BU Gets Revenge, Advances To Pot Final

While watching Boston College’s Brian Gionta hoist the Beanpot above his head last year, John Sabo felt “like going out there and doing something.”

Last night, he did something – and got his revenge.

Sabo scored twice and senior co-captain Mike Pandolfo added a goal and two assists as the Boston University hockey team beat BC, 5-3, in the first round of the 50th Beanpot tournament. The win avenged the Terriers’ loss to the Eagles in last year’s tournament final and advanced BU to the championship game for the 41st time in 50 years, including 18 of the last 19.

The Icedogs twice battled back from one-goal deficits to even the game at two entering the third period. But on the strength of a fortunate bounce, pretty playmaking and a dazzling finish, the Terriers netted two goals in a 1:50 span, taking control of the game and grabbing the lead for good.

Freshman defenseman Ryan Whitney was credited with giving BU a 3-2 lead, even though his wrist shot from the right side was stopped by BC goalie Matti Kaltiainen. It was actually Kaltiainen’s own teammate, sophomore defenseman Brett Peterson, who tipped the puck through his goalie’s legs and inside the far post after whiffing on an attempt to clear the rebound of Whitney’s blast.

“For one to go in off their own player, it really takes momentum out of their team and guys start to get down a little bit,” Pandolfo said.

BU turned luck into momentum and capitalized less than two minutes later. Receiving a pass from Pandolfo just outside of the BC zone, Sabo, a junior forward, flung a backhand pass to Brian McConnell, who was cutting over the blue line. McConnell was able to keep Eagles sophomore defenseman J.D. Forrest on his back before leaving a perfect pass for Sabo, who had followed his own pass into the zone.

Without much room between himself and Kaltiainen, Sabo quickly faked to his backhand before bringing the puck back to the blade of his stick and sliding it by the sprawled goalie’s right skate and giving his team a 4-2 lead.

“Before I got the puck, I knew what I was going to do,” Sabo said.

BC pulled within one with 4:48 to play, scoring on a Forrest slapper from the point. Enjoying a power play, compliments of a hooking call on McConnell, the Eagles moved the puck patiently with the man-advantage, from Jeff Giuliano to Anthony D’Arpino to Forrest for his one-timer that beat Fields above his glove.

The Terriers held off a few late pushes from the Eagles without allowing a quality scoring chance. Pandolfo assured he’d play in his fourth Beanpot championship game in four years by scoring an empty-net goal with 11 seconds to play after junior center Brian Collins poked the puck away from a BC defenseman near the blue line.

“The thing I’ll take out of the game is how well BU played in the third period,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “I thought we played very, very smart and only gave up two shots in the Grade A area in the third period and played a good, solid game.”

With the win, the Terriers scripted another chapter in their storybook history of Beanpot dominance. The Icedogs have won the tournament 23 times, and have amassed 70 wins to only 29 losses. BU has been particularly impressive against BC, holding a 23-9 series advantage that includes a 14-3 mark when the two teams match up on the first Monday in February.

“It’s not lucky. They’ve had good players, a good coach and they’ve been successful,” said BC coach Jerry York. “No luck involved.”

Though they were kept off the scoreboard early, BU started the game flying, led by Sabo, who set up what turned out to be the Terriers’ best scoring chance of the first period. After senior Jack Baker backhanded a clearing pass out of his own zone, Sabo took the puck near center ice and carried it along the right boards before cutting toward Kaltiainen.

When Kaltiainen came out of the crease and committed himself to stopping Sabo, the Icedogs forward slid a pass across the net to freshman McConnell. Kaltiainen couldn’t recover in time, but McConnell’s backhander hit the post.

Less than 20 seconds after he nearly helped give BU the lead, Sabo did his part to keep the game scoreless. With BC’s Ryan Murphy bearing down on Fields after stickhandling his way around defenseman Bryan Miller, Sabo blindsided the Eagles forward before he could get a shot off. The hit dragged Murphy and Sabo to the corner while the puck trickled harmlessly to Fields.

That was BC’s best scoring chance until the 10:19 mark of the first period, when Tony Voce’s 21st goal of the year gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead. While the puck sat in the faceoff circle after a draw between him and BU freshman David Klema, Voce released toward the net. As he did that, Terrier defenseman Freddy Meyer pinched up to try and make a play on the loose puck, but before he got there, Eagle defenseman Bill Cass poked the puck to Voce. Fields left the short side open, and Voce took advantage, sliding the puck by Fields.

The goal flopped the momentum toward the Eagles’ side, and things didn’t get much better for the Terriers when sophomore center Gregg Johnson left the game near the end of the period and did not return. While forechecking behind the net, Johnson got into a tussle with Peterson and bruised his ribs. Peterson was given two minor penalties, but Johnson’s status is unknown for Friday’s game against the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

After managing only one shot in the four-minute power play that resulted from the incident, BU tied the game at even strength just 15 seconds after Peterson left the sin bin. The Eagles caught the Terriers in transition as Peterson escaped the penalty box, but the defenseman was denied by the stacked pads of Terrier goalie Sean Fields.

Senior Jack Baker got the puck and started a transition of his own, cruising down the right side with sophomore Mark Mullen for a two-on-one chance. Baker tried to slide the puck to Mullen, but his pass was blocked by D’Arpino. The rebound, though, bounced right back to Baker, who roofed the puck past an out-of-position Kaltiainen for his seventh goal of the year.

BC regained the lead while playing a man down. Despite being on the penalty kill, the Eagles moved the puck effectively, cycling from Murphy to Forrest to Andrew Alberts, who one-timed a shot through Fields’ five-hole.

But turnabout is fair play, and the Terriers answered with a shorthanded tally of their own with 4:55 to play in the middle period. Pandolfo started the play and Sabo finished it, as the senior captain pokechecked the puck away from Peterson, broke in alone on Kaltiainen, and fired a low slap shot. Kaltiainen made the save, but he couldn’t stop Sabo’s shot off the rebound that beat him under his left arm.

“It was huge as far as emotion is concerned,” Parker said, labeling Sabo’s first goal the biggest of the game.

The Icedogs carried the momentum into the third period, when they outscored the Eagles 3-1 and beat their archrivals for the third straight time. But now behind them is the team that unseated their six-year reign as champions last year, and the focus turns to a familiar Northeastern University team that beat BU 3-0 in their last meeting.

“Our thought process has always been that we don’t want to play in the consolation game, we want to play in the finals,” Parker said. “We want to play on the second Monday in February in the feature game.”