Final, BC wins 9-7: Yale never quit, but BC’s three straight goals in the first eight minutes of the third put the Bulldogs in a five-goal hole that they couldn’t climb all the way out of.
There were plenty of offensive fireworks in this one. BC’s Cam Atkinson and Yale’s Mark Arcobello each netted hat tricks, while BC’s Joe Whitney and Jimmy Hayes and Yale’s Brian O’Neill all had two goals.
With the win, the Eagles advance to their third Frozen Four in the last four years and ninth in the last 13. They’ll face the winner of tonight’s Miami-Michigan game in the second semifinal on Thursday, April 8.
Third period, 1:22, BC 9-7: Arcobello just tosses a puck toward the cage and Little whacks it out of the air and into the net. Little displaying some great hand-eye coordination tonight. You’ll recall he also batted a puck off the post in the first.
Third period, 3:06, BC 9-6: Allain is pulling his goalie with just over three minutes to go. Six skaters out for Yale.
Third period, 4:05, BC 9-6: O’Neill cuts to the front of the net and redirects a pass through Muse’s five-hole for his second of the game. Jerry York calls a timeout to settle down the Eagles.
Third period, 6:28, BC 9-5: Miller finds Arcobello in the slot. He catches it on the backhand, transitions to the forehand and then roofs it for the hat trick.
Third period, 8:09, BC 9-4: Another Yale power play coming as Kreider is called for interference.
Third period, 11:57, BC 9-4: Gibbons going off for a slash. Yale power play.
Third period, 12:44, BC 9-4: Hayes again. After an Eagle shot had hit the post seconds earlier, Hayes beat Malcolm blocker-side with a wrist shot from just inside the blue line.
Third period, 13:07, BC 8-4: Shea fires a shot off the end boards and it comes right back out front, where Hayes buries it.
Third period, 15:44, BC 7-4: Atkinson makes it a hat trick. Comes in on a breakaway and roofs one over Blase’s glove while being hooked to the ice. Yale coach Keith Allain going to his third goalie of the game as he yanks Blase in favor of Jeff Malcolm.
Third period, 16:20, BC 6-4: The Eagles just recorded their first shot of the period, which directed my attention to the Yale goal for the first time. Billy Blase has replace Rondeau in net.
Third period, 19:00, BC 6-4: Donald and Little break in 2-on-1. Donald elects to shoot, but Muse makes the pad save.
End of the second, BC 6-4: Well, not a whole of excitement in the second. Just your typical seven-goal period. After Arcobello cut BC’s lead to 3-2, Atkinson answered just 11 seconds later, spurring the Eagles to a run of three straight goals that appeared to put this game well out of reach. But the Bulldogs didn’t quit, as they scored two goals in the period’s final three minutes to cut the deficit to a much more manageable two goals.
Second period, 0:44.5, BC 6-4: Joe Whitney and Brockett go off for matching penalties after a post-whistle scrum.
Second period, 1:33, BC 6-4: Just as the PA announcer was finishing announcing Arcobello’s goal, Kearney tips a shot from the point through his legs and past Muse to cut the lead to 6-4.
Second period, 2:50, BC 6-3: Arcobello wins the draw back to Peel, then tips the shot over Muse’s right shoulder for his second of the game. We now have three two-goal scorers in this tonight.
Second period, 2:54, BC 6-2: Little breaks in shorthanded and Cross slashes him on the arm to try and break up his bid. Muse saved the shot and Cross will go to the box.
Second period, 4:02, BC 6-2: BC heading to the power play after Andrew Miller is sent to the box.
Second period, 5:14, BC 6-2: Joe Whitney comes out of the box, takes a pass at center ice, streaks in on the left wing and then rips a slap shot over Rondeau’s glove for his second of the game.
Second period, 7:24, BC 5-2: Rondeau with a flashy glove save to rob Atkinson of a natural hat trick. Kearney and Joe Whitney exchange some shoves after the whistle, and both are going to the sin bin.
Second period, 9:31, BC 5-2: Yale was called for an icing, couldn’t get the tired line off the ice after BC won the faceoff, and Joe Whitney ended up finding Atkinson alone at the top of the crease, where he one-timed it past Rondeau for his second of the game.
Second period, 11:08, BC 4-2: Rondeau with a beautiful save as Sneep found Hayes cutting to the net all alone.
Second period, 15:03, BC 4-2: BC regains the two-goal lead just 11 seconds after Arcobello’s goal as Atkinson picks off a pass, walks in and beats Rondeau five-hole.
Second period, 15:14, BC 3-2: Yale converts on the power play as Miller finds Arcobello in the slot for a one-timer.
Second period, 15:57, BC 3-1: The Eagles are called for too many men on the ice. Yale going on the power play.
Second period, 17:37, BC 3-1: About 20 seconds after BC finished a penalty kill, Joe Whitney collects a pass in the slot and finally knocks the puck home after having his first two chances stopped by Rondeau. Not very good defense by Yale giving Whitney three whacks at it from right in front like that.
