Boston College's Season Ends in Albany, Falling to St. Cloud 4-1
The second period was a horror show for the Boston College Eagles, as they allowed three goals, and never responded, losing to St. Cloud in the NCAA Semi-Finals 4-1. BC scored one goal, a first period goal by Matt Boldy, but that was it for the Eagles. Spencer Knight made 32 saves in the loss.
St. Cloud dominated the final two periods, even after they lost their leading scorer Easton Brodzinski to an injury early in the game. Luke Jaycox smashed home a rebound off a Zack Okabe shot past Knight in the second, followed up by Will Hammer slamming home a rebounder shortly after. The play of the game however was a goal at the end of the second period. Nolan Walker crashed into Knight, and the puck slipped through, which was originally called goalie interference and a two minute minor. However, after instant replay, the play was overturned when video evidence clearly showed the puck crossing the line before contact was made. After that goal, the Eagles were down two, but it felt like much more. The Huskies added an empty netter to seal the win, and earn their second trip to the Frozen Four.
The big issue tonight was the forechecking and neutral zone domination by St. Cloud. The Huskies used a diamond shaped formation that confounded BC's speedier skaters and wouldn't allow any clean looks. BC was forced to try and dump it in, but never got control of the puck which almost consistently was just cleared out. St. Cloud's finished the game with 16 blocked shots.
This was a tough way to end the season for the Eagles, but like the Lowell game this exposed a flaw in the team. Both Lowell and St. Cloud's did an excellent job mucking up the game, and playing a more physical brand of hockey that Boston College had no answer to. While Lowell was relatively good at this, St. Cloud's defense was elite and exposed the Eagles.
BC Bulletin will have further analysis of this season later this week.