Michigan (34-10-3) 0 0 1 - 1
Boston University (27-10-2) 2 5 1 - 8
FIRST
BU1, Petteri Koskimaki 16th (David Tomlinson), 3:23.
BU2, Darin MacDonald 2nd (Doug Friedman, Mark Bavis), 12:47.
SECOND
BU3, David Tomlinson 28th (Kevin O'Sullivan, John Bradley), 3:03.
BU4, Tony Amonte 26th (Shawn McEachern, David Sacco), 4:30. PPG
BU5, Ed Ronan 14th (Peter Ahola, Scott Lachance), 9:32. 4x4
BU6, Tom Dion 6th (Mark Bavis), 9:56. 4x4
BU7, Sacco 19th (Dion), 10:35. SHG
THIRD
BU8, Amonte 27th (unassisted), 4:49. SHG
UM1, Brian Wiseman 25th (Mike Stone, Denny Felsner), 5:47. PPG
SHOTS
Michigan 6--6-10 = 22
Boston University 6-14--9 = 29
SAVES
*UM, Steve Shields (25:20, allowed 4 goals), Chris Gordon (34:40, allowed
4 goals).
BU, John Bradley (60:00, 22 shots-21 saves).
ATT - 3,527.
*-I don't have the actual saves for UM since Shields was pulled 5:20 into
the second.
WORDS
Boston University totally dismantled Michigan tonight, 8-1, to earn its
second straight trip to the Final Four. BU joins Maine as the second
Hockey East team in the Final Four, the second straight year that has
occurred. Last year BC and BU lost in the semifinals to Wisconsin
and Colgate respectively.
The game was not even as close as the final score. It was over before it
had even reached the halfway point, as BU opened up an insurmountable 7-0
lead by the 10:35 mark of the second. A fine refereeing job by Greg
Shepherd prevented the game from getting ugly as, unfortunately, Michigan
began taking out its frustrations in the form of extremely chippy play in
the latter half of the second. Shepherd doled out penalties galore in the
second, including a major and game DQ to Aaron Ward "Cleaver" for spearing
and also misconducts to Mike Helber and Cam Stewart early in the third.
Just as in Game One, the Terriers jumped on top 2-0 in the first, taking
advantage of Michigan mistakes that were mostly caused by strong BU
backchecking. Four seconds after a power play expired, Petteri Koskimaki
took a pass from David Tomlinson and blasted a shot from the top of the
left circle through the five-hole to give BU a 1-0 lead. The fourth line
produced the second Terrier goal when Darin MacDonald followed up Doug
Friedman's rush to beat Shields at 12:47. At this point, realizing they
were in trouble, Michigan began pressing a bit in the BU end, but the
Terriers were more than happy to play the physical game and wouldn't allow
any solid scoring chances.
Two early goals in the second gave BU a 4-0 lead that put the Wolverines
in a deep hole. Again BU took advantage of a sloppy Michigan change, as
goalie John Bradley fired the puck quickly up to Kevin O'Sullivan, who
spotted Tomlinson and sent him up along the left side. Tomlinson fired
a shot from the left circle by Shields, and for the second straight night
a Terrier netminder had earned himself an assist on a Tomlinson goal.
With David Harlock off for roughing, Tony Amonte took a feed from Shawn
McEachern and beat a fallen Shields at 4:30 for a power play goal. After
the goal, Michigan defenseman Aaron Ward received a major and a game DQ for
spearing to put BU right back on the power play. At 5:20, Michigan coach
Red Berenson pulled Shields for Chris Gordon, an obvious attempt to
inject some life into his team. It didn't work. Two seconds after the
major expired, Ed Ronan made it 5-0 with a wrist shot from 15 feet at
9:32. This set off a barrage of three BU goals in 1:03 against a dejected
Michigan team that seemed to know its season was done. The three goals
in 1:03 broke the old record of three in 1:13 by Michigan Tech against
SLU in 1960. However, by Jeremy's posting yesterday, Lake Superior
scored three against Clarkson in 41 seconds, so that is probably the
new record.
24 seconds after Ronan's goal, defenseman Tom Dion scored his 6th goal,
and as that goal was being announced, David Sacco was sent in on a
breakaway by Dion and he beat Gordon for BU's 7th goal. At this point,
the game began to get very chippy, but Shepherd took control and let the
teams know, especially Michigan, that he wasn't going to stand for it.
