UND vs. Boston College Game React

These are some things that jumped out at me about the UND/BC game and the CSTV coverage:

Dave Starman knows his college hockey.

BC’s skated five forwards on its first power play unit.

It’s a little early for Boston College fans to be chanting “Myoooooooose” every time Eagles’ freshman goaltender John Muse touches the puck.

Derrick LaPoint looks right at home on the power play, and his slap shot from the point is on target more times than not.

The CSTV announcers stated that Robbie Bina will be a pro next year. I’m not certain of that.

Using “NoDak” as a term to describe North Dakota has to go. UND is fine. ND is ok, but a bit confusing (Notre Dame). NoDak is right out.

I don’t know why it’s surprising that UND recruits in Canada, but the announcers made mention of it yet again on Friday night. It was said that half of the Eagles’ roster was made up of players from Boston, while half of North Dakota’s was made up of Canadian players. Let’s see, where should we recruit? Montana? South Dakota? Minnesota? Yes, there are five Minnesota players on UND’s roster, but with 5 Division I teams in the state of Minnesota, we’ve got to look north of the border, too. Oh, and by the way, there are four North Dakota natives on the Fighting Sioux roster. With our population, that’s not too bad.

The team benches were on opposite sides of the rink from each other. I’m not sure how often I’ve seen that.

After one period, shots were 11-11. It was a tale of two halves, as UND really didn’t get going until the midway point. BC was winning the majority of the draws (16-10), a trend that would continue in the second period. Oshie, Kaip, VandeVelde, and Zajac normally don’t lose the face-off battle.

Ah, yes, the second power outage. With just over a minute gone in the second period, the lights go off. For 22 minutes. The weather outside created what officials described as a “perfect storm”. 71 degrees, 100% humidity, and rain, combined with a packed building which does not have air conditioning, created fog on the ice. At times in the second, from the ice level cameras, the viewer could not see the bottom half of the players.

Lamoureux was compared to Mike Richter during this telecast. I’m not sure about that, either.

With 7 minutes to play, we almost had another “Bina goal”. While playing short-handed, a BC player cleared the puck from his own circle and Lamoureux never saw it through the fog. Luckily, it skipped and went wide of the net.

Shots ended up 28-24 in UND’s favor, although face-offs favored BC, 31-22.

With those ice and weather conditions, I’m happy the game ended in a tie. In other words, for as evenly matched as the two teams were, this was the best possible outcome. It would have been a shame for a fluky goal through the fog to decide this contest.

Last question mark of the night: why did the Eagles circle up at center ice and give a stick salute to their fans after a two-period, 0-0 draw?

Thanks for reading. As always, I welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions.