ESPN College Sports

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Shock and awe.

Boston College, the No. 1 overall seed in the 2005 NCAA Hockey Tournament, was nearly the recipient of the former, and little Mercyhurst College provided plenty of the latter for everyone inside the DCU Center with its play in the opening game at the East Regional.

The Eagles (26-6-7) advanced to Saturday night's regional final against North Dakota with a 5-4 win, but all anyone could talk about afterward was the play of the Atlantic Hockey champion Lakers (18-16-4) — especially goalie Mike Ella.

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The sophomore found his way into the lineup late in the regular season and ripped off eight straight wins for Mercyhurst heading into the national tournament. He nearly stole No. 9 with his play on Friday night.

Ella faced 11 BC power plays and finished with a career-high 52 saves, which tied him for third most saves in a regulation NCAA tournament game.

"I'm happy and disappointed at the same time," said Ella, who missed 51 seconds late in the third period when his legs cramped up. "It's a positive because we could play with them and make a game of it and almost win it at the end."

It was the Lakers' play at the beginning of the game that set the stage for the near-miracle.

Just 27 seconds into the game Matt Warren found David Wrigley on a two-on-one and Mercyhurst had a lightning-quick 1-0 lead.

"Most people don't think we have a good league," Wrigley said. "But we came out and played really hard and we have skills and guys that can play somewhere else someday."

BC tied it two minutes later, but the Lakers wouldn't go away. They took a 2-1 lead before the Eagles tied it again and eventually took a 3-2 lead after one period.

"We hadn't seen Mercyhurst before other than watching some game film," a somewhat stunned BC captain Ryan Shannon said. "We didn't know what to expect and I guess we got a little bit jittery."

The two teams traded two goals each in the second for what turned out to be the final margin, but Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin was thrilled to be down by just one heading into the last period.

"We really just wanted to be in it come the third period," he said. "I told the guys in the dressing room that this is what we wanted. Score one more goal and keep them down and maybe we can make history for our conference.

"The longer it went without getting blown open, then we knew we had a chance," he said.

The Lakers' best chance came late in the third when T.J. Kemp got behind the BC defense coming out of the penalty box and forced Eagles goalie Cory Schneider (18 saves) to make his best save of the night on a clean breakaway.

Mercyhurst had a few more late chances but in the end couldn't overcome a 58-22 shot disadvantage and ran out of time against the No. 1 Eagles.

"We clearly had a tiger by the tail for a while," Gotkin said. "I'm disappointed that we didn't pull off the miracle, but I think it's just a matter of time before an Atlantic Hockey team knocks off a top team in a big tournament like this."

Boston College, which only gave up four goals one other time this season, was very fortunate it wasn't the first victim.

"The whole concept in these tournaments is that you win and advance," BC coach Jerry York said. "It doesn't have to be pretty. When you play the brand-name schools your focus is a little sharper. We prepared hard for Mercyhurst, but maybe we were thinking of the 1 vs. 16 seed comparison. That's how you get upset.

"We feel very fortunate to be playing tomorrow night," he said.

To a man the Eagles players came away impressed with Mercyhurst, and several compared the Lakers' quick transition game to that of nationally ranked New Hampshire.

"They exposed our defense and created a lot of two-on-one chances," Shannon said. "They have a few guys on their team that can fly. Maybe there isn't much skill difference between their players and ours."

Considering the expectation coming into the game, that was the most shocking statement of all.

David Albright is a senior editor at ESPN.com and can be reached at david.albright@espn3.com.