MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Boston University men’s ice hockey team looked to be a step behind the University of New Hampshire throughout the majority of last night’s Northeast Regional final. At the end of the game, however, it was an arm’s length that catapulted BU to its first Frozen Four appearance since 1997.
Senior forward Jason Lawrence’s wrist shot careened into the net off the forearm of UNH forward Jerry Pollastrone, who was lying prone in the crease to block the goal mouth, with 14.4 seconds remaining in regulation to lift BU over UNH, 2-1.
‘I was just trying to throw it in the area of [sophomore forward Colin Wilson], and I believe it went off of their guy sliding in,’ Lawrence said after the game. ‘I didn’t really see it. I lost sight of the puck, but I just saw that it was in. We were happy about that.’
For much of the first two periods, BU’s high-powered attack struggled to dismantle the Wildcats’ neutral-zone defense.
After watching BU tag Ohio State University for eight goals Saturday night, UNH coach Dick Umile stressed to his players that to limit the Terriers’ scoring chances, they would need to take away BU’s transition offense.
The Wildcats stuck to Umile’s gameplan, clogging the center of the ice in transition, closing off passing lanes in their defensive end and holding BU to just one goal in the first period.
Freshman forward Corey Trivino’s conversion was the only grade-A opportunity BU was able to capitalize on until Lawrence’s goal late in the third.
Freshman forwards Vinny Saponari and Chris Connolly set up Trivino’s goal by dragging the puck toward the half-wall off a faceoff draw to the right of junior goalie Brian Foster. Connolly wristed a quick shot toward Foster, but it hit Trivino on its way to the net and fell into his skates. Trivino quickly slapped the puck to the back of the net before Foster could adjust to the redirection, giving BU the lead.
Foster stymied 11-of-12 shots in the first period, and his efforts to keep the Wildcats alive were rewarded in the second period.
After Foster turned aside a pair of shots early in the frame, UNH forwards Peter LeBlanc and Bobby Butler snuck behind the BU defense to generate a 2-on-1 rush in the opposite direction.
LeBlanc shook BU alternate captain Brian Strait to the ice with a head fake as he crossed the blue line before snapping a wrist shot toward freshman goalie Kieran Millan.
Millan turned the initial bid aside, but Butler, trailing on the play, emphatically pounded the rebound into the back of the net to even the score.
Butler’s goal, and the rush that led up to it, was the culmination of Umile’s aggressive defensive scheme. Butler’s mark was the only of the second, however, as Millan turned aside 12-of-13 shots he faced in the period, some in dazzling fashion.’
‘I thought we were very fortunate in the [second period] that we didn’t give up [more goals],’ BU coach Jack Parker said in response to UNH’s dominance in the period. ‘One of the reasons was because of [Millan]. He had a hell of a game.’
Heading into the third period, however, Parker countered Umile’s scheme by redesigning the Terriers’ breakout. Instead of carrying the puck through the neutral zone, BU reversed the puck with cross-ice passes to gain the offensive blue line.
‘We switched our breakout,’ senior co-captain John McCarthy said. ‘They were bringing all their guys to attack the puck, so we reversed it and had a little more success. We made sure we got pucks deep at their blue line instead of ours.’
The new outlet passes allowed BU to open up the middle of the ice and generate some offensive rhythm.
BU continued to pressure UNH’s defense late in the game, culminating in a hooking penalty on UNH forward James van Riemsdyk with 46 seconds left in regulation.
BU cycled the puck behind the net on the man-up opportunity and, after senior forward Chris Higgins jousted for possession on the end-wall, Lawrence collected it just below the end line.’ ‘
Skating backwards toward the left faceoff circle, Lawrence coaxed one defender into dropping to the ice to block the shot before firing a bid toward Foster.
Foster kicked the puck aside with his left pad, but the redirection caromed off Pollastrone’s left forearm, sliding past Foster and across the goal line for the game-winning goal.
Saturday night, UNH took the University of North Dakota into overtime by scoring the game-tying goal with 0.1 seconds left in regulation. UNH’s last-second dramatics, however, were not recreated against BU.’
With the win, the Terriers move on to the Frozen Four in Washington, D.C., where they will meet the University of Vermont at 8:30 p.m. on April 9.
‘It feels very good. It’s a difficult thing to do,’ Parker said of making it to the Frozen Four. ‘I don’t think we’ve been here since they made it into a 16-team tournament. We’ve had a lot of opportunities to get here, but we’ve come up short. I wanted my players to get this opportunity.’
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