Despite teetering on the brink of hockey overload, I have to admit there's nothing quite like the NCAA playoffs. Saturday night's Northeast Regional semifinals were another great example. Here's the recap, done for ESPNBoston.com ...
Eagles advance to Northeast finals, to face Yale
WORCESTER, Mass. – If this keeps up, the Ballad of the Unsung Hero may soon rival that of Doug Flutie and the Hail Mary Pass in the annals of Boston College folklore.
On Saturday, BC's Matt Lombardi reprised that role (photo at right, by Melissa Wade), while freshman Pat Mullane added his name to an ever-expanding list of role players rising to the occasion as the Eagles edged a resilient Alaska Nanooks squad, 3-1, in the Northeast Regional semifinals.
"Our team was in a terrific battle tonight," said BC coach Jerry York. "I've never been in a NCAA Tournament were the games aren't difficult.
Last week, it was Lombardi, a senior alternate captain and self-admitted grinder, who boldly stated, after the Eagles overtime 7-6 Hockey East title victory over Maine, that teams had to be willing to trade chances in tournament play. Lombardi had just walked the talk, registering his first career hat trick (after scoring seven in his previous 140 games), including the game-winner, to send the Eagles into the NCAA tournament on a high note.
"Trading chances" was exactly how the BC's Northeast Regional semifinal match with Alaska (18-12-9) started, with each squad getting quality chances but unable to connect. Alaska, making their debutante appearance in the NCAA playoffs, four times zones away from home, hardly looked like deer in headlights as they went toe-to-toe with the highly skilled Eagles (26-10-3).
"We're a confident group," said Nanook alternate captain Kevin Petovello, a junior from British Columbia. "We've got a ton of guys with a lot of heart."
York agreed. "We had all we could handle," said the Eagles bench boss. "I don't think there's any stage fright in their players. We feel very fortunate that we're moving on. It took pretty good effort to get past by Alaska."
But it was Lombardi, one of the BC's designated checking forwards, who put the Eagles on the board first with a mercurial rush while BC was a man down, with Tommy Cross in the box for interference. After the puck got chipped behind the Nanook defense, Lombardi tracked it down at full stride and went steaming in on goal. Just below the hash marks, Lombardi pulled the puck hard to his backhand, and slipped it under Alaska goalie Scott Greenham's right pad for his first shorthanded strike of the season (and BC's sixth), and the first surrendered by Alaska all season. It was Lombardi's fourth goal in two games, after he erupted for his hat trick against Maine.
"That was a huge goal," said BC captain Matt Price, Lombardi's linemate.
In the second period, the teams began duking it out in, resulting in a predictable march to the penalty box. Both squads employed active sticks and active bodies to limit top-quality scoring chances, and when the puck got through to Greenham or BC's John Muse, the goalkeepers were up to the task. The Nanooks successfully killed off three penalties, and then ratcheted up the pressure late in the period.
"We responded like we have all year," said Nanook coach Dallas Ferguson. "We never quit."
With less than three minutes to go, with the Nanooks enjoying a 5-on-3 power play, Muse twice came up big to rob Alaska's freshmen sensation Andy Taranto on the doorstep, the first a dazzling reaction right pad save, the second time on the winger's juke to the glove side.
"He's been playing phenomenal lately, and you need that" in the NCAAs, said Price of his junior netminder. "A huge save can pick up your bench and turn that momentum the other way."
The third time proved the charm, however, as the Nanooks kept charging at BC during the power play, and Dion Knelson slipped a feed in front that an unmarked Taranto buried to knot the score, 1-1. The power-play tally was the 18th goal of the season for the CCHA's leading freshmen scorer.
"It was a relief to get that first goal," said Taranto, acknowledging that Muse was a difference-maker. "He played fantastic. He's a hard-working guy, and you can tell that he has a lot of experience in net. And his D corps played great in front of him."
It was anybody's game starting the final stanza. The Nanooks survived another penalty to start the period, but BC charged ahead on a tic-tac-toe counterattack at 3:46. BC freshman Mullane, a fourth liner, lugged the puck up the left side before dishing it off to Linemate Steve Whitney and heading for the net. Whitney calmly shoveled it over to fellow freshman Patch Alber, who fired it on net, where Mullane tipped it past Greenham for his eighth goal of the season and a 2-1 Eagles lead.
"Any team that is going to make a push here in college hockey is going to need everyone to step up, and everyone is going to play a different role every night," said BC's latest unsung hero. "Sometimes your checkers are going to score, and that's something you need. The more guys you have going the better off we are going to be, and we've seen that in the last couple of games."
