Caron’s saves key to BU victory
the nation’s top two teams.
“It was obviously a big win for us,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo after his opportunistic group used power-play goals by Lane Hutson and Ryan Greene and 32 saves from goaltender Mathieu Caron to squelch a bunch of Black Bears who clawed at them all night.
“Give Maine credit. They did a heck of a job. But at the end of the day, our power play was very good and our goaltender was excellent.”
It was a bitter loss for Maine, which was making its first appearance in the semis in a dozen years and was hoping to hoist the trophy for the first time since 2004.
“This one stings hard,” said captain Lynden Breen, who scored his squad’s only goal early in the third period. “This one for us is probably just as hard to win as the national championship.”
The Black Bears, who were picked ninth in the conference in the preseason coaches poll, already have clinched a berth in the NCAA regionals, likely as a No. 2 seed.
“The guys in the room are dejected,” said coach Ben Barr. “But it’s not over. That’s the nice thing.”
BU had prevailed in both of their regular-season meetings by a goal, on consecutive nights at Agganis Arena before Thanksgiving.
This time, the Terriers took first bite with Greene scoring at 8:59 of the opening period, taking a feed from linemate Quinn Hutson and firing a wrister from between the circles past goaltender Albin Boija.
BU doubled its lead on the power play in the second period with Hutson launching another wrister from in front at 9:21.
So after 40 minutes, the Terriers had a 2-0 advantage despite being held to only 10 shots. And it would have been 3-0 early in the third period had Shane Lachance’s power-play goal not been negated for offsides upon review.
But the Black Bears, whose highoctane style is going to make them an unpleasant opponent in the NCAAs, kept coming, kept firing. They just couldn’t crack Caron.
“He made some big saves,” said Barr. “He was calm, he was poised, he held onto pucks. He was obviously a difference maker.”
Maine finally cashed in at 6:48 when Breen launched a sharply-angled wrister to the far corner from the right side.
“But the Terriers went up by two again with another power-play tally at 10:43 as Greene scored his second from the same spot. BU has so many snipers that leaving one of them with an open look from the slot a man up is suicidal.
So Maine had no choice but to pull Boija with four minutes to play and come storming and swarming. They outshot BU, 14-8, in the final period (and 33-18 for the game) but couldn’t manage anything more. When Sam Stevens added an emptynetter with 27 seconds to play, it was done.
“At the end, we hung on there and did a good job of not giving them too many quality chances,” said Pandolfo. “And when they had them Caron was excellent.”
So the Black Bears go back to Orono to wait for the Sunday selection show and find out their opponent and destination. And the Terriers come back to the Garden tonight for their fourth bout with the Eagles.
BC, which has wrapped up the No. 1 overall seed and likely will play in Providence, beat BU, 4-1 and 4-3, on successive nights in late January. The Terriers paid them back in the Beanpot semifinals. The Eagles haven’t lost since, rolling up 11 in a row.
“It’s going to be a crazy atmosphere like it always is,” said Greene. “But we’re going to be ready. It’s always exciting playing those guys. To get to play them in the Hockey East championship makes it even more special.”