Boston College v Boston University
TD Bank Garden Sec LOGE 20 Row 18
BC students chant "Let's Go Eagles" with BU student section responding "We Can't Hear You".
David Van der Gulik may have been the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, but freshman Brandon Yip was the hero.
The Hockey East Rookie of the Year had been mired in an 11-game goal-scoring drought, having not lit the lamp since Feb. 3, but he beat Cory Schneider – who looked invincible during both nights at the Garden – 14:22 into overtime to crown Boston University as 2-1 winners over Boston College and the 2006 Hockey East Champions.
“It’s nice to savor this,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “We haven’t won this tournament since 1997. We’ve been in the finals a couple times and the semifinals a lot, but we haven’t been able to get the championship trophy. That has been a goal of ours all year long. Last year was a good year, but we got beat in the semifinals. This year, we’ve got to win a championship at the end of the season, and we finally got one.”
Jason Lawrence carried the puck into the zone on the left side and fired a pass across the ice to Chris Higgins at the right point. Higgins then found Yip at the back door, and Yip was able to knock the puck past the left post and Schneider’s right skate to cause a wild celebration at the TD Banknorth Garden.
“Jay [Lawrence] made a great play coming across the blue line going wide, and he gave it to Higgins,” Yip said. “I just went to the net hard, and he was able to find my stick. Fortunately, it went in.”
Yip, Higgins and Lawrence – BU’s Orange Line – capped off yet another stellar performance at the Garden, as the freshman trio was also instrumental in the Terriers’ Beanpot championship in early February.
“If you can’t get excited in front of 18,000 people, there is something wrong with you,” Yip said. “Just coming to the Garden and seeing all the jerseys up top is just amazing.”
“They have stepped up all year long,” BU goalie John Curry said. “They play with so much confidence. That third line is unbelievable . They have been getting it done for us, and we’re going to need them to continue to do that. The winning goal was pretty fitting for the Hockey East championship.”
MARQUEE MATCHUP
With the way that John Curry and Cory Schneider had been playing in net throughout the night, it appeared that it may have taken a Herculean effort to end the game before sunrise on Sunday morning.
Schneider stopped 37 Terrier shots on the evening and four in overtime while Curry made 10 huge saves in the extra frame and 29 total. The BC netminder stole the show in regulation, but it was Curry’s backstopping efforts in the 14-plus minutes of bonus hockey that caused a majority of the championship highlights.
“John contributed a lot in this game,” Brandon Yip said. “He made some big saves in overtime. He basically got it done for us.”
With 15:44 to play in overtime, Curry was able to get his right leg in the way of a tough wrister off the stick of Benn Ferriero from the left point, and he used his glove to bat away a high wrister from Brett Motherwell three minutes later.
“At that point, it was pure adrenaline reactions,” Curry said. “You’re not thinking about much. You’re just trying to remain as high in the crease as you can and just react. You’re just going on pure instinct. I made some plays, but my defense really helped me out as well.”
Boston College kept pushing the envelope, and after the Eagles ripped off three quick shots around the eight-minute mark of OT, Jack Parker was forced to call a timeout to settle his troops down. Two minutes later, Curry got some extra help from his two best friends – the left and right posts.
“John Curry made some big saves,” BC coach Jerry York said. “He got a little lucky on some of them.”
His teammates, particularly those on the freshman line who said they wanted to win this game for the veterans, were just happy they could come through for Curry after he was able to come through for them for 74 minutes.
“He kept us in the game,” Chris Higgins said. “They were really taking it to us in overtime. He is just a great goalie. He is unbelievable, and he can steal games like that for us when the pressure is totally on our side. He was a big backbone for us, and luckily we got that quick break and could get that goal for him.”
