Three teams - three stories

Friday night was the rematch from last season's national championship game between BC and ND on the ice. This time Notre Dame came out on top with the 4-1 victory (oddly the same margin as last April). Notre Dame dominated this game at times and a couple of costly errors by the usually steadfast Carl Sneep cost the Eagles two goals and probably the game. Unfortunately, that malaise they showed Friday night carried over to an afternoon tilt on Sunday against Maine. In both games, they were getting outworked and beaten to pucks. The power play was a power outage and unless Ferreiro-Gibbons-Bradford was on the ice the offense was in trouble. The five man forward power play looks more worried about giving up another shorty than about scoring. When they get aggressive and make smart plays they score (as they did for the lone goals both nights) but they weren't doing it consistently enough to take over a game. They have to right the ship quickly, as they return to Merrimack (sight of a tough 4-3 OT win on the 31st) only to return home to a similarly stagnant UNH team looking for a big win.

After the pain of Friday night, Saturday brought some much needed excitement and joy to the Rant. Mrs. Pike and I took in a Bruins contest against the Sabres (when the tickets were bought we hoped Gerbe and his 10 AHL goals might get called up and we didn't realize that the BC game was going to get moved to 8pm). The B's brought another stunning victory to the fans in attendance and it makes their sixth win in their past seven games. This team is winning with speed and toughness. I posted in this blog back during NHL free agent period that the signing of Blake Wheeler was going to be a good one for this team and so far he has proven to be as good as advertised. He may not be a superstar but the kid has size, speed, and a nice touch (see his 2nd goal against Toronto and look at the patience to wait out Toskala). He adds another nice boost to a good young core with Kobasew, Kessel, Krejci, & Lucic. It did my BC heart good to see Kobasew out there thrown his weight around and picking up a goal and assist as well. There is excitement around this team that has carried over nicely from last year and if they can stay healthy they can make some serious noise in the league this year.

Though I was not able to watch the entire contest, after the B's game I was able to get home to catch the end of the BC/ND football game (as well as catch some of Texas Tech v. OSU - damn Graham Harrell & Michael Crabtree are good!). For the sixth straight time, Notre Dame has lost to BC and it has now pulled the series even at 9 wins a piece. In a rivalry that was decidedly one-sided until 1993, BC has twice beaten the Irish when they were undefeated late in the year and beaten them both in Chestnut Hill and in South Bend. Maybe Irish fans didn't care so much in the past but one would think they might start caring now. Poor Jimmy Clausen looked like Ron Paulus in 1994 when Mike Mamula and Stephen Boyd decided to make him very familiar with the turf at Alumni Stadium. This time it was the pressure of BJ Raji and Ron Brace which eliminated the rushing game and caused Clausen to make poor decisions which lead to 4 interceptions. The Eagles came away with their third shut out of the season, a solid victory against a rival opponent, and bowl eligibility. I think they need one more win to lock up their 9th straight bowl invitation and with remaining games against Florida State, Wake Forest, & Maryland there is a victory or two to be had. If they can just get a decent kicker and some consistent offense they might even win that bowl game.