BOSTON – Matt Lombardi was steamrolled along the TD Garden boards by his Boston College teammates after the puck trickled through Dave Wilson’s legs and into the Maine net, signifying the Eagles’ wild 7-6 overtime victory in Saturday’s Hockey East championship.
The BC senior just knocked the puck toward the crease, hoping it might find a crack. At that point in the game, everything Lombardi did bred golden results. It was the oddest of nights for the checking forward.
“He grabbed me in the celebration at the end,” BC senior captain Matt Price said, “and he was screaming my name, ‘Matty, Matty.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘This has never happened to me before.’ I said, ‘Well, geez, it’s not a bad time.’ It was kind of funny.”
Boston College forward Matt Lombardi gets the puck past Maine goalie Dave Wilson to give the Eagles a 7-6 win over Maine in the Hockey East playoff championship game.
Lombardi had three goals and one assist. It wasn’t just his first career hat trick — it was also his first-ever multi-goal game. Prior to Saturday night, Lombardi had seven goals in 140 career games. That’s one goal for every 20 games he plays, and three goals for every 60 contests. He increased his career point total to 32, meaning he accounted for 12.5 percent of his career’s point production in just three hours.
“It’s an incredible story that we can retell,” said BC coach Jerry York, who couldn’t remember a more surprising hat trick in his coaching career. “He’s a walk-on kid that comes in and perseveres and hangs in there and hangs in there, becomes a penalty killer then gets into the championship game and scores three goals. It’s a remarkable story. It came out of nowhere.”
York said he’s got to close the weight room just to get Lombardi out of there on a nightly basis. The right wing is fanatical about staying in pristine shape, and he’s one of those team-first guys who truly doesn’t seem to care if he scores as long as the team wins.
“That’s not my area of the game to focus on,” Lombardi said. “It’s always nice [to score]. It’s a timely game to have a hat trick in.”
Lombardi’s first goal gave BC a 2-1 lead in the first period. His shot got caught up in Maine defenseman Mark Nemec, who dove toward the net to break up the play and ended up carrying the puck across the goal line. In the second period, Lombardi took advantage of a fortuitous bounce and fired a shot from the left circle that punctured an open net. Then 5:35 into overtime, he took the puck along the goal line and just pushed it toward the crease, and it somehow found a path through Wilson’s legs.
“This is going to be one of those moments that define him,” said Price, who is Lombardi’s roommate. “When people remember Matt Lombardi, it’s a big stage and people are definitely going to think about this.”
Lombardi, who had BC season tickets when he was younger, said his last hat trick came during his senior year at Governor’s Academy in Milton, Mass., but it lacked the dramatics of an overtime winner in a championship game. Even crazier, he didn’t even score a game-winner in his collegiate career until last weekend’s 5-2 victory in Game 2 against UMass. And thus, Lombardi said the only people who might have been more surprised than him Saturday night would be his parents and sister, who were all in attendance.
Even Lombardi was too soft spoken and attention-wary to relish in the spotlight. Everyone else did the talking for him, and they were extremely glad to do the honors.
“The hero jumps out of obscurity to become the MVP and real difference maker,” said York, who improved to 7-2 in Hockey East championship games. “I’m excited because Matt has worked extremely hard for four years, and to get rewarded like that, it’s pretty special.”
MAINE COULDN’T CLAW ANY FARTHER
This was one comeback the Black Bears just couldn’t complete. They scored two goals in the final 5:01 of regulation to tie it at 6-6, but there was no overtime winner in the cards — not on this night.
“We always found a way to come back and win games,” said Joey Diamond, whose wrister from the slot tied the score with 27 seconds to play in the third period. “We’ve done that many times, so we never got out of control really. We just kept our cool.”
Maine erased a one-goal deficit in Game 3 against UMass Lowell last weekend before Tanner House’s game-winner in overtime, and the Black Bears were resilient in keeping a tight lead against Boston University in the semifinals.
“I think it’s just no quit. We found ways to win. We battled back from a lot of deficits,” House said. “[Saturday] I think goes to show the way we battle through adversity and just kept coming back. The guys just battled so hard for each other and wouldn’t quit.”
The Black Bears tied the game at 1-1, 2-2 and 6-6 on Saturday, and they were constantly knocking on the door after facing three separate two-goal deficits.
“As a coaching staff, we were really impressed with how determined they were not to let things go,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead, who noted the game was like a microcosm of the season. “We just kept coming back and coming back. It was a really enjoyable season to coach.”
SEEN AND HEARD AT THE TD GARDEN
• The Hockey East All-Tournament team:
G - John Muse, Boston College
D - Will O’Neill, Maine
D - Carl Sneep, Boston College
F - Joey Diamond, Maine
F - Matt Lombardi, Boston College (MVP)
F - Gustav Nyquist, Maine
• Props to the Maine band for playing songs by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, while the BC band overlooks bands from their own backyard and opts to play crappy hip-hops songs.
• Matt Price alluded to some of Matt Lombardi’s “funny rituals.” When Lombardi was later asked to clarify what those pregame rituals might be, he chose to plead the fifth, but did offer one nugget. “I’ll throw John Muse under the bus,” Lombardi said, “and say he’s definitely the weirdest on the team.”
• Tim Whitehead said, “The culture of the team is back where we want it.”
Like Lowell last year, Maine was playing its best hockey in the final stretch, but it won’t get a chance to play in the national tournament. “The tough part,” Whitehead said, “is we really felt if we were able to get by BC, we thought we had as good a shot as anybody to win the national tournament, so that’s a frustrating situation for us now. But not everyone can advance, and that was a great team we played.”
• Tanner House reflected on Dave Wilson’s career in Orono. Wilson made 27 saves against Boston College and was thrust into the starting role after the team suspended Scott Darling. “He’s had an up-and-down career here,” House said. “He’s really battled hard, backing up [Ben] Bishop at first and then Scotty coming in as a freshman. He took that really well. At practice and stuff, he was always working hard. We were confident in him coming into the playoffs. He stepped up huge for us. We were really proud of him, but we had no doubt in our mind he’d be able to do that.”
PLUSSES AND MINUSES
The Maine crowd really traveled well for the weekend’s games and definitely outnumbered the BC fans. “It really gave our team a lift,” Tim Whitehead said. “It really felt like a home game sometimes. We were really inspired by the turnout from our Maine fans. It really gave us a lift, and [it's] a big reason why we were able to come back on several occasions tonight. The inspiration from our fans really meant a lot to us.”
The Boston College crowd, which must have hit traffic or just couldn’t get past that sinkhole on the Green Line.
INCH’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT
3. Tanner House, Maine – He was all over the rink and really seemed to be the catalyst of the offense. He had a goal and two assists, and he won the faceoff that led to the game-tying goal.
2. Joey Diamond, Maine – The relatively unknown freshman created some serious momentum for next season, closing out the season with two goals and one assist, and he tied the game with 27 seconds remaining in regulation.
1. Matt Lombardi, Boston College – Maybe they’ll name a trophy after him.
WHAT’S NEXT
Boston College won its league-leading ninth Hockey East championship and has probably locked up the top seed in the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass.
“This really propels us into the national tournament,” Jerry York said.
Maine’s season appears to be over. Vermont, which lost to BC on Friday, looks to have snuck into the NCAA Tournament, and regular-season champion New Hampshire appears to be in as well.
