March 19, 2010

Box Score | Postgame Quotes

BOSTON - A third-period rally by the No. 20 Boston University men's ice hockey team came up short in the Hockey East semifinals on Friday evening, as No. 19 Maine nearly had a three-goal lead erased before holding off the Terriers, 5-2, at TD Garden. BU has its 2009-10 season come to end with a record of 18-17-3.

The Black Bears (19-16-3) took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission before adding another goal to its total in the second. Junior Kevin Shattenkirk scored in the early stages of the third on a 4-on-4 situation to get BU on the board and, after a nine-minute video review, sophomore Vinny Saponari added a shorthanded goal with 3:47 to play.

On a shorthanded breakaway one minute later, sophomore Ross Gaudet was stopped by Maine netminder Dave Wilson and the Black Bears scored with four seconds left on that same power play before adding an empty netter to seal the victory.

Maine, the tournament's No. 4 seed, advances to the Hockey East title game for the first time since 2004, as they will face second-seeded Boston College - a 3-0 winner over No. 8-seed Vermont - in Saturday's league championship.

The Black Bears boasted a balanced attack, as 11 different players recorded at least one point on the night with sophomore Brian Flynn and senior David de Kastrozza both tallying a goal and an assist.

Freshman Joey Diamond opened the scoring with an impressive individual effort at 14:14 of the first before Flynn doubled Maine's lead on a power-play tally with just 1:14 to play in the opening frame.

Down 2-0, the Terriers were awarded a great opportunity to turn the momentum early in the second when Maine received back-to-back penalties, setting up 61 seconds of 5-on-3 play. The Black Bears defense was up the task, however, and blocked a handful of shots to kill off both penalties and keep BU without a goal.

The Black Bears nearly took a 4-0 advantage midway through the second, but a goal was disallowed due to a high stick on a redirect by sophomore Gustav Nyquist at the foot of the left circle.

Shattenkirk finally got the Terriers on the board when he knocked in a rebound from the slot at 1:54 of the third on assists by junior Nick Bonino and Saponari.

Despite giving Maine its eighth power-play chance of the evening at the 15:59 mark of the third, BU ended up scoring with a man down to get within one. Saponari followed up a rebound off his own shot and stuffed the puck just past the goal line as Wilson smothered it with his glove. While not initially ruled a goal, a lengthy video replay led to the call being overturned and the result was the Terriers' nation-leading 10th shorthanded tally of the season.

The crowd held its breath a minute later when Gaudet rushed in all alone, but Wilson made what ended up being the save of the game. Moments later on the other end, Kastrozza drilled a puck from the top of the left circle with four seconds left on what ended up being a power play that lasted over 10 minutes in real time.

Just as Millan left the ice in favor of an extra attacker, junior Tanner House potted an empty-netter with 1:52 left in regulation to create the 5-2 final.

Millan made 32 saves on the night, while Wilson won his third straight start with a 22-save performance.

Maine went 2-of-8 on the power play and the Terriers came up empty on all four of their chances with the man advantage.

Shattenkirk (1g, 1a), Saponari (1g, 1a) and Bonino (2g) each tallied two points on the night to account for all of BU's scoring.

Hockey East announced its All-Decade Team on Friday and three former Terriers - one at each position - were honored with a spot on the squad. Goaltender John Curry, defenseman Matt Gilroy and forward Colin Wilson were all selected to the 21-member team. One player from each of the 10 schools in the league was named the Fan Favorite for the decade and Gilroy picked up that honor for the Terriers.