Saturday, October 18, 2008

Huskies Upset #1 Boston College



Northeastern 4, Boston College 3

What a game. I'm not particularly fond of writing game recaps, so I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to talk about how awesome that was.

First of all, I have never, never in my time at Northeastern had to wait in a line to get into a hockey game. Not only have I never had to wait in line, but I've never had to wait in a line that wrapped all the way around the arena and into the parking lot. Oh yeah, this is almost two hours before game time.

Second, I have never seen this many fans in Matthews Arena. 5407 fans in a building as old as Matthews sounds like 18000 fans in Staples Center. Every time Northeastern scored it sounded like a bomb going off. And then another bomb going off with the echo off the roof and ice. It was incredible, and even though my view of the far side ice was obscured, it's okay, because the obstruction was screaming freshmen.

Tonight was a textbook example of what happens when fans show up and make noise the whole game. NU's gamewinning fourth goal came on a bad pass intercepted by Joe Vitale and tucked fivehole. The ice was wet, the defenseman was young, and it was loud enough for him to not hear his teammate warn him that Vitale was incoming. The heat being generated by the sheer number of fans was keeping the ice from thoroughly freezing. This is what home ice advantage is all about, and I'm hoping, praying, that we get this kind of crowd for every game.

Thiessen looked shaky at the start but improved later. He made some incredibly acrobatic saves, at one point diving across the crease and punching away a puck headed towards the inside of the post. It was a game saver, and the fans cheered his name quite a few times in the third period. If Thiessen can play to his freshman level, this team will continue to steal games from "better" opponents.

With the win, the Huskies knocked off BC for the third time in their last four tries, and probably also knocked them off the top of the national polls. Northeastern, currently unranked but next in line (so, technically ranked 21st) will move up a couple spots. I'd say 17 or 18 sounds about right, but knocking off a #1 team is a big deal.

Tonight's win made this afternoon's crappy football game worth it.

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