Boston College Athletics
Boston College
New Hampshire - Hockey East Championship
Hockey Wins Hockey East Tournament With 3-1 Win Over New Hampshire
March 19, 2005 | Men's Hockey
March 19, 2005
Hockey's Brian Boyle netted a pair of goals to lift Boston College over New Hampshire to capture the Hockey East Tournament Championship. For the first time ever, both nights were sellouts, setting a record of 35,130 in attendance.
The championship title is BC's sixth, the most by any team in the Hockey East. Since 1998, BC (25-6-7) boasts a 22-6 record in the conference tournament (including four of its five titles).
BC put two shots on New Hampshire goaltender Jeff Pietrasiak within the first 20 seconds of play. The offense that was quiet for the first part of last night's game against Maine came to play early.
Midway through the first, BC had its first man-advantage situation of the evening. Great tries from Boyle and Joe Rooney were stopped by Pietrasiak, keeping the contest scoreless.
Boyle put BC on the board first for the second time in as many nights, scoring at 13:59 in the first. Following a media timeout, the puck was dropped in the UNH zone. Boyle won the faceoff, used his reach to get the puck around the defender, and put it past the right skate of Pietrasiak.
The goal was Boyle's 17th of the season.
Freshman netminder Cory Schneider played aggressively between the pipes in the first. On multiple occasions, he challenged the high-powered UNH offense by coming out of the net and handling the puck.
The period ended with BC outshooting the Wildcats 12-8.
An early UNH power play resulted in a Preston Callander goal to tie the game at one.
A hard rush by Chris Collins almost put the Eagles up by two with eight minutes remaining in the second. His bid and a rebound attempt by Greg Lauze were both covered by Pietrasiak.
Boyle struck again at 16:02 of the middle frame. On the Eagles' third power play, Joe Rooney started the play from the right half boards. He sent the puck to Ryan Shannon at the point and he ripped a slapshot on net. His shot was deflected off of UNH's Jacob Micflikier, then Boyle picked it up at the right post and buried it for his second goal of the game.
This was Boyle's second two-goal game of the season and his fifth multi-point performance.
BC went into the second intermission with a 2-1 lead, outshooting UNH (26-9-5) 15-10 in the middle frame.
To begin the third, the Eagles killed off the residual 45 seconds on the UNH power play. Another UNH power play three minutes in put BC on its heels. Schneider made some key stops to keep the scored at 2-1 in favor of the Eagles.
BC`s defense was the story in the third. UNH put many attempts on the cage, but the shots were stuffed and the rebounds cleared.
Collins put the nail in the coffin with 2:27 remaining in regulation. Andrew Alberts poked the puck off of the board and Collins picked it up at mid-ice. He pushed down the left side and put a highlight-reel, through-the-legs move on the Wildcat defenseman. He skated in front of the net and went five-hole on Pietrasiak to increase the Eagle lead to 3-1.
In the postgame ceremony, Schneider, Alberts and Boyle were named to the All-Tournament Team. Boyle was named Tournament MVP for his three-goal weekend.
BC's match-up in the tournament will be decided in the NCAA selection show airing tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.
