BU's complete domination of the game.

Ouch.

What else is there to say?

Ouch.

The hits just keep on coming

There are not a lot of good things to say about tonight's pile of dung at Conte Forum, but I'll try to name them all:

-Nobody got hurt.

-Kyle Kucharski and Andrew Orpik continue to be outstanding

-Brock Bradford is also still a serious Hobey candidate; he scored his 15th goal of the season tonight

-There was no fog.

But that's about it.

That game was all sorts of awful. It had to be one of the most boring events in Conte Forum history, for starters; no small feat for a building that's hosted freshman convocations, Church in the 21st Century lectures, scholarship dinners, and Al Skinner's flex offense against powerhouse non-conference foes like Bryant and SC-Upstate.

BC continues to play uninspired, undisciplined hockey. I'd get pissed off and worried about it, but the last three years obviously lead me to believe that BC can and will turn it around before the season is over.

But this gives me two thoughts, neither of them particularly good:

1) Why should we even bother buying tickets for games prior to mid-February if they're just glorified practice sessions? is it worth the emotional investment? and;

2) will there eventually come a time when they try to 'turn on the switch' and it just doesn't go on? Can they really do this every year?

Tomorrow, BC heads into Agganis for about as tough as game as they could possibly have at this point in the season. In '07, a road game at Agganis after a long slump helped provide the spark that fueled BC's late run to the Frozen Four; can they find some Agganis magic again?

I sure hope so, or else it won't be much fun to be in the stands tomorrow night.

Slumping BC @ red-hot BU, in front of 6,000 frenzied fans. Knowing BC hockey, it could well be a recipe for success.

Pics from the Cathedral of College Hockey

First, WHEA standings update:

1. BC [8-3-1, 17 pts.]

2. UConn [7-4-0, 14 pts.]

---first round bye---

3. Providence [6-2-1, 13 pts.]

4. UNH [5-2-3, 13 pts.]

--home ice in quarterfinals--

5. BU [6-4-0, 12 pts.]

6. NU [5-4-0, 10 pts.]

---in the conference tournament---

7. Vermont [2-7-0, 4 pts.]

8. Maine [1-7-1, 3 pts.]

Stack beats Schelling - 1-0 BC

Restuccia makes it 2-0

Molly Schaus

PENALTY SHOT!!!!



Thunstrom puts the game away, 4-2:



Photos courtesy of Mike Lee.

A few non-hockey notes

Between the women's team's season sweep of Northeastern and the men's team's huge upcoming weekend vs. Lowell and BU, there's a lot of hockey to discuss... but there were some noteworthy events off the ice on Thursday.

Paul Gersterberger of the men's soccer team was selected by the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew in the 2nd round of the MLS SuperDraft; as far as I know, he will be the only BC alum in MLS. He was a great defender and a very good free kick taker during his time at BC and I enjoyed the chances I got to watch him play.

In bad news, the women's basketball team dropped a tough one on the road to a good Wake Forest team, 52-48. It was there for the taking for BC, but 26 (!) turnovers did them in - a bad repeat of some of the team's woes from last year. They also shot just 28.8%. The loss drops BC to 13-4 (2-1 ACC). They return to action on Sunday when they host Clemson at Conte Forum.

Swiss cheese

Boston College women's hockey downed Northeastern and their Swiss sensation goalie, Florence Schelling, 4-2 tonight at Matthews Arena. Restuccia potted two goals for BC while Thunstrom and Stack each had one.

Game review:

Restuccia = Player of the game in my book. Wow, she was awesome today - she had one of the best games by any BC player all year. She reminds me of David Krejci from the Bruins, the way she always comes away with the puck and makes such smart passes. She might have the highest hockey IQ of anyone on the team. Can't say enough about her effort.

The defense was suspect for a stretch in the 2nd in which NU scored their goals. A few really bad breakdowns, but that's to be expected - there's going to be an adjustment period as Johnson and Baskin work their way back from pretty tough injuries. It's amazing to see Johnson back out there -- I guess that means she's way tougher than Tom Brady.  

Really unfortunate to see Fardelmann get thrown out, but it was the right call. No malicious intent, but certainly a hit from behind that deserved the major.

Both teams got away with lots of hits and stickwork, as is often the case w/ Doiron - as long as you expect it and it's fair for both teams, no big deal.

Northeastern needs to stick with Sulyma in big games. Schelling is obviously a good goalie, but every time I've seen Sulyma against BC she's been absolutely unbelievable. Schelling let in two softies today and almost had another trickle thru her pads and in on a dump in from the blue line. Luckily for her, it hit the post. Would have been Toskala-esque.

