INSIDE HOCKEY

BOSTON – Sometimes it takes a little bit of puck luck to win a hockey game, and in the Beanpot Final between Boston College and Boston University, both teams had a little bit of puck luck on their side. But in the 250th meeting between the two teams, BC came away with their 15th Beanpot victory, and more importantly, they came away with bragging rights as the best college hockey team in Beantown with a 4-3 victory.

In the first period, BU defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk got his lucky bounce when BC defenseman Carl Sneep tried to clear the zone, but instead hit Shattenkirk’s stick in the process. The Terrier captain the fired a shot past Eagle goaltender John Muse to give the Terriers 1-0 lead.

Then it was BC who got a few lucky bounces, en route to four unanswered goals in the second and third periods.

The first of those goals came from Eagle freshman Steven Whitney just 1:01 into the second period when his power play goal was deflected of BU freshman’s Sean Escobedo’s stick.

Then midway through the second period, Sneep redeemed himself a bit when he gave BC the lead. Sneep’s shot deflected off of Escobedo and it gave BC a big momentum boost with a 2-1 lead.

“I think [Matt] Price passed the puck to me off the wall to me and I got good wood on it,” said Sneep on his goal. “It was going wide and I was just throwing it at the net, but I got a fortunate bounce off it. Good things happen when you throw the puck towards the net.”

And then it was another BU freshman, Max Nicastro who was a victim of an unlucky bounce, which led to Chris Kreider’s highlight reel goal at 15:48, Kreider's seventh.

“Chris has terrific speed, and his stick skills are getting better,” said BC head coach Jerry York about Kreider. “He has very quick hands, and he made a wide dribble and backhanded it behind Milan. I thought it was a highlight-reel goal.”

“I thought it was a great play by a freshman forward, and not such a good play by a freshman defenseman,” said BU head coach Jack Parker. “It was a terrific individual effort. It was a pretty nice play and we were trying to hang in there. When you give up a goal its tough to watch, and it looked like it was slipping away at the end of the period.”

While it was unfortunate for the Terriers to have a few unlucky bounces go against them, Shattenkirk noted that anyone could have had some bad puck luck tonight, and not just the two freshmen.

“I think it could have happened to anyone on the ice,” noted Shattenkirk. “It’s tough when it happens to freshmen because it can really shatter their confidence.

“I think they rebounded well. They realized that really happens. It hasn’t happened to them much this year so I think it was a bit easier for them to move on. A lot of our older guys did a great job of going forward and just helping them forget about it and get ready for the next shift.”

Early in the third BC freshman Barry Almeida seemed to put the game out of reach at 4:22 when he beat BU goaltender Kieran Millan glove side to give BC a 4-1 lead.

But as we have seen in the past, the Terriers wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Near the midway point of the third stanza, BU defenseman David Warsofsky got a shorthanded goal to cut the lead in half at 4-2.

The Terriers would capitalize on another special teams opportunity when BC defenseman Tommy Cross was called for hooking at 16:44 just 30 seconds later when Colby Cohen cut the lead to one at 4-3. The goal came when BU pulled Millan, and Cohen was on the door step as Nick Bonino fed him the puck and Cohen did the rest to get it past BC goaltender John Muse.

Just like the comeback against Miami in the National Championship last year, BU had everyone on the edge of their seats. However, despite a few chances at the end of the game, the Eagles held on thanks to Muse’s efforts, which earned him the Beanpot’s Most Outstanding Player.

Coming off of hip surgery during the off-season, the victory was sweet for Muse, who is getting better and better with every start, thanks in part to his competitiveness.

“If there’s one thing about John it’s that he’s a competitor,” said Price about the BC junior goalie. “He wants to win, he wants to win those games, he wants to play the minutes and I think he did a great job…He’s been playing unbelievable and we don’t expect anything less, he’s a great goalie and I think John expects that of himself as well.”

In a rivalry game like this, one lucky bounce (or in this case several lucky bounces), can make a big difference in the result.

BC Postgame Video Courtesy of Biz Jacobs