Eagles defeat Bears Lephart ignites in 3-goal flurry

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NEWTON – Boston College senior right wing Mike Lephart has quietly lived in the shadows of such Eagle stars as Brian Gionta, Mike Mottau, Jeff Farkas and Blake Bellefeuille during his four-year career.

But Lephart took his turn in the limelight Friday night, breaking a 1-1 tie with 11:12 remaining and triggering a three-goal flurry in a span of 3:29 as the Eagles beat the University of Maine Black Bears 4-1 at Conte Forum.

The Eagles are now 18-6-1 overall, 11-3-1 in Hockey East, while Maine fell to 10-8-6, 5-5-4. The two teams play again tonight.

Sharing the limelight with Lephart was senior goalie Scott Clemmensen, who turned in a superb 31-save performance including 13 Grade-A rejections.

“He kept us in the game in the second period. It could have been 4-1 or 5-1,” said BC coach Jerry York.

Eagle senior left winger Marty Hughes, who ended a 20-game goal-scoring drought with a gift score off a Mike Morrison turnover 1:40 after Lephart’s game-winner, said, “We believe Scott’s the best goalie in the country.”

Maine coach Shawn Walsh said Clemmensen was “great” and his Bears played a real solid game for 50 minutes.

Walsh decided to give Morrison his first start in eight games “because he’s had a good year and he deserved a chance. Matt Yeats is our number one goalie and we wanted to rest him for the stretch run. Mike put us in position to win. It’s not his fault we can’t finish.”

Clemmensen said he considered it one of his better games of the season.

“I feel I’m playing as well now as I have all season,” said Clemmensen.

Lephart’s own scintillating individual effort created his game-winner.

He weaved cleverly through the slot from right to left before and firing a 15-foot backhander that caught Morrison’s shoulder.

“The rebound popped into the slot and Ales Dolinar took a shot that went between Morrison’s legs to the side of the net. I caught up to the puck, went behind the net and scored with a wraparound. Morrison couldn’t get over in time,” said Lephart.

Maine sophomore left wing Lucas Lawson said Lephart “was buzzing that whole shift. He stayed on the puck and put it in.”

Morrison, who hadn’t started a game since he was lifted 6:43 into a 7-2 loss to BC on Dec. 10, turned in a solid 32-save performance, including 19 Grades-A stops, but was victimized on Hughes’ goal when he fanned on a pass to the boards.

“When you don’t play much, things like that are going to happen. But that’s no excuse. I knew exactly where I wanted to go with the puck. I just fanned on it,” said Morrison.

Hughes still had a little work to do.

“The toughest part was getting around Morrison. I had to toe-tuck it to get it past him and then I knew I had the empty net,” said Hughes, who added that the Eagles didn’t think handling the puck was one of Morrison’s strong suits so they tried to pressure him.

Less than two minutes later, Chuck Kobasew feathered a nice soft pass to Krys Kolanos, who roofed it over Morrison.

The Bears and Eagles were all knotted up after two periods. BC freshman center Ben Eaves scored a first-period power-play goal before Maine freshman left wing Brendan Donovan, who had missed 13 of the previous 14 games with a lacerated kidney, equalized with a fluke goal late in the second period.

Eaves scored the 33rd goal by an Eagle freshman when the Bears turned the puck over deep in the zone and Hughes put a nice cross-ice pass on his stick. Eaves one-timed the puck into the short-side corner from the middle of the faceoff circle to Morrison’s right.

Maine had a big territorial edge in the second period, outshooting BC 16-6, and got the goal they deserved when Matthias Trattnig’s wrist shot sailed over the net but took a crazy bounce in front of the net where Donovan corralled it and tucked it in the open net while Clemmensen was looking for the puck at the other post. It was the seventh goal by a Maine freshman this season.

It was the 14th time Maine has been held to two goals or less this season. Maine is 3-7-4 in those games.

“This is getting frustrating,” said Maine sophomore center Chris Heisten. “We have the talent. We’ve got to find a way to get lucky breaks like we did on Brendan’s goal.”

Lawson added, “We didn’t play a full 60 minutes and that’s what you have to do to beat a team like BC.”

York said his Eagles appeared to be a step slow in the first two periods.

“We said we had to put a stop to that and I thought we were quicker and more physical in the third period,” said York.

Eagles 4, Black Bears 1

Maine (10-8-6) 0 1 0 – 1

Home (18-6-1) 1 0 3 – 4

First period – 1. BC, Eaves 6 (Hughes, Dolinar), 11:07 (pp). Penalties: Maine, Metcalf, slashing, 3:44; BC, Eaves, hooking, 7:48; Maine, Metcalf, interference, 10:52; Maine, Begg, cross checking, 15:02; BC, Cass, interference, 18:23

Second period – 2. Maine, Donovan 2 (Trattnig, Kariya), 18:49. Penalties: Maine, Janik, holding, 1:57; BC, Dziama, tripping, 8:33; BC, Dolinar, roughing, 10:20; BC, Orpik, cross checking, 12:23; Maine, Lawson, hitting after the whistle, 12:23

Third period – 3. BC, Lephart (Dolinar), 8:48; 4. BC, Hughes 2 (unassisted), 10:28; 5. BC, Kolanos 18 (Kobasew, Allen), 12:17. Penalties: Maine, Kerluke, hooking, 0:49; Maine, Janik, holding, 4:46; BC, Kobasew, slashing, 14:40; Maine, Trattnig, roughing, 14:40; BC, Lephart, hooking, 16:03

Shots on goal: Maine 12-17-4-33; BC 13-5-17-35

Goaltenders: Maine, Morrison (35 shots-31 saves); BC, Clemmensen (33-32)

Power-play opportunities: Maine 0 of 5; BC 1 of 7

High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 9-10-3-22; BC 10-7-11-28

Attendance: 7,770