It was not nearly as inspiring as the SLU game, of course, but it's all about going on the road and getting results. At this point of the season, style points matter even less.

Random question

Anyone know when/if we're actually ever getting a new baseball stadium?

I thought of this when reading a French assignment that mentioned 'jouer au baseball.'

Yeah, my mind is weird.

Anyone have any information on that?

No real complaints...

...about the show put on in the 2nd half by BC. At the start of the half I turned to my friends and said I don't expect BC to win, and I don't really care - I just want to see them give the people here a reason to want to come back next game. I think they did that in the 2nd half. Good hustle, good D, and Biko Paris provided a nice spark off the bench [WHY wasn't he playing in the first?]. 

At 16:30 of the 2nd I was pretty much ready to take off, but by the end of the game I was hopeful for some entertaining games in the future. Wake's a very talented team and there's no shame in losing to them, I just wish BC played as well in the first half.

The offense is predictable and boring, but that's not really the team's fault.

The fans were great when the team's effort gave them reason to be - pretty much every part of the crowd except for the diehard handsitters in the DBS area on the ticket office side. Fun to see some energy tonight. Let's hope we see it for 40 next time.

A couple winnable games here on the road... 3-3 would be nice going into the NC State home game.

Smitten

Spaz is the man, you all know that because I wrote about it on EagleInsider. Read all about it in posts by people smarter than me.

Now for an off topic posting of joy:

Seriously, I am just completely ecstatic right now because the Boston Bruins are amazing, and they just punk'd the Montreal Canadiens again. It was an incredible game and a thrilling 3-1 victory for the black and gold against the world's most loathsome professonal sports franchise.

VIDEO DUMP!

Watch here as Tim Thomas drops Andrei Kostitsyn like the bag of sh*t that he is after Kostitsyn cheap shots Aaron Ward - who appeared to be a bit shaken up and skating slowly on that shift BEFORE Kostitsyn decided to deliver an illegal blow. Kostitsyn got 5 minutes in the box, which later resulted in a B's power play which Zdeno Chara scored on. Thomas got 2 minutes, well worth it.

Now enjoy a fine example of "rough stuff" from the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs usually do their damage in cheap little wussy 5th grade schoolyard maneuvers, but sometimes they actually do face up and drop the gloves. Then, we learn why they generally resort to the little girl tactics: they usually embarrass themselves pretty badly in fights. Mike Komisarek, who is often praised for his 'toughness' and willingness to drop the gloves, had his face rearranged by Milan Lucic earlier this year and I love the excuse to re-post it:

Tonight, Chipchura decided to drop the gloves against Mark Stuart. Blake Wheeler flattened a Hab player with an admittedly questionable hit [although D'Agostino helped it along with a nice little belly flop] and Chipchura came to his teammate's defense... by fighting wearing a visor. What a tough guy! Stuart pounds on him anyway, and eventually succeeds in popping the helmet off. Then, watch what happens to the tough Mr. Chipchura. Literally seconds after the helmet comes off, he burrows into the glass and turns away from Stuart, and toward the linesman for assistance. It's almost as if I made this stuff up in my mind, how stereotypical Hab wuss it is. Fight with a visor on, then duck and cover as soon as it comes off. Amazing.

EPIC.

I need to find videos of the goals as soon as they're posted... a thunderbolt by Chara and a sweet Ryder-to-Krejci beauty were the highlights.

Bruins - Kessel - Sturm - Bergeron - Lucic - Fernandez > Canadiens... and the rest of the East in general.

Loving this team right now, which is very welcome since BC winter sports are a bit disappointing at the moment.

Poll day is a good one for BC women

The polls today are pretty depressing for the flagship programs, as men's hockey slipped out of the top 10 for the first time (#12) and the men's basketball team's quick stay in the top 25 is over.

There was good news, however: the women's basketball team is 'also receiving votes' for the second time this year after a strong 2-0 start in ACC play, and the women's hockey team passed UNH to move into 6th in the USCHO poll.

According to this website's projection, the women's hockey team sits 5th in RPI - the primary component of the Pairwise Rankings that elect the NCAA tournament field. This is critical, as the 6th, 7th and 8th place teams are likely to earn flights out west to face one of Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Minnesota-Duluth, the standard bearers of women's college hockey.

Women's hockey earns split @ SLU

Story at EagleInsider.com

We also saw the St. Lawrence men absolutely roll Clarkson, 5-1. It was pretty disappointing, as I was expecting a great game.

Nap time.

