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WORCESTER, Mass. – Boston College senior goalie Scott Clemmensen said the University of Maine Black Bears surprised him in Saturday’s 3-1 NCAA Eastern Regional quarterfinal victory at the Worcester Centrum.
After all, Maine’s players didn’t return to their hotel rooms until 2 a.m. the previous night after beating Minnesota 5-4 in overtime. The top-seeded Eagles were rested courtesy of the bye.
“Obviously, they played us toe-to-toe all night. I couldn’t believe that they came at us with such intensity,” said Clemmensen, who made 29 saves, including 14 Grade-A stops. “I expected a typical Maine-Boston College battle only with maybe less shots and maybe a less intense Maine team because they were so tired from the night before.
“But, I also remember the feeling we had the last two years when we have played very tough games the first night but came back and played very well and knocked off two very good teams in North Dakota (1999) and Wisconsin (4-1) the next night. So, we knew it could be done,” added Clemmensen.
Senior defenseman Bobby Allen concurred.
“Nobody deserved to lose. It was a great game. You’ve got to give Maine a lot of credit. They never stopped working. They took it to us in the second period. It was unbelievable,” said Allen.
BC coach Jerry York said Clemmensen was the key to the triumph.
“We rode his play tonight,” said York, whose Eagles were outshot 30-26.
The game was scoreless after two periods and was ultimately decided by a nice seeing-eye goal by Hockey East Rookie of the Year and second-team all-league pick Chuck Kobasew. His 24th goal of the season broke a 1-1 tie 6:15 into the third period, and a power-play goal by senior defenseman Rob Scuderi clinched it with 2:29 left.
The 31-8-2 Eagles, who have won eight in a row and have allowed just seven goals in their last six games, advanced to their fourth consecutive Frozen Four. They will play Michigan on April 5 at the Frozen Four in Albany with defending national champ North Dakota taking on Michigan State in the other semifinal.
Maine wound up 20-12-7, including a 10-3-1 mark over its final 14 games.
A holding penalty on freshman defenseman Francis Nault with 4:33 left and a tripping call on Matthias Trattnig 1:29 later gave the Eagles a two-man advantage and Scuderi scored four seconds after the Nault penalty had elapsed.
Walsh berated referee Steve Piotrowski for putting his team two men down and received a bench minor. When he persisted, Piotrowski ejected him with a game misconduct.
“I was disappointed. All I said was let the players decide the game [not the referee],” said Walsh.
The Bears coach was anything but disappointed with his team’s play.
“We played a whale of a game. We played as well as we could play,” said Walsh. “We played a lot better than we did the previous night. We lost to a great, great team. We created a lot of chances. I give our guys a ton of credit. They refused to be tired. We played well enough to win, we just couldn’t score. And the penalties in the third period did us in.”
Maine junior defenseman and co-captain Doug Janik said, “We’ve played back-to-back games all year. We weren’t going to use [fatigue] as an excuse. These are 20 of the most mentally tough players you can have on a team. We came into the game feeling we weren’t going to lose our legs no matter what and I think it showed out there.”
Junior left wing Jeff Giuliano opened the scoring 35 seconds into the third period on the power play when he dug out the rebound of a Marty Hughes point shot in the low slot and converted.
“I slid it under Yeats,” said Giuliano.
Sophomore left winger Mike Schutte tied it 1:06 later after being set up alone in front by Trattnig.
“I threw a couple of shoulders (fakes) and put it in,” said Schutte, who stickhandled around Clemmensen before tucking it home.
Kobasew’s game-winner came on a screened wrister into the far corner from the top of the left circle.
“Krys [Kolanos] did a great job carrying the puck over the blue line, one-handed. He outmuscled a defenseman. The puck was laying there so I took it to the left circle. Their defenseman [Eric Turgeon] was screening the goalie. He couldn’t see it so I tried to throw it to the top of the net. Their goalie [Yeats] had been going down a lot.”
Yeats said, “I didn’t see the shot at all. I just heard him snap it. I went down and tried to cover as much of the net as I could. It grazed my shoulder. It was a perfect shot.”
Turgeon said he noticed an open Kolanos just at the far post “so I went over to cover him and, the next thing I know, the puck was in the net. It was bad timing.”
Allen said, “Chuck is a special player. That was a goal-scorer’s goal.”
Moments later, Clemmensen made a nice glove save on a Robert Liscak one-timer from the slot and Yeats flashed out his glove to rob Tony Voce, whose centering pass hit a Maine skate and deflected menacingly toward the far corner.
The back-to-back penalties supplied BC with its opportunity to put the Bears away. They did when Scuderi’s low one-timer from the right point slipped through Yeats’ pads and under his goal stick.
“I never saw it. I stayed up as long as I could,” said Yeats, who finished with 11 Grade-A saves among his 23.
The Eagles stormed the Maine net early in the first period but Yeats kept the game scoreless with back-to-back saves off Ben Eaves and Brian Gionta and a gem off a Hughes one-timer.
In the second period, shortly after Janik rang a wrister off the post, Clemmensen smothered two point-blank shots by Schutte off a faceoff; made an alert glove stop off a Chris Heisten wrister from a difficult angle; and made a marvelous glove save off Todd Jackson, who was set up alone in front by Kevin Clauson with 1:41 left in the period.
“I took a page out of [backup goalie] Tim Kelleher’s playbook. I rolled over on my side and got a piece of it with my glove,” said Clemmensen, whose Eagles outscored Maine 18-5 in three regular-season wins.
Dan Kerluke’s roughing penalty with nine seconds left in the middle period set the stage for Guiliano’s goal.
Maine’s Schutte and Janik were chosen to the all-tournament team along BC’s Clemmensen and Allen and North Dakota linemates center Jeff Panzer and right wing Bryan Lundbohm. Panzer was selected the tourney’s Most Valuable Player.
Eagles 3, Black Bears 1
Maine (20-12-7) 0 0 1 ? 1
Boston College (31-8-2) 0 0 3 ? 3
First period ? 1. No scoring; Penalties: Maine, Trattnig, cross-checking, :32; Maine, Dimitrakos, slashing, 8:40; BC, Cass, elbowing, 14:44; BC, Giuliano, hooking, 18:35
Second period ? No scoring; Penalties: Maine, Liscak, holding, :52; BC, Scuderi, tripping, 11:31; Maine, Kerluke, roughing, 19:51
Third period ? 1. BC, Giuliano 14 (Hughes, Allen), :35, (pp); 2. Maine, Schutte 15 (Trattnig, Kariya), 1:41; 3. BC, Kobasew (Kolanos, Voce), 6:15; 4. BC, Scuderi 4 (Orpik, Kolanos), 17:31, (pp); Penalties: BC, Giuliano, charging, 10:20; Maine, Nault, holding, 15:27; Maine, Trattnig, tripping, 16:56; Maine, bench minor on coach Walsh, unsportsmanlike conduct and game misconduct, 17:31; Maine, Begg, 10-min. misconduct, 20:00; Maine, Heisten, 10-min. misconduct, 20:00; Maine, Metcalf, 10-min. misconduct, 20:00
Shots on goal: Maine 10-12-8?30; BC 9-7-10?26
Goaltenders: Maine, Yeats (26 shots-23 saves); BC, Clemmensen, (30-29)
Power-play opportunities: Maine 0 of 4; BC 2 of 6
High-percentage scoring chances: Maine 8-4-5?17; BC 6-8-4?18
Attendance: 11,976 (sellout)
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