Saturday, November 11, 2006

Distaste, Displeasure, Disappointing = Defense!

Gotta say I'm disappointed. Before I get into that let me say that I thought our 'Cats played an excellent first period. They utilized a neat Weak-Side Forechecking Trap to stymie the BU offense (what little there is of such a non-existant thing) before it even got started and they played with SOME intensity. It went downhill from there.

They came out in the second lacking intensity and began playing the unsound defense that we have seen early-on this year. This of course led to that goal 10 seconds into the second for BU - on top of more sub-par goaltending on the part of Kevin Reagan. At this time let me say that if Brian Foster is not good enough to play in Div-I at this time fine, stick with Kevin - but if he is up to the task Kevin needs to be sat as he is not playing well enough for a goaltender on a team of the caliber of the UNH Wildcats.

So, more dilly-dallying play through the second - the only thing keeping BU from scoring more (seeing how much help they were getting from Benedetto - this WILL factor later on!) is their impotent offense. Finally, on the powerplay for the third time, after just missing, our determined captain, Josh Ciocco, fought-off the BU defender and buried the loose puck picked up behind BU netminder, John Curry (must say I found the "I'm Indian and Even I Think Curry Sucks!" sign somewhat humorous), after he mishandled a Jacob McFlicker shot (once again - great reporting Hockey East Online - what are you people watching!?).

In the third the game turned into a shootout. The sieves might as well never have hit the ice. In play that looked like a high-school hockey game - must have had Umile trying to pull out whatever hair he has left (sorry Coach) - the see-saw tilt was on. Culminating in the game-deciding/controlling fashion that Tim Benedetto referees a game (I think he is more responsible for the goals scored when he refs a game than either team), he calls an obvious dive a hooking call with less than 2 minutes to play. Kudos must go out to Jack Parker and the drama coach of the BU Terriers. Their dives and facing into the boards whenever playing the puck in order to invite a hit-from-behind call were the only things keeping them in the game - well, that along with our anemic defense (read goaltending as part of that). On the game-tying goal the defense collapsed allowing Kenny Roche to take his time to shoot and score his THIRD goal of the night with a BU player standing directly in front of Reagan.

The UNH penalty-marred OT is not even worth mentioning.

In all, a disappointing outing at home for the third time this year. With this kind of showing at home, I for one am not going to be paying to attend games, I'll watch from home - thanks NHPTV!

Well, at least Black Betty is back.

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