...and the men tie Vermont, 3-3

A tie on the road at #12 Vermont isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but the way BC let the win out of their grasp makes this crappy week even worse. The Eagles led 3-2 late, but Brian Gibbons took a tripping penalty with a minute left and UVM capitalized, scoring the game-tying goal with 1.1 seconds remaining.

Game two of the series is tomorrow night.

Locke, St. Lawrence top BC 4-2

Urgh. #7 BC women's hockey loses 4-2 in a tight, hard fought game with #5 St. Lawrence.

The first half of the game was a track meet, and BC showed their superior speed, with Fardelmann and Thunstrom scoring great breakaway goals. Then the game started getting physical and chippy, and BC couldn't quite make the adjustment.

Marianne Locke, the #1 star, took over the game for SLU. On a power play with 8 mins. left in the second, Locke got a rebound and roofed it over Schaus's right shoulder, the prettiest goal on a night full of very good goals. She then scored the winner on another power play in the 3rd, a rifled wrist shot from the right faceoff circle.

The game started to get VERY chippy in the third and I expect it will be a very physical rematch tomorrow. Should be interesting.

I really like SLU's Appleton Arena. At first I thought the wooden benches looked kind of dinky, but it has a very unique and intimate feel while not feeling old or rickety. It's a nice little place and it seems like it would get very loud when full - I'm looking forward to tomorrow's SLU-Clarkson men's game.

We're pretty fortunate in that we'll be watching three of the best rivalries in college hockey in three consecutive weeks: Maine-UNH last week, St. Lawrence-Clarkson this week, and BC-BU next week. Plus BC women square off against UNH the week after that. Hockey season has begun in earnest.

New Brunswick Photos, Batch 2

The joys of bilingualism

Fredericton

Fredericton, again

Lyles!

Almeida

Orpik with the move

Ceremonial puck drop

Game on

Arrived in Canton, NY

This has to be one of the crummiest places I've ever been to, and I've seen quite a few crummy places. It's also something like 9 degrees out.

Hopefully the three games I see this weekend will be good - BC vs. St. Lawrence women (x2), and St. Lawrence vs. Clarkson men, one of the best rivalries in the game.

New Brunswick photos, batch 1

Entering Canada.

Great scenery.

The intros

Underway.

Faceoff

A BC attack

Goal!

Meeting THE Jerry York.

There's only one thing to say at a time like this...

...thank God hockey re-starts tomorrow.

The men are in Vermont this weekend for a series at the Gutt, always a tricky place to play. 

The #7 women's team travels to #3 St. Lawrence for a huge top-ten battle. I'll be in Canton, NY for those two games, as well as the St. Lawrence vs. Clarkson men's game - one of the best rivalries in the sport.

The BC basketball bandwagon quickly derails

BC students and alums who don't like hockey probably should develop an affinity for it pretty soon, because it sadly appears that our two other major sports really are only good for occasional teases, followed by heartbreak and agony.

Remember the oft-ridiculed "It's called Bruins..." ad campaign? It led to many jokes with a punchline similar to "failure...it's called Bruins." I'm beginning to think that soul-sucking defeat is synonymous with BC instead of the B's. If it weren't for Jerry York we'd probably never do anything special. 

Is it bad that I'm feeling this pessimistic today? I love BC fully and 9 times out of 10 I'm an optimist... but this awful day in BC history has me wondering if we truly are fated to watch our two revenue teams continue to torture us forever.

BC basketball's very brief splash of national relevance is over and it looks like the basketball team will now join the football team as the subject of jokes from bitter local BC haters. And who can blame them? 

A loss to Harvard is simply embarrassing and unacceptable. There can be no excuses. I've already heard some fans blame the refs [whine, whine] and, astonishingly, the fans [as if it's the job of the fans to make the players have a little pride in themselves and actually show up to play every game].

They came out flat but unlike many teams that come out flat. they never recovered. It took Rice a very long time to get going. The rebounding was poor and the foul shooting was even worse. 

Say what you will about Al Skinner's program building, his game management SUCKS. His flat style is suited to letdowns like this, and we didn't start pressing until WAY, WAY too late, against a team we are far more athletic than.

I just want to put my hand through the wall right now. I'll post some New Brunswick pictures and videos tomorrow... anything to forget about football and basketball.

I leave the country and the BC sports world turns upside down

At around 6 PM this evening, I thought the most interesting thing I'd have to blog about today would be being present at UNH's exciting 5-4 victory over Maine at Alfond Arena, in which UNH scored four goals in the third period to top the Black Bears. 

Then, over the next few hours, the entire BC sports landscape changed right before our eyes.

The UNC win legitimately is a program-changer; it was probably the best regular season win in team history. It instantly gives the program the national respect and attention that it has lacked since the end of the Sean Williams era. There's a very good chance that BC vaults right into the top 20. 

While it's too early to call this a sure sign of things to come, it's hard not to get excited when Rakim Sanders and Reggie Jackson help Tyrese carry the load and bring home a victory in Tobbaco Road. The guys should be very proud.

Of course, there is also the Jags news; according to very reliable sources, he's gone. Absolutely stunning. I feel almost personally hurt and decieved, as I truly believed Jags was here for the long haul. There's no way he actually gets the Jets job... so this is all just very odd.

I'll be perfectly honest here: any way you look at it, this is going to be an EPIC FAIL for BC, perception-wise, and perception really is one of the most important things here. This is going to be viewed one of three ways:

1] BC got rid of a very good football coach [very true, in perception and reality]

2] BC overreacted to Jags' natural desire for an NFL job, the pinnacle of his profession.

3] BC got played by a slick-talker who professed his loyalty then screwed.

This is also going to reinforce the image of BC as a stepping-stone job. But let's be frank - what isn't a stepping stone job? Nick Saban says hello. Coaches are always looking out for the next offer, that's just the way it is. While I salute GDF for his courage here and hope the program can grow from this moving forward, this is going to make BC look VERY bad and will hurt recruiting unless Gene makes a huge splash with the next hire.

With that said, I'm rooting for Spaz to get the head coaching job. I feel like that's highly unlikely, though.

I'll have pictures and stories from New Brunswick and Maine either later tonight or tomorrow... for now, I'm trying to take this all in.

More from UNB

Last night, the #7 women's hockey team defeated Yale 1-0 in overtime on a Danielle Welch goal. This is a pretty solid win on the road and it gave the Eagles a four point weekend after beating Colgate on Friday.

The men's basketball team travels to UNC today. Let's hope for a miracle and/or Hansbrough going pro by 6 PM.

More from last night's BC-UNB game:

As I mentioned, Lyles looked very impressive. I understand that he probably had more incentive to play hard than some of the other guys, but he really did look like someone who's capable of stepping in and being a valuable part of the defensive corps next year. He looks very poised with the puck and makes smart decisions. He also plays a very good physical game and banged bodies with some much bigger UNB forwards. He even picked up an assist on BC's 3rd [?] goal. The only negative was that he got a penalty in the 3rd period - it was in a sequence where he and the UNB player were really going at it away from the puck and really both could have been whistled down, then Lyles reached out and held him one more time to draw the call. All in all, a very good performance for him.

Bradford and Ferriero were the two shooters in the post-game shootout; although they missed, they were both very deserving of 'all-tournament team' honors, although I think Matt Lombardi deserved some consideration because he was everywhere for BC in both games even though he wasn't on the scoresheet as much as those two.

It's really tough to judge much of anything from these games, although it's hard not to be impressed by UNB's team. Overall it's just good that a) the whole roster played and b) nobody got hurt. On to Vermont...

BC wins game, loses Challenge Cup in shootout

EPIC HOCKEY. In addition to the BC-UNB game, we watched the Bruins, two World Junior games, and the Oilers in various bars around Fredericton; sharing in this city/country's passion for the game has been so much fun.

Boston College came back strong tonight to beat the University of New Brunswick, 4-2. Tommy Atkinson scored a goal in his first BC appearance; Malcolm Lyles also impressed in his first start on defense. Kremer and Venti got in on the action as well, playing in the 2nd and 3rd periods, respectively.

UNB won the shootout, 2-0, to break the tie and win the Pete Kelley Challenge Cup. 

I'll have more to post about the game tomorrow, but for now, I'm off to bed...

Fredericton is an awesome little city and a great place to spend a weekend, and take a hockey pilgramage. Watching the epic Canada-Russia World Juniors game in a Canadian bar was a blast. Canada scored with 5 seconds left to tie the game, then won in a shootout. 

The warmth and the generosity of the people here has been amazing; they're so glad to have BC in town. I'm the proud owner of a UNB Varsity Reds game worn jersey, given to me by a UNB fan; I will be mailing him an Eagles jersey.

New Brunswick 5, BC 3

Ick. New Brunswick's Varsity Reds came to play today and it took BC a while to match their intensity. They were throwing their weight around from the beginning. 

If BC's intention was to run PK drills they did a good job.. lots of penalties on both teams tonight. The PP never really got into a rhythm, they kept up with the dump-around-the-boards play, NB did a good job defending it, and BC never really adjusted [no need to... it's an exhibition].

