Tag Archives: Greg Cronin

Mar 19 2011

BC Stops NU Rally, Merrimack Beats UNH to Advance to Hockey East Finals

The Eagles avoided an epic collapse against NU, but do they have enough energy to beat Merrimack Saturday?

By Dan Libon

BOSTON, MA – It was another exciting night of hockey at the TD Garden. With spots in the Hockey East Finals on the line, the remaining four teams looked to gain momentum with the NCAA Frozen Four only a week away.

Boston College 5 – Northeastern University 4:

The last three meetings between these squads were epic, but incredibly close, so this game would be practically be identical to their exciting Boston Beanpot finale at the TD Garden. Despite getting ahead, 5-2, the Eagles allowed the Huskies to get back in the game, but they would hold on to win 5-4.

“I thought the game was fairly secure late in the third period,” said Boston College head coach Jerry York. “Then all of a sudden Northeastern came to life.”

The first period started out like most BC-Northeastern contest with the Eagles setting the tone early. Pat Mullane had a chance to make it 1-0 on a shorthanded chance for BC, but credit Northeastern’s Drew Daniels, who cut off the angle, as well as Chris Rawlings for making a great save. Northeastern would make it 1-0 after an early goal by Tyler McNeely, but BC would come back with a Brian Gibbons goal nearly a few minutes later.

Despite going into the intermission tied, Northeastern head coach Greg Cronin was not happy with his team’s play.

“Throughout the first period for us it was a bit ‘measured in vanilla’. It didn’t have the same jump and desperation that i thought we’d come out with particularly with the fact that we were fighting for an NCAA playoff birth,” said Cronin.

BC eventually took a 2-1 lead to start the second period thanks to a power-play goal from Kevin Hayes with the assist coming from his brother, Jimmy Hayes. Northeastern would not be down for long, as Wade MacLeod scored 25-seconds later to tie the game.

Yet, despite the momentum shift, BC would get two more goals from Steve Whitney and Tommy Cross. Whitney’s goal came after being benched for getting two quick penalties and Cross’s goal came off the power-play.

The third period started with the Huskies replacing Rawlings for back up goaltender, Clay Witt. It would not matter, as the Eagles would extend their lead to 5-2 with a power-play goal from Pat Mullane.

Northeastern would attempt a late rally, but Boston College denied any chances, as the Eagles defeated the Huskies for the second time this season the TD Garden and punched their ticket to the Hockey East finals for the second year in a row.

Merrimack College 4 – University of New Hampshire 1:

Merrimack caught a break early on in the first period after a Blake Kessel goal was overturned by video replay. After further review it was decided that UNH was offside when Kessel took his shot around the goal like.

Despite the break for Merrimack, UNH continued to control the momentum with a goal from Stevie Moses during the final minutes of the first period.Merrimack would tie the game on a 2 on 1 shorthanded breakaway goal from Ryan Flanigan off of a great pass Stephane De Costa across the slot.

Being able to sneak past two Merrimack defenders, Kessel waited too long to make a move on Merrimack’s goalie, Joe Cannata. Merrimack would instead be the one to take the lead into the intermission when Brendan Ellis gave the Warriors the lead on a slap shot just inside the blue line with 3:34 to go in the period.

It became a goaltender showdown with neither team giving up a goal going forward, as UNH goalie Mattt Di Girolamo did an excellent job of making saves during the Merrimack power-play. UNH had a couple of chances but could get anything past Merrimack goalie Stephane De Costa.

UNH did their best to tie the game in the third period, but were unsuccessful. Mike Collins gave Merrimack a 3-1, which was followed up by Elliott Sheen‘s empty net goal during the final seconds of the game.

Both Merrimack and BC will play against each other on Saturday in the Hockey East Finals. This is the first time that the Warriors have made it to the conference finals.

Feb 19 2011

Northeastern Finally Hands Boston College a loss, 2-1

By Matt Noonan

BOSTON, MA – It was the final meeting between Boston College [22-7-1,16-6-1] and Northeastern University [11-12-7, 9-8-6] men’s ice hockey teams on Saturday, but despite all the wins and loses between both squads, the Hub may have found its newest college sports rivalry or at least, four games to watch every winter.

Boston College and Boston University is the immediate answer when one thinks about college hockey in Massachusetts or collegiate rivalries in the Hub, but after watching the Eagles and Huskies push each other to the brink during three games in six days, which featured 11-periods, two overtimes and 30-points, it maybe fair to say that this was indeed some quality hockey that was on display for an entire week.

“[Tonight] was a hockey game [because] the other two nights were [awful] games,” said Boston College head coach Jerry York. “This was much more like what hockey in February should be.”

Yet, despite all the fireworks that both teams produced over a span of 96-hours, Northeastern University’s 2-1 win on Saturday should not be classified as a dramatic finish, but rather a subdued win against the Eagles.

“[It was an] extremely gutsy efforts, really proud of them for the focus and the poise they played with. Coach [Greg] Cronin [and Albie] O’Connell and myself worked hard to get them to this level and we’re very proud of them buying into the system that we as a coaching staff have come up with and its great to see them coming together right now at this time of the season,” said Northeastern assistant coach Sebastien Laplante.

The game itself didn’t feature a lot of penalties, fights or back and fourth banter between both benches, but instead, just sloppy hockey, as well as a bunch of young college students who seemed rather fatigued.

Throughout the entire first period, the Eagles spent a great deal of time in front of Chris Rawlings net; yet, they were unable to convert any of their 14-shots into points. The continuous efforts were unsuccessful, but the same could be said for the Huskies offense too that finished the period with only four shots. Their lack of shooting or offense transcended from their first period on Friday, when the Huskies only recorded three shots on Eagles goaltender John Muse and one goal.

Although, after watching a slow first period, it seemed as if the fans just wanted something to cheer about, which did happen when Brodie Reid broke the stalemate and gave the Huskies an early, 1-0 lead. Northeastern would score again, but during the final period when Braden Pimm netted an unassisted goal, which practically put the game away, until Boston College’s Cam Atkinson scored during the final few minutes.

Atkinson’s goal electrified the Matthews Arena, as the final minutes felt like the closing seconds of the 59th Annual Boston Beanpot Championship.

“[Northeastern] did a nice job in a lot of different areas,” said York. “I think its like I said before, it’s a good solid hockey team.”

The Buzzer did sound eventually and due to Boston College’s hard fought efforts, the Eagles left the ice with a loss while Northeastern celebrated the win. The Huskies not only earned their first victory against the number one team in America, but also solidified a spot in the upcoming Hockey East tournament in March.

“We clinched [the] playoffs tonight, but we’re certainly not [going] to stop right now. We want to keep going up and see we’re we can end up in the standings and get better position for the playoffs,” said Laplante.

While the “mini-playoffs” series is indeed over, it certainly is possible to believe that these particular three games will help build confidence and momentum for both squads prior to the start of the conference playoffs.

“This was like one of those playoff series. Two out of three, three out of five series, you just don’t get these very often before we get to playoff situations, so its good for both teams,” said York.