ECH - Hockey east Championship Recap
written by - ariana ottrando - march 27, 2024:To little surprise, No. 1 BC came away with the win over No. 13/12 UMass Friday for the first Semifinals matchup of the night. The Eagles took a little longer than normal to settle into their game — after giving up the first goal and killing off a five-minute major for contact to the head by Posma — but set the tone in the middle frame with four unanswered goals by the top six: Perreault, Gasseau, Smith and Gauthier. It was 5-1 BC through 40 minutes.
UMass saw 3:53 of 5-on-4 in period three, but faltered to produce any quality offense on the man-advantage or at even strength. However, the Eagles were rolling and netted three more goals: Perreault and Gauthier with their second on the night, respectively, and Minnetian with his second on the season, for a final of 8-1. The total SOG tally was 36-29 in favor of BC.
The second Semifinals contest was not nearly as one-sided. Like BC/UMass, No. 2 BU and No. 8 Maine played fairly even through the first frame. SOG through the first twenty ended 6-5 Maine, but it was the Terriers who struck first for the 1-0 lead at 8:59 with a goal by Greene, assisted by Quinn Hutson.
Maine held off BU’s offense for the first half of the second period, but a holding penalty on Renwick cost the Black Bears a two-goal deficit when Lane Hutson found the back of the net with help from Celebrini and Q. Hutson at 9:21.
The game came down to the last frame as Maine killed BU’s second PP and cut the lead to one 6:48 in. Yet, the Terriers avenged with another goal by Greene — this time at 5-on-4 — and the ENG by Stevens for the 4-1 victory. Final SOG total was 33-18 Maine, demonstrating just how solid BU’s Caron was in net with 32 saves and how crucial quality chances are over quantity.
Championship game
For just the third time ever, the Battle of Comm Ave faced off in the conference championship for the Lamoriello Trophy Saturday night. With sellouts for both the Semifinals and Championship games at 17,850, TD Garden saw the highest attended men’s championship in league history — and the first time both nights were sold out since 2005. Coming into the historic matchup — of not only rivals, but the No. 1 and 2 teams in the nation — the record was 2-0 BU with victories in 2006 and 1986.
The tone of the game was set before the halfway point of the first period in what was clearly a game of special teams. After BU failed to notch the first goal on its early PP opportunity, BC capitalized on back-to-back power plays thanks to Will Smith and held a 2-0 lead by 8:37: the first ricocheting off BU’s Case McCarthy’s skate from the left circle, and the second off the rush bar-down.
“Those are always nice when you get a little lucky bounce there,” said Smith of his first goal for the night. “I was looking for [Perreault] backdoor, but luckily it went in.”
While BU trailed by two goals, it didn’t play on its heels and was getting to the net — with 12 shots to show for period one. The Terriers got on the board early in the second period with freshman Gavin McCarthy’s first collegiate goal, assisted by Greene, at 4:24.
“It was a cool brother moment for sure to be at this stage and see how excited he was to finally get his first one,” said C. McCarthy of his brother.
Down to five minutes left of the middle frame, BU led total SOG 21-15 and tested Fowler enough to almost find the equalizer. However, a boarding call on BU’s Tuch handed the Eagles’ 27.5% PP another chance to notch one and they took it — this time by Gauthier, with assists by Perreault and Smith, to reclaim the two-goal advance. By this point, the Terriers had failed to kill three power plays with all three of BC’s goals generated at 5-on-4.
“We didn’t get it done on the penalty kill, didn’t have an answer for it. So that was really, I guess, the biggest difference in the game,” said BU head coach Jay Pandolfo. “That’s another part of it: our power play wasn’t very good early. [BC] does a great job of blocking shots, getting their clears 200-feet. And when you do get a chance, [Fowler] was good. He was a bit of the difference too on our power play.”
Following the same trend of special teams, BU got a third chance to score with the man-advantage early in the third period and couldn’t produce. The Terriers netted two SOG and BC’s Fowler stood tall to stop whatever came his way.
BC sealed its fate a few minutes later with a fourth goal — it’s first at EV for the matchup — to boost its lead by three. For arguably the most highlight-reel worthy goal on the night, which is saying something, Leonard stick-handled through a sea of Terriers to feed the puck for a one timer by Smith to secure his hat trick — the first ever by a freshman in the HE conference title game.
“It’s pretty easy playing with those two,” said Smith of his all-freshmen line with Leonard and Perreault. “Every night we try to go out there and have an impact on the game. I couldn’t ask for a better two linemates to do it.”
BC head coach Greg Brown also commented on the high-producing Perreault-Smith-Leonard pairing in the contest, but across the season as well.
“When you put three freshmen together, you know that’s pretty special. They’re true freshmen too, all ‘05 birth years,” said Brown. “When you have that one line that can do that consistently.. They’ve obviously been huge for our team.”
About five minutes later, the Eagles capitalized on its fourth power play with a scrappy goal by Perreault for his third tally of the night. Point leaders Gauthier and Leonard came away with the assists and helped BC to a stark 5-1 lead with roughly eight minutes left of regulation.
As tensions heightened coming down the wire, BC returned the favor with a five-minute major for contact to the head — a golden opportunity for BU to pop a few and climb back. The Terriers finished out the man-advantage with 5 shots and 1 goal, for a 5-2 game, by the projected first-overall pick in this year’s NHL draft: Macklin Celebrini.
For the historic cherry-on-top for BC fans, Smith netted the ENG off the boards with two minutes left — notching four of the Eagles’ six goals, two of which on the PP. High-scoring through the top six against the No. 2 team in the country shows exactly why BC sits at the one seed and is a likely contender for the Frozen Four and 2024 National title
Via: @BC_MHockey on Twitter
And it isn’t the last we’ll see of BU, Maine or UMass either as all four conference finalists are headed to play in the national tournament starting Thursday. BU is set to play RIT in Sioux Falls, SD while Maine and UMass stay close to home in Springfield, MA to play Cornell and Denver, respectively. No. 1-slotted BC will face off against Michigan Tech in Providence, RI.
Stay tuned for Team ECH’s picks in one of many upcoming blog posts covering Nationals!
