February
14, 2005
Beanpot Final
Opportunity
Knocks, BU Answers
Terriers claim 26th Beanpot title
By
Joe Gladziszewski
| Boston
University 3,
Northeastern 2 OT |
| Team |
Goal |
Str |
| Time |
Assists |
| First
Period |
| 1-BU |
Bryan
Miller (6) |
SH |
| 6:45 |
Unassisted |
| 2-BU |
Brian
McConnell (6) |
PP |
| 15:32 |
K.
Schaeffer, S. Sullivan |
| Second
Period |
| 1-NU |
Jon
Awe (1) |
EV |
| 12:38 |
M.
Morris |
| Third
Period |
| 2-NU |
Jared
Mudryk (7) |
EV |
| 17:55 |
T.
Judy |
|
Overtime |
| 3-BU |
Chris
Bourque (7) |
EV |
| 14:10 |
B.
Miller |
| Goaltending |
| NU:
Keni Gibson, 74:10, 26 saves, 3 GA |
| BU:
John Curry, 74:10, 33 saves, 2 GA |
| Penalties:
NU 6/12; BU 7/14 |
| Power
Plays: NU 0-6; BU 1-5 |
| Attendance:
17,565 |
BOSTON –
Two simple words can accurately describe the Boston University
Terriers and Northeastern Huskies in Monday's Beanpot Championship
game. BU was opportunistic. Northeastern was aggressive.
Terrier coach
Jack Parker admitted that the Huskies dictated the play for most
of the game. Northeastern outshot, outhit, and outbattled BU for
the first 60 minutes, but the Terriers held the lead most of the
way because of an ability to capitalize on chances.
With 6:45
elapsed, Bryan McConnell intercepted a cross-ice pass and scored
on a short-handed breakaway to give the Terriers the lead. With
just under five minutes remaining in the first, the Terriers scored
on their second power play of the game. Brian McConnell deflected
a point shot from Kevin Schaeffer past Keni Gibson. The Huskies
were the better team in the first 20 minutes, but the Terriers
held a 2-0 lead.
"I think
we really dodged a bullet tonight. For 60 minutes I thought we
got outplayed," Parker said. "We got outplayed because
we were trying not to lose."
Northeastern
dictated the tempo and regularly tested BU goaltender John Curry.
The Huskies outshot BU 10-6 in the first, 11-7 in the second,
and 10-5 in the third. Goals were difficult to come by, but Jon
Awe broke through with a rocket slapper over Curry's catching
glove with 7:22 left in the second period. Jared Mudryk tied it
with a face-off win and rebound goal from Tim Judy's point shot
with 2:05 left in the game.
"We showed
such great character," Northeastern senior Jason Guerriero
said. "To get down to a team 2-0, you can put your head down
and say, 'That's it. BU's got it. It's their luck and it's the
Beanpot.' But we bounced back and I really thought we outplayed
them."
If Northeastern's
aggressiveness got them back in the game, then it was BU's opportunistic
nature that got them the win. The Terriers knew they hadn't played
very well. They had just given up a game-tying goal in the closing
minutes, and they still had the chance to win the tournament.
"We definitely
didn't play the game we would have liked to have played,"
Terrier defenseman Kevin Schaeffer said. "We were a little
jumpy, but we kept working at getting the puck out of the zone
and making simple plays."
BU played
its best hockey in the overtime, and won it when Bryan Miller,
the short-handed goal scorer from the beginning of the game, made
a great rush down the left wing. He smacked two shots at Gibson,
the second deflected off the post to the slot, and Chris Bourque
back-handed it home for the championship goal after 14:10 of the
overtime hockey.
It was the
perfect opportunity.
THE
REPLACEMENTS
In the first
game of the evening, Boston College received two excellent performances
from players put into unexpected positions. When standout defenseman
Andrew Alberts was injured in Friday's 8-3 win over Merrimack,
Jerry York needed to find someone to put on the point of the team's
second power-play unit. He decided on senior defenseman Greg Lauze,
a player he said had "about five minutes" of power-play
time in his BC career. Yes, the same Greg Lauze that didn't have
a goal all season and just six in 127 career games.
"He was
the key to our second period," York said of Lauze. "He
produced two power-play goals from his shot, both off of deflections."