End of the first, BC 2-1: Mullane was called for a slash at the end of the period, so the second period will start with 54 seconds of 4-on-4 play. The first was pretty evenly played, with both teams creating plenty of chances on the rush. That was to be expected because these are two fast teams that like to run and gun. Gibbons of BC and O’Neill of Yale each scored in transition to make it 1-1, and then Sneep gave the Eagles the 2-1 lead with what can only be described as a fluke goal. All he was trying to do was send the puck down the ice on the penalty kill, but it bounced right in front of Rondeau and over his arm. Shots are 13-12 BC.
First period, 1:06, BC 2-1: Dignard trips up Smith behind the Yale net and BC is going on the power play.
First period, 1:44, BC 2-1: BC kills off the rest of the penalty. A funny moment as the next time Rondeau played a dump-in, the Superfans gave him the ol’ Bronx cheer.
First period, 3:26, BC 2-1: Sneep fires a slap shot from inside his own blue line and it takes a funny hop a couple feet in front of Rondeau and bounces right over his left arm. Shorthanded goal.
First period, 4:01, 1-1: Cross hauls down Little as he tries to cut to the net and Yale will get its first power-play chance of the game.
First period, 6:28, 1-1: O’Neill drops a pass to Arcobello on the rush. Arcobello fires a low slapper that bounces right back out to O’Neill as he cuts to the net, and O’Neill buries it to knot this game up.
First period, 7:40, BC 1-0: BC gets a couple good looks on the power play, including a brief 4-on-2 rush, but Rondeau makes a couple saves and the Bulldogs kill it off.
First period, 9:44, BC 1-0: A puck pops up at the top of the BC crease and Broc Little swings and drives it off the left post. A bunch of us in the press box, including myself, thought it went in. It doesn’t look like they’re going to review it, though. Meanwhile, Laganiere is called for a penalty, putting BC back on the power play.
First period, 11:40, BC 1-0: Yale kills off BC’s abbreviated power play. The Eagles got set up, but couldn’t generate any grade-A chances.
First period, 13:45, BC 1-0: Yale’s Martin is called for holding the stick and it’ll be 4-on-4 for a minute.
First period, 14:39, BC 1-0: After a Bulldog snapped his stick on a shot, Gibbons streaks down the left wing and beats Rondeau low to the stick side.
First period, 14:49, 0-0: After BC was able to get a couple shots off, Little breaks the other way for Yale and gets tripped up by Hayes. We’ll play 4-on-4 for 34 seconds.
First period, 16:16, 0-0: BC will get the first power play of the game as Limbert heads off for elbowing. The Eagles have dominated time of possession in the early going, but they haven’t gotten any truly great chances as a result.
5:31 p.m.: Both teams skate back onto the ice to the tune of their respective fight songs. Both schools brought their pep bands. It seems like BC has the slight advantage in terms of support on the strength of their large student section, but both teams received loud ovations during player introductions.
5 p.m.: Welcome to the DCU Center everyone. The teams are warming up with 30 minutes until faceoff. BC is in the home whites. Yale is in the road blues. The line charts are listed at the bottom of the blog. The only change for BC is that Patch Alber has moved up to forward to take Paul Carey’s place and Malcolm Lyles has taken Alber’s spot on defense. Carey is sick.
8 a.m.: It will be an all-New England regional final on Sunday, when top-seeded Boston College takes on third-seeded Yale at 5:30 p.m. in Worcester, Mass.
The Eagles won a hard-fought battle against Alaska-Fairbanks in Saturday’s first game to move on. The Nanooks hung with BC all game, but freshman Pat Mullane gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead early in the third and goaltender John Muse made several big saves down the stretch before Matt Price sealed the win with an empty-netter. BC is looking to advance to its ninth Frozen Four in the last 13 years.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, are hoping to clinch their first-ever Frozen Four berth after upsetting second-seeded North Dakota in Saturday’s second game. Paced by Denny Kearney’s two goals, Yale led 3-0 heading into the second intermission. The Fighting Sioux scored twice in the first six minutes of the third to pull within one, but the Bulldogs were able to stave off the rally and hold on for the win.
Line charts:
BC
Barry Almeida – Matt Price – Matt Lombardi
Joe Whitney – Brian Gibbons – Cam Atkinson
Chris Kreider – Ben Smith – Jimmy Hayes
Patch Alber – Pat Mullane – Steven Whitney
Philip Samuelsson – Edwin Shea
Brian Dumoulin – Carl Sneep
Tommy Cross – Malcolm Lyles
John Muse
Yale
Denny Kearney – Kevin Limbert – Broc Little
Antoine Laganiere – Josh Balch – Chad Ziegler
Brian O’Neill – Mark Arcobello – Andrew Miller
Jeff Anderson – Brendan Mason – Charles Brockett
Colin Dueck – Kevin Peel
Tom Dignard – Nick Jaskowiak
Ryan Donald – Jimmy Martin
Ryan Rondeau
