BC TOO GOOD TO LOSE

BOSTON – Boston College is good. So good, at this point, that Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon knew his team needed to be perfect in the first game of Friday night’s Hockey East semifinals.

The Catamounts weren’t perfect – although goalie Rob Madore was pretty darn close – and the Eagles skated away with a 3-0 victory to set up Saturday’s championship tilt with Maine. It looked easy at times, too, with BC controlling the play through so much of the game that its two-goal lead through two periods might as well have been a 10-0 advantage.

Ben Smith scored a goal and was part of BC's best line in its semifinal win

“They played their hearts out,” Sneddon said of his players. “Unfortunately, we needed to be perfect tonight to beat that team. We probably would have had to play our best game of the year.”

The Eagles have been so dominant of late that Sneddon isn’t really alone with those thoughts, and Boston College steps onto the ice with such a powerful reputation that its opposition has to be at a moral disadvantage.

“I don’t know if we were in awe of their team speed or how much they were pressuring us, but we stood around and watched,” Sneddon said. “Thankfully, Rob kept us in the game. It could have been over in the first period.”

Madore made 30 saves, including 29 in the first two periods. He made 12 stops – very few that were easy – in the opening 15 minutes before Chris Kreider’s wrister finally pounded the back of the net.

The line of Kreider (one goal, one assist), Ben Smith (one goal) and Jimmy Hayes (one goal, two assists) combined for six points and was “dominant” in coach Jerry York’s eyes. The emergence of that line throughout the second half of the season has given the Eagles two of the best lines in Hockey East.

“It’s been huge for our team getting contributions from guys other than Cam Atkinson, Joe Whitney and Brian Gibbons,” Smith said in reference to BC’s top line.

The Eagles have won four in a row and are unbeaten in their last eight games (7-0-1). They’re 12-2-1 in their last 15 games, and they’re averaging 4.2 goals per clip in that stretch. They’ve scored at least five goals seven times in that span, and they’ve put up a seven-spot on three occasions.

“With our depth, I think it’s difficult for some teams to keep up with our pace, and that’s just who we have on our team,” Smith said. “We have guys who can skate from top to bottom.”

A high-octane Boston College team is certainly nothing new, but the difference this year is the group had to find new ways to score early in the season. It’s an extremely young team by BC standards, and the majority of its players had to find an identity in the first half. They cycled more and worked harder in the corners to generate offense in different ways, as it wasn’t just breakouts and stretch passes this year.

Now that they’ve come into their own, their creativity is showing with those skilled plays and odd-man rushes. But they still muck it up, and Kreider said their objective each night is to wear out their opponents by sustaining longer possessions and winning those battles low in the zone. As games move along, the Eagles’ depth takes over while their opponents are gasping for air.

“We know going in that we can hopefully post numbers,” Kreider said. “We can roll four lines. Every line has jump. Every line has goal-scoring talent. We all kind of bring it every night. We’re garnering a lot of confidence from that kind of depth.”

BIRTHDAY BOY SUITS MAINE JUST FINE

Senior goalie Dave Wilson has won less than one-third of his career starts, but he’s been brilliant three times in the last seven days and has led the Black Bears to the Hockey East title game. Wilson stopped 22 shots in Maine’s 5-2 victory against Boston University, and he had 10 saves in the third period. He dramatically robbed Ross Gaudet’s breakaway bid with less than three minutes remaining to keep the score 3-2.

Dave Wilson has become the focal point for Maine's postseason success

“I feel pretty comfortable out there,” said Wilson, who was wearing a white suit over a shiny blue shirt during Maine’s postgame news conference. “I’m just trying to have fun, really, and as long as I have fun and relax, I can make those saves.”

Wilson took over in net during last weekend’s quarterfinal series against UMass Lowell. Starter Scott Darling has been indefinitely suspended for violating a team rule, and rumors have surfaced that he’s played his last game for the Black Bears.

This isn’t the first time Wilson has been thrust into emergency duty, either. Ben Bishop suffered an injury late in the 2006-07 season, and Wilson temporarily took over – although he wasn’t overly successful during that stint. In his last three starts, however, Wilson has turned aside 71 of the 75 shots (.947 save percentage) he’s faced, and Gustav Nyquist credited Wilson’s Game 2 shutout against Lowell as the team’s signature moment of Maine’s recent resurrection.

“It’s a very pleasant surprise,” Maine coach Tim Whitehead said of Wilson’s run. “The one thing about David, he really persevered. I’m so proud of his ability to focus when we need him the most. He’s a great guy, and I’m so happy to see how he’s risen up in a very tough situation. Every game is an elimination game, and David showed so much poise and composure. You never know when someone is going to elevate. I’ve been doing this long enough to realize that sometimes guys just rise up in unexpected moments.”

PARKER HAS A FULL DOGHOUSE

Boston University coach Jack Parker was fuming after the game, referring to the 5-2 loss as “that mess we made tonight.” While wearing his championship ring at the postgame podium, Parker chewed out his team for the most recent in a string of inconsistent performances.

“Unless we had a miracle finish, we already had a perspective of what the season was about,” Parker said. “The season was about we just weren’t ready to play. We weren’t hungry enough. We were easily satisfied. What we did last weekend [against Merrimack] was up, down. We played pretty well in the first game against Merrimack, and then we did tonight what we did against Merrimack in the second night – absolutely stood around and watched them. We stood around and watched Maine tonight. We had a good game against Merrimack to get back up again.