The Nanooks were far from finished, however. Greenham kept Alaska in the game almost singlehandedly, denying Price on a stuff attempt and then robbing junior Cam Atkinson with a terrific glove stop.
"Scottie was good all night," said Ferguson. "He stops all the ones he's supposed to, and a couple he's not supposed to. He obviously did his job tonight, and gave us a chance to win."
In the last four minutes, Alaska threw everything they had at the Eagles, and were almost rewarded when Dustin Sather chipped the puck in tight past Muse. The puck, however, clanked off the crossbar at the 17:50 mark.
"We gave ourselves a chance tonight," said Ferguson. "It just didn't go in."
Twenty two seconds later, BC got its insurance marker. Fittingly, Price, BC's senior captain who was the Eagles best penalty killer (along with Muse) all game, got a step on Nanook defenseman Joe Sova in a chase for a skittering puck, with nothing between him and a vacant net but open ice. Sova hauled down Price before he could get off a shot, and the Eagles were awarded an automatic goal, sending them into Sunday's Northeast Regional final.
Expect the Eagles to show up, willing to trade chances. "You can't play holding your breath," said York. "You have to get after it."
The only question that remains, then, is whether Boston College roster has another unsung hero ready to step into the spotlight.
No. 3 Yale 3, No. 2 North Dakota 2
Once Boston College dispatched Alaska, the general consensus was that the Eagles would face No. 2 seed North Dakota (25-13-5), resuming a tournament rivalry that had the two teams squaring off in the NCAAs seven of the last 10 years. Yale, though, was in no mood to cooperate, and not even BC coach Jerry York would look past the Bulldogs.
"That's going to be a hard game to handicap," said York beforehand.
The No.3 seed Yale (21-9-3) earned the right to face BC on Sunday evening, after the speedy Bulldogs upended a rugged North Dakota squad, 3-2. The win marks the first time Yale had beaten the Fighting Sioux in six meetings. From the start, it was clear that Keith Allain's Bulldogs weren't going to let the loss of stalwart defenseman Sean Backman affect their game.
Yale captain Ryan Donald said the Bulldogs came into the game relaxed in their underdog roles, "playing with house money."
"They're very quick, an excellent offensive team," said BC's associate head coach Mike Cavanaugh, who was scouting the game. "That's a really good hockey club."
The Bulldogs raced out to a 2-0 lead on two exceptional goals by junior Denny Kearney. In the opening period, Kearney deftly deflected a point blast by Tom Dignard that fluttered over Brad Eidsness and into the net. At the 12:49 mark of the second stanza, Kearney tallied his second with a nifty move in tight, drawing Eidsness to his backhand before quickly shifting the puck to his forehand and tucking it home.
"That was a big time goal," said Cavanaugh.
Three minutes later, the Sioux had a chance to cut into the Bulldogs lead, but Darcy Zajac's penalty shot bid rang off the left post behind Ryan Rondeau and stayed out.
With less than four minutes left in the second, Yale took a seemingly insurmountable lead on a gritty play by senior Mark Arcobello. Rumbling into the high slot, Arcobello ripped a low shot that went wide right, but caromed off the kick plate and back in front of Eidsness. Arcobello collected his rebound and snuck it inside the right post for a 3-0 margin.
In the third, the Fighting Sioux fought back. With three minutes gone, North Dakota's Brett Hextall circled into the left faceoff circle and rifled a wrist shot over Ryan Rondeau's right shoulder. Three minutes later, Matt Frattin scored on a sensational individual effort to bring the Fighting Sioux to within one. Driving hard to the net, using his body to shield off Yale defenseman Nick Jaskowiak, Frattin managed to squeeze the puck past Rondeau, off the right post and into the back of the net.
For the final 14 minutes, though, the Yale defense clamped down, and Rondeau shut out the Fighting Sioux the rest of the way. That defensive group, said Cavanaugh, will be a concern for the Eagles when the two teams square Sunday at the DCU Center (5:30 p.m. ET).
"They played really well, moving the puck, and getting it to their forwards," Cavanaugh said. "They won the ECAC Hockey title the past two years, and that's not easy to do. Keith and his staff have done an excellent job."
Allain acknowledge that the road to the Frozen Four doesn't get any easier, with Boston College in the way. "BC plays the game a lot like we do," he said. "They have small, quick forwards, and they play an up-tempo game."
"They're a real solid team, the No. 1 seed in this regional. We'll have our hands full."
FINIS
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