CHESTNUT HILL - Chris Kreider recorded three points as the Boston College Eagles steamrolled the Maine Black Bears, 5-1, on Friday night at Kelley Rink inside Conte Forum.
BC improved to 8-1-0 overall and a perfect 6-0-0 in Hockey East action. The Eagles, who picked up their 59th all-time victory over the Black Bears in 108 meetings, outshot Maine, 27-21, and really played a strong all-around game.
"I thought it was our most solid game we've had in a long time as far as our just structure to our game," said longtime Eagles head coach Jerry York. "We've been giving up, as we noted last few weekends, a lot of shots on goal, but I thought tonight our structure and our just defense was much better."
Kreider's shorthanded goal on a breakaway, his seventh of the season (assisted by Patch Alber (4)), put the Eagles on top at 11:33 in the opening period and Kevin Hayes potted his third goal of the 2011-12 campaign on a power play, assisted by Bill Arnold (7) and Kreider (6) at 13:26 of the period, giving BC a 2-0 lead after one period.
Arnold scored his seventh goal, even strength, 28 seconds into the second period on an assist from Kreider (7), but Maine responded with its first and only goal of the game one minute later as Jon Swavely netted his second score of the season, cutting the Boston College lead the 3-1.
Steven Whitney lit the lamp for the fifth time this season at 2:16 in the middle period (assisted by Pat Mullane (9) and Johnny Gaudreau (5)) and Barry Almeida scored on a power play at 10:14 of the second period, assisted by Whitney (6), to give the Eagles their final goal.
Dan Sullivan managed only eight saves on 12 shots and was yanked from the game after 22:16. Martin Ouellette finished the game and recorded 14 saves in nearly 38 minutes for Maine.
Parker Milner was stellar for Boston College, turning away 20 of 21 shots he faced and nine in the third period to claim his seventh win of 2011 and his 20th career victory for the Eagles.
"Parker controlled his rebounds so much better this evening," said York. "Last week, pucks were hitting him and were bouncing back into the red zone area right around the blue paint, and he worked all week with that aspect, tried to be a little bit softer, catch more pucks. We didn't give up the rebounds we have been giving up. Parker deserves a lot of credit for that improvement in his game."
Boston College heads on the road to take on the UMass Minutemen on Saturday night.
For more Boston College hockey coverage, visit our team blog, BC Interruption.