Double minors for roughing were handed out to two players from each team
just 15 seconds after the 7th goal when Michigan took a run at Bradley
and several scuffles broke out. Shepherd issued a total of 18 penalties
in the second period for 39 minutes. The NCAA tournament record for
penalties in a period was tied by Michigan with 10 in the second, and
the two-team total was also tied at 18. Michigan's 23 penalty minutes
in the period broke the old record of 22, set by Wisconsin against
Clarkson in 1981. The combined total of 39 minutes broke the old record
of 38, set by Minnesota against BU in 1976 and North Dakota against
MSU in 1984. The game records were not approached since the third
period was relatively uneventful, probably due to the good job done by
Shepherd. He gave a misconduct to Helber just ten seconds into the
third.
McEachern and Amonte are known throughout college hockey as a deadly
pair because of their incredible speed and scoring talents, but those
who've been lucky enough to see them play a great deal also know that
they are The Dynamic Duo of penalty-killing. Their strong, unyielding
pressure on the points gave Michigan fits all weekend along with
their fantastic defensive work in their own zone. Early in the third,
Amonte poke-checked the puck away from a pointman and headed up ice,
and I already had the goal marked up. He went in alone, faked a
backhander and drew Shields out, then he waited for Shields to go down
and flipped the puck over him for second goal of the game and an 8-0
lead.
Michigan averted the shutout at 5:47 on the same man advantage when
Brian Wiseman took a feed from Denny Felsner and beat Bradley, but when
Wiseman over-celebrated by taking his stick and sliding in its invisible
holster, the BU fans rose and gave him a mock cheer for finally getting
the Wolverines on the board. Michigan only managed two goals all weekend,
one on a 6x5 with the goalie pulled and one on a power play. The
Terriers had heavy pressure for the remainder of the game and though they
didn't add any more goals, they left no doubt that the team that blew a
6-1 lead to Michigan (final: 8-6) and a 6-3 lead to Colgate (final: 9-6)
earlier in the season no longer exists.
BU is now 10-1 since defeating Harvard in the opening round of the Beanpot.
The Terriers have outscored the opponents 74-34 in that span which includes
wins over Harvard, BC, Maine, Michigan (2), and Providence (2).
LOOKING AHEAD
I was amazed at the ease with which BU dispatched Michigan this weekend, as
I'm sure most people were. I believed that experience would play a big
part in this series, and it definitely did. Hopefully Michigan will use
what happened here as a learning step for the future. They're a very
talented team with a number of solid players, and as most are returning,
they should be a contender again next year. Losses like this tend to make
a team like Michigan work harder.
As for BU, well, I just don't think that anybody can stop them. They are
a very focused team whose mission is clearly to win the whole thing. Last
season, I think their high point was knocking off MSU and just making it
to the Final Four, where they lost to a great Colgate team that had bigger
things on its mind. The celebration we saw after that win at MSU last year
wasn't duplicated tonight. That is on hold until around 11 pm March 30.
Sure, the players skated around the rink tonight shaking hands of friends
and fans, even returning to the ice, after spending a few minutes in the
locker room, to thank the fans for their great support. But it was rather
subdued, and anyone watching had to know the goal is different from last
season.
The key difference I see between this team and most others is that while
their offensive firepower is unquestionably up there with any team in the
nation, their goals tend to come as a result of the superb defense they
play. BU's defense sometimes goes unnoticed, but as a team they have
developed into one of the best backchecking and penalty-killing teams I
have seen. One of the things I learned from former RPI coach Mike Addesa
is that "hockey is a game of mistakes; if you make fewer mistakes than
the opponents, you will usually win." Well, not only does BU execute
their plays with near perfection, they lean on, harass and force the
opponents into many mistakes throughout a game, and they rarely fail to
capitalize on them. It will be very difficult for any of the remaining
teams to beat BU if they continue to play the way they have been playing
over the last month and a half. That's why I will stick with the pick
I made at the beginning of this year's NCAA tournament - BU to win
the 1991 NCAA Championship.
- mike
p.s. If you're planning to watch the semifinals on NESN, there will be a
Red Sox exhibition game shown live Thursday at 1 pm and then NESN
will join the first semifinal (starting at 3 pm Eastern) in progress,
so we may miss the beginning of it. But NESN will also be replaying
both semifinals, one early Friday morning (~2 am) and the other at
9 am Friday morning, so if you tape all the big games like I do, you
should still be able to get it all on tape. The second semifinal is
slated to be carried live in its entirety on NESN at 8 pm Eastern.
If I learn any new tv details I will be sure to send them out - if
someone doesn't beat me to it.
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