Paul Dainton (photo by Karen Winger)

Well I have to hand it to the UMass hockey team.  They have been reeling this month and had to go play one of the hottest teams in all of hockey that had beaten their previous two opponents by a combined score of 14-1.  Yet, UMass travelled east and went toe-to-toe with them before falling just short in overtime.  While there are really no moral victories in hockey, especially this late in the season when every point is so important, it was very satisfying to see that this team decided not to mail it in for the balance of the schedule.  Yesterday I asked if they would be able to play if only motivated by pride and I think we saw that they will.

The game featured a brilliant goaltender duel between Paul Dainton and Parker Milner, both of whom made some spectacular saves to keep the goals at one apiece for regulation.  In the end it was a couple of the talented BC freshmen, Pat Mullane and Chris Kreider, that were able to be difference makers in the game as they flew into the UMass zone with Kreider putting home the game-winner. 

Dainton and the defense certainly came to play and were able to limit BC’s chances and then make big plays when needed.  The offense still had trouble getting on the board but I thought looked improved compared to the last 10 games or so.  James Marcou looked close to his old self, though I wish he’d still look to shoot a little more right now with those around him struggling.  Casey Wellman still looks very disconnected from the rest of the offense and I’m not sure what it’s going to take to get him going again.  Guys like T.J. Syner, Will Ortiz, and Danny Hobbs all had very strong games on offense.  And of course I have to mention the offensive star of the game, Brett Watson, who scored his first goal in the last 82 games.  Toot Cahoon experimented with Justin Braun at forward on the power play with Marcou and Wellman.  I thought it created some good chances and hopefully will be used next weekend.

Unfortunately the late goal for BC wasn’t the only bad break for UMass.  Every other result in Hockey East last night hurt the Minutemen’s chances to make the playoffs.  Lowell’s win over Providence puts them two points ahead of UMass and into a fourth place tie with BU and Northeastern, which got one point last night.  Merrimack’s win over Maine leap-frogged them over the Minutemen and into 7th place.  UVM’s drubbing of BU pulled them into a tie with UMass for 8th place.  UMass owns the tie-breaker with the Catamounts.  The problem is every team in the league save for BC have a game in hand on UMass which will be idle tonight and tomorrow.  UMass really needs Maine to beat Merrimack tonight and BU to take out UVM tomorrow afternoon.  Both those team will have to do so in the other teams’ arenas however.

Another year, another episode of scoreboard watching just to make the Hockey East playoffs.  How disappointing.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Paul Dainton
Watson made a strong case for the POTG with a rare goal, but if it weren’t for the play of Dainton, Brett’s score may have just been a lone goal in a dominating BC win.  Dainton came up with big saves throughout, especially in a 10 minute stretch in the first when the Eagles were controlling play and made a bid to break the game open early.  Dainton’s 31 save effort was his best game in a couple months.

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Dick Baker of the Republican calls the game a heartbreaker.

The bottom line is a loss is a loss according to Toot in the Gazette recap.

Here’s the game story from USCHO.

The Herald has a game story focused on the BC win. 4,827 at Conte last night?  Riiiiiiiiiiight…..