“I think my guys are either easily satisfied or easily fooled. ‘We’re all set now. It will come to us.’ Before the game started, I said to Buddy Powers, my assistant coach, ‘It’s awful casual in here. They don’t look like they’re ready to play.’ Ordinarily, I would say I’d be flabbergasted if a BU hockey team wasn’t ready to play one game to get to the finals to get to the national tournament. I’d be flabbergasted at that. But not this team. I’m not surprised at it. This has been a long season of that type of stuff – almost good enough, ‘OK, we’re all set now. We’re back on our game.’

“This team underachieved all year long, and that falls on my hand more than anybody else. This team should have had a better record than they had. This team, we should have gotten more out of a lot of players. We had maybe three players who played up to or better than their capabilities this year. And that’s not even close. That’s the opposite of what we had last year.

“I remember I was talking to Jerry York in this building last year at the Beanpot. They had just finished the consolation game, and we were going out to play the championship game. They won, and we were talking for a minute. He said, ‘This is the worst year. It’s a real tough year for us. We’re having a hard time. It’s been awful for the coaching staff and the players. We just have not been able to get over the fact that we won the nationals last year. We really are full of ourselves,’ and he kept going on for awhile. I said, ‘Jerry, are you listening to yourself? Let me tell you something. I’d have a year like that if you give me the national championship. Give me the national championship, and I’ll take a year like that.’ Well, if I made that pact with the devil, I’ve been trying to get out of that contract all year this year. I could not get out of it.

“As exhilarating as last year was, this was like pulling teeth this year. Jerry called the same thing last year. This team was satisfied that they won the national championship. They couldn’t duplicate.”

SEEN AND HEARD AT THE TD GARDEN

• A lot of yellow. Attendance was poor.

• Maine senior goalie Dave Wilson celebrated his 25th birthday Friday. Next year, he’ll be a freshman quarterback at Boston College.

• Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon’s biggest complaint was his team’s lack of physicality. “I thought we played pond hockey in the [first] period,” he said. “We didn’t make them pay for ice at all.”

• Sneddon said the toughest part about losing was the uncertainty of whether or not he’d be addressing his team for the final time. They’re in NCAA limbo, and asked if he could rate UVM’s tourney chances, Sneddon laughed and replied, “Not a chance.”

• Maine sophomore Tanner House took a slap shot in the first period that was so hard the deflected puck flew high over the protective net and into the restaurant at the top of the first level of the concourse. Don’t blame the chef for that bland burger. In this case, it really was a puck.

• UVM senior Colin Vock on his breakaway with one minute remaining in the second period: “I probably should have shot it, but I tried pulling it to my backhand across … and [BC goalie John] Muse stood up pretty well.”

• The crowd for the late game had a lot more jump, but it still wasn’t much to write home about.

• Fans were ready to riot while the officials reviewed Vinny Saponari’s disputable goal with 3:47 remaining in the third period of the late game. The game was delayed for 10 minutes because the replay official was having a difficult time receiving the correct camera angles from the truck, according to Hockey East. After that, they needed to review whether or not the whistle blew prior to the goal and then if the puck crossed the line.

• The Maine fans sang “Happy Birthday” to Dave Wilson during a different review with 27 seconds remaining in the third period.

PLUSSES AND MINUSES

Gustav Nyquist’s no-goal in the second period confused just about everyone in the building. It was waved off due to a high stick, but it still went to review. The PA announcer’s eventual explanation caused Maine fans to cheer and the scoreboard operator to mark an extra tally for the Black Bears. Then, during the same PA explanation, it became clear there was no goal. Shortly after, the press level announcer called out Nyquist’s goal and Ryan Hegarty’s assist before pausing for a few seconds and asking for a mea culpa.

That gaffe was definitely too much for the press level announcer to overcome. After the second period of the late game, he announced Saturday night would mark the sixth time Boston College and Maine will play for the Hockey East championship. Maybe just working off an assumption? Not so much. Next, the man behind the mike announced this was the third shutout of Dave Wilson’s career.

He then poked fun at himself a few minutes later, saying, “Shot totals after the SECOND period…”

INCH’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT

3. Joey Diamond, Maine – He’s got the name of a recording artist, and he’s from Long Beach, N.Y., to boot. More importantly, Diamond scored a beautiful goal to give Maine a 1-0 lead, deking BU goalie Kieran Millan, reaching back toward the front of the net and sliding the puck home with the backhand.

2. Dave Wilson, Maine - He was rock solid, and stopping Ross Gaudet’s breakaway chance with a 3-2 lead sealed the deal. But Wilson is going to need an epic performance to keep the Eagles at bay Saturday.

1. Chris Kreider, Boston College - His first-period wrister finally cracked a sturdy Rob Madore, and Kreider’s no-look, behind-the-back pass set up Jimmy Hayes’ put-away goal in the third. That line was unstoppable against Vermont.

WHAT’S NEXT

Boston College is 8-5 in Hockey East title games and last won in 2008, while Maine is 5-7 and took its last crown in 2004. BC is 3-2 all-time against Maine in the Hockey East championship, and Maine claimed the last meeting with a 2-1 victory in 2000. The Eagles were 2-0-1 against Maine this season.

Vermont has a very slim chance to squeak into the NCAA Tournament, but BU’s season is over.