Just when I thought nothing could top the Hockey East semifinals on Friday, along comes Saturday's final, one of the best college hockey games I've ever witnessed!
BC overcomes Maine comeback, wins title in OT
BOSTON – The Maine Black Bears started their 2009-10 campaign with a bonding exercise, climbing the state's tallest peak, 5,267-foot Mount Katahdin. It was a harbinger for the season, as Maine faced a near-constant uphill battle, starting with low expectations (picked to finish 8th in the preseason polls) and continuing with a rash of injuries, and later suspensions, to key starters. But Tim Whitehead's squad persevered, battling to the regular season's final whistle, sneaking into the 4th place. Even then, they needed to come from behind to beat UMass Lowell to take their quarterfinal series, 2-1, sending them to Boston, where the Black Bears dispatched the BU Terriers 5-2 on Friday.
Ultimately, though, the one obstacle the Black Bears (19-17-3) failed to scale was the team from The Heights. Boston College (25-10-3) went 2-0-1 against Maine during the regular season. And on Saturday, at the Hockey East finals, Jerry York's squad from Chestnut Hill ended the Black Bears year in heartbreaking fashion, surviving a furious Maine comeback to win, 7-6, on an overtime strike by senior Matt Lombardi.
"Sometimes the hero comes out of obscurity to become the MVP and a real difference maker," said York of Lombardi. "I'm so excited for Matt, who has worked extremely hard for four years. To get rewarded like that is pretty special."
The game-but-outgunned Black Bears never led in the game, but they never quit, either. In the end, however, all they succeeded in doing was setting the stage for Lombardi, who picked the perfect night to record his first collegiate hat trick, securing tournament MVP honors in the process. In the overtime session, Maine came at the Eagles, taking several long-range shots that missed the target. BC nearly closed it out at the 5-minute mark, but Maine's Dave Wilson denied Steve Whitney's bullet with a lightning-quick glove save. Twenty seconds later, BC captain Matt Price chipped the puck low. Lombardi went and got it, and drove to the net, jamming it through Wilson for the game-winner.
"Matty (Price) was talking about how hard it is to get to the top of the mountain," said a smiling Jimmy Hayes, who registered a goal and an assist for the Eagles during regulation. "There's only room for one team on top of the mountain, and it's just unbelievable when you're up there."
The title marked the 9th league championship for the Eagles, and the third in the past four years. But it didn't come easy.
Maine twice climbed out of a one-goal hole to finish the first period knotted with the high-flying Eagles, 2-2, despite being outshot 16-8. From the opening faceoff, the Eagles were the aggressor, launching a fuselage of shots at Maine's Wilson. The senior netminder – arguably Maine's MVP through its playoff run after stepping into the starter's role, posting a 1.47 goals against average and .938 save percentage though the first four playoff games (compiling a 3-1-0 mark) – stonewalled BC through the first 11 minutes.
At the 11:44 mark, BC burst Wilson's bubble. With the Eagles on the power play, Pat Mullane sent a perfect pass to BC defenseman Carl Sneep at the right point. Sneep's slapshot scorched past a Maine defender and beat Wilson gloveside, just inside the right post. Maine, though, responded 24 seconds later. Captain Tanner House, storming straight through the slot, took a low shot that Muse bobbled. Charging hard to the net, Maine's leading scorer Gustav Nyquist tapped it past Muse to knot the score, 1-1.
BC's Lombardi gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead at the 15:19 mark on a wacky goal. Lombardi beat Wilson to a loose puck and managed to chip it past the Maine goalie. Black Bear defenseman Mark Nemec, grabbed the puck while sliding on his backside, but couldn't stop his momentum, and both he and the biscuit ended in the Maine net.
And again, Maine answered, almost immediately. Freshman Joey Diamond, one of Maine's brightest stars this weekend, parked in front of the BC net and deftly redirected a backhander by Maine defensemen Jeff Dimmen past Muse.
"We're proud of how our guys competed and the poise we showed under pressure down the stretch," said Whitehead. "There certainly wasn't any quit in our team."
In the second period, the Eagles managed to put some distance on Maine, scoring two unanswered goals in the first six minutes. BC's Joe Whitney struck first at 1:39 during on a power play opportunity, snapping a shot from the left point through a screen set by teammate Ben Smith and past Wilson's block. At 5:25, BC's Lombardi got his second goal of the game (and his first multi-point game of the season) to give the Eagles a 4-2 cushion. Senior captain Matt Price ripped a shot wide from above the right faceoff circle that Wilson overplayed. The rebound came off the backboard to Lombardi, who wrested it through a Maine defender, the shot deflecting off Wilson's gloves as he tried to scramble back into the net.
However, an uncharacteristic BC parade to the penalty box (six minors) allowed the Black Bears to sneak back into the game. Following a monster 5-on-3 penalty kill by the Eagles, highlighted by tenacious team defense and Muse's quick glove hand, Maine got within a goal at 15:04. House set up residence directly at the top of the crease, took a tape-to-tape feed from Nyquist, and blasted it past Muse's left pad to finish a superb bang-bang play. The penalty parade also helped put the clamps on BC's offense over the second half of the second stanza, as the Black Bears outgunned the Eagles, 16-5.
"Our plan was to not take penalties," said York, noting that Maine came into the final touting the nation's most potent power play. "We're were shooting ourselves in the foot the entire second period."
The first two periods, however, proved to be only a prelude to a rollicking third stanza. After an uneventful first five minutes, BC's Hayes gave the Eagles a two-goal cushion at 5:16 with a slick spin-o-rama move to Wilson's left. Using his body to shield the puck, Hayes swept it on net and through Wilson. Three minutes later, the Black Bears started mounting yet another comeback. Maine's David de Kastrozza, pouncing on a puck that had ricocheted from behind the net, sent a laser past Muse's right ear to bring Maine within one.
At 14:23, Lombardi floated a soft shot on goal that Maine's Dimmen couldn't collect. BC's Barry Almeida, camped in front, did, and showing exceptional poise, pulled it wide of Wilson's left pad and tucked the puck inside the right post to give the Eagles a seemingly commanding 6-4 lead.
Maine, showing its trademark resiliency, kept battling. After a brief delay to replace a pane of Plexiglas, but only 26 seconds following Almeida's goal, the Black Bears scored again, Maine's Robby Dee sent an offensive zone faceoff back to Spencer Abbott, who cracked a seeing-eye shot that beat Muse over his blocker. Then, with less than 30 ticks left on the clock, Diamond potted his second with a sparkling move. Grabbing the puck from a scramble in the low slot, Diamond outwaited Muse and roofed a wrister to send the game into overtime.
"The captains came up [during the break before OT] and just told us to play a fearless game, and not be afraid to make mistakes," said BC's Hayes.
From there, Lombardi, the senior assistant captain from Milton, Mass., with only seven goals in 140 career games, lit the lamp one last time to complete his hat trick, culminating an MVP performance and knocking the Black Bears out of NCAA consideration.
"This really propels us into the national tournament," said York. "The Lamoriello Cup (the Hockey East championship trophy) is something we point toward, but the national tournament and the national trophy is really what we aim for. And we're going to go in there with guns blazing."
The Black Bears, meanwhile, are left to ponder what might have been, coming within a whisker of making the NCAA field, and to look ahead for another mountain to climb. "It stings really bad," said House, Maine's junior captain. "We want to be back here next year."
FINIS
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