The revamped
power-play units had freshman Brian O'Hanley joining up with Ryan
Shannon, Patrick Eaves, Dave Spina, and Brian Boyle. Lauze was
on the second group with Ned Havern, Joe Rooney, Peter Harrold,
and Dan Bertram.
The other
fill-in performance came from Matti Kaltiainen who replaced starting
goalie Cory Schneider with 2:31 left in the second period. Schneider
was injured while trying to position himself for a save on a Harvard
point shot. The injury was described by York as a twisted knee
and strained MCL. Kaltiainen made one save in the second period
and stopped 13 of 14 shots he faced in the third.
"That's
difficult," York said of Kaltiainen's task. "He's sitting
on the bench, not expecting to play, and he's kind of cold. I
thought he played well in the last couple of minutes of the second
period and the third."
|
INCH's Three Stars of the Night |
|
|
3.
Cory Schneider, Boston College
Eagles
rookie netminder was solid in his Beanpot debut, especially
when facing quality Harvard chances in the first period.
The Marblehead, Mass. native made nine saves before leaving
with a knee injury.
2.
Keni Gibson, Northeastern
Won the Eberly Award as the tournament's top goaltender
with a .947 save percentage in the two games. He was the
Beanpot's most consistent player over the course of two
weeks.
1.
Kevin Schaeffer, Boston University
Stalwart on the BU blueline disrupted numerous
Northeastern scoring chances and his point shot was deflected
in by Brian McConnell for the second Terrier goal. |
SEEN
AND HEARD AT THE KURTCENTER
• Fleet
Bank, which previously held the naming rights for the Bruins'
and Celtics' home on Causeway Street, was recently acquired by
Bank of America which bought its way out of the stadium naming
agreement. Until a new naming contract is awarded, the naming
rights are being auctioned on eBay on a per-event basis with proceeds
being donated to charity.
• When
tickets were doled out for the semifinal round, the Boston University
and Northeastern student sections were located next to each other.
It made for easy chants between the two populations in the balcony
of the rink. The most creative was Northeastern's "We have
jobs," in reference to the co-op program at the university.
BU's student reply was "Flipping burgers!"
• Among
the former Harvard players in attendance for the first game were
2004 alums Tim Pettit and Dennis Packard.
• Jon
Awe's goal for Northeastern energized the crowd, which had grown
quiet after a largely uneventful second period.
• It's
forgettable due to the result, but BU's Brad Zancanaro wore the
goat's horns in the championship game. First, he took an ill-advised
penalty just minutes after Northeastern trimmed the Terrier lead
to one goal. With momentum clearly on the Huskies' side, Zancanaro
roughed an NU player in front of the Husky bench about 90 feet
away from the play, but approximately five feet away from referee
Scott Hansen.
Zancanaro
lost the face-off on the tying goal for Northeastern, and also
lost coverage of Jared Mudryk, who won the race to the loose puck
and shoved it in past Curry.
• NESN
did not televise the early game between Boston College and Harvard,
meaning that you had to have a ticket to see the matchup. Attendance
was so-so for the game, which featured the pairing of the two
highest ranked teams in the field.
• "I'm
just so proud of the way our guys played and how they represented
Northeastern University over the last two Monday nights. You couldn't
ask for anything more out of the 18 skaters and the goaltender,"
NU coach Bruce Crowder said.
• BU's
best flurry in the third period, which came with 14:30 left to
play, forced Gibson to be at his best. He was on his stomach to
blocker a low shot away from danger, than made it back to his
feet and square to Boston University's Dan Spang on the rebound
effort.
• Some
numbers on the Terriers' success in the Beanpot: It was their
26th overall tournament championship and ninth in the last 11
years. Jack Parker has 18 championships as coach of the Terriers.
• It
was the lowest-scoring tournament in history, with just 16 goals
scored in the four games.
• The
NESN announce team of Tom Caron and Andy Brickley have a special
knack for being involved in OT games in Boston, including last
year's Beanpot final, last week's double-OT semifinal, and Monday's
championship. Not to mention the triple-overtime 2004 Hockey East
final between Maine and UMass.
• Dan
Bertram, a freshman winger from Calgary, was the only Canadian-born
player in the Boston College lineup.
• The
two biggest events in the hockey world on this February evening
were within an hour's drive as the American Hockey League's All-Star
Classic was held in nearby Manchester, N.H.
