Boston University got ahead of Boston College early and never looked back, winning 5-0 in the first of three Hockey East meetings between the two schools.
The shutout for BU marks the first time the school has held its inner city rival scoreless since joining the Hockey East Association.
That fact even surprised longtime BU head coach Jack Parker.
"I never knew that," Parker said. "That means something to our team. I was pleased with the way we moved the puck tonight."
The Terriers got a goal just 54 seconds into the game from Corey Trivino, who was coming back from an injury, and that set the tone.
"He said he was 100 percent, no sweat, and I thought he was more than that," said Parker. "I thought that was his best game of the year and he's had some real good ones. If you take your first line center out of the lineup, things change drastically, it doesn't seem like one guy should make that much of a difference but he does. When you put him back in, things change drastically again, especially on the confidence side."
Later in the period, Boston College had three power-play chances in a row, but it couldn't capitalize on any of them. After the game BC head coach Jerry York said that was the biggest problem for his team, and it didn't allow them to get back into the game.
In the last minute of the first period, BU got a power play goal from Wade Megan to go up 2-0 before the first intermission. Megan also added a shorthanded goal late in the game.
"Obviously getting the first goal in a game like this is huge, so fortunately we were able to do that and we were able to build off that and we just didn't stop," said Megan. "We didn't get complacent, just kept coming at them."
York said losing the special-teams battle and letting up two power play goals and a shorthanded goal, added to the frustration for his team.
"I thought BU outworked us," York said. "Losing the special teams is a deficit that is difficult to overcome in any game, but you don't want to lose the special-team battle."
York also said the team struggled on the power play, not taking it to the net when they had the room to get closer.
"There was no attack to our mentality, especially in the first period when we moved four or five passes around the box, through the box, but we never took it to the net," York said. "I think that mentality stayed with us through the rest of the night."
BU goaltender Kieran Millan only had to make 21 saves, but was perfect behind his defense, which killed off all seven power-play opportunities the Eagles had.
"I think it's a big step for us," said Millan. "A lot of guys on our team showed a lot of maturity today, playing hard even when we were up by four or five goals. I thought that our penalty killing was phenomenal today. Our ability to block shots and limit their opportunities with all that time they had on the power play was key for us to win, and obviously making big saves at the right time really helps the team."
York hopes this game will serve as a wake-up call for his team, as it has another tough task when it heads to Notre Dame next weekend.
"It's going to be a hard challenge for us," York said. "Sometimes it's not bad to get hit right in the nose, knocked down. Nobody likes to lose but sometimes you get hit square in the jaw like this and you can benefit from it. We'll use it as a pretty good motivating force for us to get better."
For Parker, he believes this game showed a big step in the right direction for the Terriers, who have had a problem early this season with playing down to its opponents.
"We certainly played up tonight," Parker said. "I don't know why we would play down to anybody because this league is so tough. I think our team felt like a BU hockey team this weekend."
