NCAA MEN’S HOCKEY GAMEDAY
QUINNIPIAC VS. BOSTON COLLEGE
When: Sunday, 4 p.m.
Where: Amica Mutual Pavilion, Providence, R.I.
Records: Quinnipiac 27-9-2, Boston College 32-5-1
TV: ESPN2
KEEP AN EYE ON Deeper and deeper: It’s a cliché that you need four lines to win at this time of year, but No. 8 Quinnipiac got plenty of “bottom six” contributions on Friday in its tournament opener, a 3-2 overtime win over Wisconsin. The first goal came from the third line, Christophe Fillion finishing off a play he helped start with Zach Tupker and Cristophe Tellier. Victor Czerneckianair, who centers the fourth line, scored the other two, flanked by Anthony Cipollone and Alex Power.
New guys: Quinnipiac is about halfand-half players who were dressed in Tampa, Fla., last year for the national championship and newcomers to the program. The newbies came up big Friday. Goalie Vinny Duplessis, who came from Boston University, made a handful of ridiculous saves. One of them, on Cruz Lucius, made ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10. Davis Pennington, a transfer from Omaha, made a couple of key overtime plays, and one of them was leading former Ohio State forward Travis Treloar on the play that became Czerneckianair’s game-winner.
Reunion: They’ve played together plenty during the year and played some
apart, but they were back together Friday. Sam Lipkin, Jacob Quillan and Collin Graf, the line that scored 10 seconds into overtime to win last year’s national title, missed the scoresheet but created some chances. Quillan sent Graf in on a breakaway in the opening seconds of Friday’s overtime, but Graf was denied.
What league is this?: Quinnipiac played four consecutive playoff games against the Big Ten, defeating Ohio State
last year in Bridgeport, Michigan and Minnesota in the Frozen Four and Wisconsin on Friday. The next one is a little closer to home.
Hockey East champion Boston College was a unanimous No. 1 in both polls coming into the tournament. The Eagles are potent offensively; see their four-goal third period to break open a 6-1 win over Michigan Tech on Friday afternoon. Will Smith and Cutter Gauthier have combined for 60 goals and 130 points and are both Hobey Baker Award top-10 finalists, as is Quinnipiac’s Graf. Goalie Jacob Fowler is a finalist for the Mike Richter Award. Gabe Perreault, the New York Rangers’ firstround pick last summer, has 57 points, though he picked up a game misconduct Friday for a contact-to-the-head penalty.
Next: Speaking of the Big Ten, No. 10 Michigan (22-14-3) and No. 4 Michigan State (25-9-3) were set to meet Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Eastern in Maryland Heights, Mo. The winner of that game gets the Quinnipiac-B.C. winner on April 11 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., in the national semis.