Brandon Yip was saved by a massively bad effort.
After Thursday’s game, a 3-2 loss to the University of Vermont in the first game of the Hockey East quarterfinals, the Boston University forward played so listlessly that BU coach Jack Parker considered benching him. But, Parker said, because the rest of the Terriers didn’t play a whole lot better, the sophomore was just sent to the third line.
But he stayed on the power play. And it’s a good thing.
Yip fired a slapshot past Vermont goalie Joe Fallon 9:22 into overtime Saturday, 13 seconds into the man-advantage, to give BU a 3-2 win over Vermont, clinching the series. The win sends the Terriers to the Hockey East semifinals Friday against Boston College.
“I almost benched him after [Thursday] night’s game,” Parker said. “He really had a tough night [Thursday] night, and I was really upset with how he was cruising around. He was fortunate he wasn’t the only guy cruising around that night, or else he would’ve thought I was picking on him. So I moved him to the third line and he responded.”
Yip’s goal closed out an overtime period entirely dominated by BU. Vermont had wrestled some momentum back in the last period, tying the game at 2-2 after BU had controlled the first 35 minutes. But, where the Terriers (20-8-9) had folded in the past, both recent and distant, they just attacked in the extra frame. And in a hockey game that demanded every ounce of energy and focus from both teams, BU had just a bit more.
“If that was a regular game and we had to take two minutes and start the overtime right then and there, we would’ve been in trouble,” Parker said. “The fact that we could go into the dressing room and regroup a little bit was terrific for us, because they had all the momentum the last six minutes of regulation. They were really on us. Then it was all us in the overtime, from the opening faceoff.”
“It’s hard for me to go in there and tell them how well they did. They’re hurting pretty bad now,” said Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon about his team, which finished 18-16-5. “They felt like they had the energy back, in third period going into overtime. They were happy about the way they were playing and though they had the momentum. But we take a penalty, a beautiful shot by Yip and our season’s over.”
After eight BU overtime shots, including a few opportunities from in-close, Ryan Weston knocked a Vermont pass loose at BU’s blue line. He tapped the puck to center ice, sped toward it and was hauled down just before getting to the goal-mouth by Vermont’s Dennis Macauley.
“I was screaming for a penalty shot. Now I’m glad I didn’t get it,” Parker said. “The referee was right again.”
Six seconds into the penalty, Pete MacArthur won the faceoff and sent it back to Yip at the left point. Yip fired a slapper right into the stomach of sprawled Vermont defenseman Torrey Mitchell. But he collected the puck, snuck into an open spot in the left slot and sent a screamer past Fallon (31 saves) into the bottom-right corner.
“I was just thinking shot the whole way, and I took a shot, Mitchell blocked it,” Yip said. “Fortunately, it came back to me, because I thought I was going the other way on a breakaway, but I got it and buried my head and shot it.”
“I was calling for the pass, and he just looked me off,” joked Chris Higgins.
The Terriers, playing in their second-straight road game at Agganis (a coaching staff trick to bring some life to a team that has struggled at home), came out firing. And it doesn’t really matter what clicked or why or how or any other inquiry into the origins of the clicking. At least not yet.
But for the first 35 minutes of Saturday night’s game, the BU hockey team played as well as it has all year, and better than ever at home — at least until the overtime period, Parker said.
“We were really moving the puck,” he said. “We looked so fast tonight, because when you move the puck every five feet, the puck moves faster than anyone can skate, and all of a sudden, the team looks fast.”
The first goal wouldn’t have looked better on a whiteboard. Pete MacArthur took the puck on the left side and cut a pass diagonally across the neutral zone to Eric Thomassian right outside the blue line.
Thomassian skated halfway into the zone along the right boards and veered his head toward the point. He flung a pass through traffic to the exact spot where Higgins was headed, and Higgins picked the puck up in stride. With a state park for room, he cruised to the left side of net and darted quick to the right side, sliding the puck through a flailing Fallon’s legs.
The second goal may have been more impressive, at least in timing. A one-goal lead on Vermont — or anybody — has been dangerous for this BU team. When the one-goal lead’s strung out for too long, it causes the Terriers to tense up like a child afraid of someone stealing his toys.
So the power play with 3:34 left in the first, on a hook on Colin Vock’s hook, took on a bit more importance.
A great scoring chance zoomed pass Boomer Ewing 25 seconds into the power play, when Kenny Roche delivered a pass from the right corner across the crease to Ewing, wide open on the left post. But Ewing slipped, and the puck crawled by him.
Then, with 2:46 remaining, Sullivan aimed a wrister to the top shelf. But Jason Lawrence stuck out his stick and caught the top of the puck, sending it careening toward the ice. It took one hop in the crease and jumped over Fallon’s left pad to make it 2-0.
But Vermont plodded its way back, as it had to. The Catamounts, who battled with BU all year long and made the three-game playoff series the most grueling one of the four pairings in Hockey East, turned the tides of a game that had been all scarlet.
With just under four minutes left in the second period, the Terriers couldn’t clear the puck out of their zone. Able to pass the puck from tape to tape for the first 30 minutes, suddenly the pucks that glided started skipping over BU sticks. Vermont capitalized.
As the puck bounced around the crease, Viktor Stålberg pulled it down to the right of the net. He flipped a shot up just over BU goalie John Curry’s shoulder, pulling Vermont within one.
Then, after BU failed to convert on 3:28 of power play that spanned the second and third periods, including a 5-on-3 for 32 seconds, Vermont had gained an edge. Five-and-a-half minutes into the third, Kevin Kielt took a penalty for obstruction-interference when he held up a Vermont forward on a faceoff.
With 30 seconds left in Vermont’s power play, BU turned the puck over deep in its zone. The puck fluttered out to Peter Lenes in front of net, who whipped a shot immediately past Curry’s left pad.
Vermont sustained the pressure over the final 10 minutes of the third, putting 10 shots on net in the period. But Curry, and the rest of the defense, held the Catamounts off long enough for the Terriers to head into the locker room.
“You could say after two pretty hard games that both teams would be tired, but I’m real proud of all of our guys coming out tonight and just working so hard,” Higgins said. “Once we’re up two goals, they get two back, and it took wind out of our sails. But we came into the locker room and said, ‘Keep working hard, and good things will happen.'”
And when the puck dropped in overtime, good things did happen for BU. Often. For as fast as the Terriers looked in the first period, they cranked up the speed even more in the extra frame. Fallon stood firm, but the Terriers kept coming.
“Every game, at least once, you gotta weather a storm, and that was ours,” said Curry (24 saves). “As opposed to Thursday’s game, where we kinda wilted when we faced adversity, tonight we turned it up and finished the game off strong.”
Finally, with 10:51 left in the period, Weston stuck out his stick to intercept a weak pass across the BU blue line.
“I was hoping he’d get the winner for him personally, but I don’t think anybody understands how valuable [No.] 9 and 26 are for us,” Parker said. “Luke Popko and Ryan Weston are so good in every phase of the game. They play against everybody’s top line every night.”
After the win, the Terriers hung around the ice, sticks raised to the fans who showered them in applause — equal parts excitement and relief.
“It was our last game as seniors in this rink, and we didn’t want to be the only senior class since we’ve been here to lose the last game in their rink,” Curry said. “And it was definitely fitting, especially the game went. . . . It epitomized the way we play in our rink.”