Muse was definitely rusty as he gave up two quick goals. Petrecki got thrown out on a boarding major, which was kind of the lowpoint of the game. 

Atkinson was flying around like he had something to prove. Definitely one of the best BC players, along with Matt Lombardi, who was named BC player of the game.

On a side note, we absolutely love it up here. Great people, beautiful little city, lots of nice bars and restaurants, and the UNB rink was sweet. Coach York was nice enough to invite our traveling party to dinner with the team postgame, which was cool.

I'll have lots of great pictures to share once I get them uploaded. Looking forward to game two.

By the way, if BC wins tomorrow, the Pete Kelley Challenge Cup will be determined by a shootout.

Live from Fredericton, NB

We've safely arrived at the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel in Fredericton. It's gorgeous [and very, very cold] up here. It turns out that the team is staying here as well, and we ran into Jerry York in the hallway; as usual, he was very classy and welcoming. I was told that the team got in yesterday and spent the day being feted by the mayor of Fredericton.

You may have heard rumors about how big World Juniors are up here. Let me tell you: the rumors don't go far enough... you'd think it was some combination of the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the return of Jesus Christ. It's on the front page of every major paper, aired in every bar, and discussed on every channel. They were just showing a re-run of the US-Canada game from the other day, and the crowd was as electric as any I've ever heard. Canada really does live for this.

We're getting set to check out the town now before heading to the rink for game one. Go Eagles!

A dubious list while I head into Canada

I'm in Falmouth, Maine this morning, getting set to drive into New Brunswick for the exhibition series between the Eagles and the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds. Being on the road has helped me avoid any discussion of the Game That Never Happened, but I've still been steaming over it internally, which led me to think of the following list: The Top 6 losses that made me sick during my time as a BC student. These aren't the most depressing or heartbreaking losses [i.e. National Championship game, ACC title games, etc.], but rather the losses that left me with a sick feeling because of how awful the loss and/or opponent was.

Enjoy:

1. Football - Music City Bowl vs. Vanderbilt - 2008

Yep, this one is the worst; it continued to stain the ACC's already horrible reputation, it broke our one small source of pride, the bowl streak, and it created some big fears about the future of our offense. I respect Vanderbilt as one of the few classy programs in the SEC, but losing to them stinks - especially in a bowl game. This one is tough to stomach.

2. Men's Hockey - vs. Northeastern, March 2008

Senior Night at Conte Forum was the penultimate game of the regular season and the start of a home-and-home with NU. The Eagles needed to step up and win at least one in order to secure home ice for the Hockey East playoffs, but they came in reeling after an 0-1-1 weekend against previously ice-cold Providence.

BC scored just nine seconds into the game, but the rest of it was miserable as Northeastern outhustled BC to every puck and won every battle along the boards. A late Mike Brennan rocket tied the game, but Northeastern dominated and broke through in overtime. After this game, I further adjusted my already low expectations - I just wanted to make it to the Garden for the Hockey East semifinals. How little I knew...

3. Men's Basketball - vs. Duquesne, December 2006

The 2005-06 basketball team should have gone to the Final Four - I maintain that to this very day - and I held out hope that the '06-'07 team could make a similar run. But the loss against an awful Duquesne team at home really put a damper on that. I do recall Duquesne coming back from a late double-digit deficit, and Sean Williams [who?] picking up a very dumb technical foul in overtime to help gift-wrap the game.

4. Football - vs. Georgia Tech, September 2008

We don't lose home games, for the most part; for all the talk about our crappy home field advantage, BC football has dominated at Alumni Stadium over the past five seasons or so. The Class of 2012 was not as lucky as '10 or '11 as their first home game was a bitterly disappointing loss to a team we expected to beat. Chris Crane's struggles poured cold water all over my theory that Crane's mobility and the return of Raji and Toal would make the '08 squad better than their '07 counterpart.

5. Women's Hockey - vs. Northeastern, December 2007

In hindsight, realizing how good Leah Sulyma is in net makes this one easier to swallow, but at the time a loss to Northeastern was very, very tough to take; it was the official sign that the '07-'08 version of the Eagles had something missing, and that the rest of the season would be difficult to watch.

6. Men's Hockey - vs. BU, December 2008

We were lucky enough to go the entire year in '07-'08 without seeing BC lose to BU, so I was able to forget how sickening it is to see a loss in a huge rivalry game. Coming on the heels of the ACC championship loss earlier that afternoon, watching BU fans celebrate all over Conte left me with a sick feeling that lingered for days. Making matters worse: the team hasn't played yet since then.