BC Hockey Wins Prov. NCAA Regional - Headed to Frozen Four
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
BC Hockey Wins Prov. NCAA Regional - Headed to Frozen Four
It was the expected and desired pairing for the Providence regional final. The BC Eagles led the nation in goal-scoring this year. The Quinnipiac Bobcats were second in goal-scoring. Both teams featured outstanding goalies. The two teams did not disappoint. The almost 6,000 fans in the AMP on Easter Sunday afternoon were treated to a heart-stopping classic college hockey game, with BC emerging with a thrilling 5-4 victory in overtime.
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Coming into this game, BC’s record was 32-5-1. At several points in the game, it looked the #1 team in the country was going to end up 32-6-1 and be spending the time during the Frozen Four in Chestnut Hill. BC had to come from behind on three different occasions in this game. I can’t recall that happening in any BC game in the last three months.
There was no scoring in the first period, despite the fact that BC outshot the Bobcats 15-10 and at times dominated play. But the stingy Quinnipiac goalie, Vinny Duplessis, who came into the contest allowing only 2.02 goals/game, was up to the task of making some spectacular saves. Duplessis, a senior, transferred from BC’s archrival Boston University last summer. In his only other contest this year against BC, the first game of the season in early October 2023, Duplessis lost 2-1 in overtime.
At 19:39 of the first period in today’s game, BC’s Will Smith took a questionable 2-minute penalty for cross-checking. The Eagles would pay for that quickly in the carryover time for the penalty in the second period, as the Bobcat's Jacob Quillan scored at 1:19. Thirty-five seconds later, Iivari Rasenan of the Bobcats intercepted a lazy BC pass and scored an unassisted one-timer goal. Down 2-0 against a good goalie, BC fans, who outnumbered Bobcat fans at the AMP, sat stunned and quiet for a couple of minutes. You could sense genuine panic among the fans.
In an unusual 2-goal deficit situation, the BC skaters did not panic. They got a power-play goal from one of their hotshot freshmen, Ryan Leonard, thirty seconds after the Bobcats' second goal, and then knotted the game at 2-2 at 11:35. If the Eagles thought Quinnipiac might fold after the BC 2-goal run, they underestimated the Bobcats who went back up with 4:01 left in the period on a nice rebound shot by Chris Fillion that beat BC goalie Jacob Fowler. Just in case anyone was thinking of leaving the game after the second period, BC’s Leonard scored his second power-play goal of the period at 17:55 to tie the game once again.
Tied at 3-3, Quinnipiac quickly went ahead once again at .15 seconds of the third period and slowed the play down, allowing BC only 4 shots on goal in the period, BC’s lowest shots-on-goal total for one period in the entire season. BC made one of them count, though, tying up the game 4-4 with less than 5 minutes to play on Aram Minnetian’s only 3rd goal of the year. Half of the BC fans cheered, and the other half emitted a sigh of relief. The Eagles went ahead for the first time in the contest on Jack Malone’s goal at 3:06 in Overtime to win the game and send the BC team home exhausted and tested but victorious.
Boston College will be joined in the Frozen Four on April 11th in St. Paul, MN by fellow Hockey East rival Boston University and by Denver, and Michigan.
Some Additional Slapshots
- The sixteen NCAA hockey teams who played this past week across the four regional sites included four Hockey East teams—BC, BU, Maine, and UMass, and four teams from Michigan—University of Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, and Western Michigan. Two Hockey East teams, BC and BU, made the final four. Only one of the Michigan teams, the Michigan Blue, will be competing in St. Paul.
- The Providence Regional had the most attendance of the four NCAA regional sites, drawing almost 13,000 fans over the two game days. The NCAA shoots itself in the foot with these regional games by setting ticket prices too high to encourage fans to attend. The lowest prices on Thursday for the Friday Providence games for seats were $90 and $100. Hey, NCAA big shots, this is college hockey, not the NHL or NCAA basketball. Why guarantee half-empty arenas for the best college teams in the country with these outrageous prices?
- Of this year’s four Frozen Four teams, the PC Friars’ hockey team ironically beat three of them--Michigan, Denver, and Boston College. But, unfortunately, the Friars did not get selected by the NCAA for the college hockey version of the Sweet 16, because of some costly losses to teams they should have beaten and by not winning any of their last four games of the year.