Colorado Wins ECHL's Kelly Cup

The Colorado Eagles are the champions of the ECHL.

The Eagles, a transplant from the defunct Central Hockey league, won their first-ever Kelly Cup by completing a four-game sweep of the South Carolina Stingrays with a 2-1 triumph in North Charleston, S.C. on Monday night.

Luke Salazar (Denver) notched the Cup-winning goal just over a minute into the second period, to break a 1-1 tie at the North Charleston Coliseum. Lukas Hafner (Western Michigan) stopped 25 of 26 shots for the Eagles, and ended the postseason with a personal 14-2-0 record. Parker Milner (Boston College) finished with 42 saves Monday for the Stingrays, who got their lone goal from Derek Arnold (UMass Lowell).

Colorado won all four games of the final by one goal apiece, to capture its first playoff title since it won its second of two CHL Ray Miron President's Cups in 2007. South Carolina was seeking its fourth ECHL playoff crown overall, and first since 2009.

BC Wins 4th Straight Beanpot

BC does it again.

Boston College won its fourth consecutive men's Beanpot Tournament title last night with a 6-3 victory over Hockey East rival Northeastern at TD Garden in Boston, in the 61st edition of the annual event.

Sophomore forward Johnny Gaudreau scored twice for the Eagles, including an insurance goal late in the third period after the Huskies had pulled within a goal.

Following a scoreless first period on Monday night, BC scored four of the five goals in the middle 20 minutes, including senior forward Stephen Whitney's tally with 0.4 seconds remaining in the period.

Shades of my senior year at BC 22 years ago, at the now-demolished Boston Garden, when the late Mark Bavis scored a last-second second period goal to give Boston University a three-goal lead en route to an 8-4 win over the Eagles in the 1991 title game. No Beanpots for BC in my four years at the Heights, but no less than eight Causeway Street crowns since then, including last night's.

Whitney, who also posted two assists last night, was part of an Eagle senior class that went a perfect 8-0 in Beanpot play, including last week's 4-1 semifinal triumph over Harvard. Also going four-for-four in Beanpot titles were classmates Patch Alber, Brooks Dyrof, Issac MacLeod, Pat Mullane, Parker Milner, and Patrick Wey. Team captain Mullane scored an empty-net goal last night to clinch the victory, assisted by Milner, who made 20 saves and also earned the Eberly Trophy as the Beanpot's top goaltender this year (best save percentage).

Northeastern freshman forward Kevin Roy was named 2013 Beanpot MVP after scoring five of NU's six goals in the tournament, including all three goals in last week's 3-2 semifinal win over Boston University. The Huskies last won a Beanpot in 1988 when they defeated both BC and BU that year. Harvard defeated BU, 7-4, in yesterday's consolation contest.

BC now has 18 Beanpot championships to its credit, and gets back to Hockey East action on Friday when it takes on Merrimack.

BC and Northeastern to Meet Next Monday for All the Beans

Quinn Smith (pictured) scored twice for the Eagles, who also got goals from Michael Matheson and Stephen Whitney, and 19 saves from Parker Milner, to power fourth-ranked Boston College to a 4-1 win over ECAC foe Harvard (5-15-1) last night in the opening round of the 61st Beanpot Tournament at TD Garden in Boston.

Three-time defending Beanpot champion BC (16-7-2 overall) will now face Northeastern (8-13-3), which beat 15th-ranked Boston University (13-11-1) by a 3-2 count in the other opening game, next Monday night for the title.

Northeastern freshman forward Kevin Roy scored all three goals for the Huskies, one in each period, including the game-winner with 4:38 remaining in regulation. Chris Rawlings made 33 saves for NU, which is seeking its first Beanpot title in 25 years.

Boston College Raises One More Banner

I was fortunate enough to be at Boston College’s NCAA Championship banner ceremony on Saturday night at Conte Forum. I missed 2008’s event because I got stuck in traffic on the Mass Pike that night, and 2010’s gathering was too close to Halloween to travel to New England and back—so it sure was nice to finally watch one get raised to the rafters. 

I'm still smiling two days later.

Besides the 2012-13 team and over 7,000 of their closest friends in Maroon and Gold, some of the program's past champions made it back to Chestnut Hill to celebrate on Oct. 20, including former coach Len Ceglarski and locked-out NHL players like Nathan Gerbe. Hoisting the newest banner to the skies were graduated seniors Chris Venti and Tommy Atkinson, part of the 2012 team that won 19 straight contests to close out the campaign, including the national title game in Florida against Ferris State.

To top off the festivities Saturday, the Eagles won, 3-0, over local and Hockey East rival Northeastern, which had beaten BC a week before in Boston. Goals came from forwards Kevin Hayes, Johnny Gaudreau and Stephen Whitney, while captain Pat Mullane had two assists and goaltender Parker Milner made 26 saves before a raucous sold-out crowd of 7,884 at Kelley Rink that included almost an entire section of black-clad NU undergrads who surely got back on the Green Line unhappy.

It was a nice night of nostalgia and one final salute to last year’s title team, which not only made mustard-colored jerseys a thing of beauty, but was also the third BC squad in five years to claim a national crown. When I was a student, BC made the 1990 Frozen Four and won a few Hockey East championships, but not the sheer plethora of team prizes that the program has brought home since 1998.

For me, as an alumnus, it was good to be back on an ever-changing campus that still feels like home. It was good to sit again at the Forum, where I covered several scores worth of games as an undergraduate, and to see old friends like Jack Casey and Paul Gallivan. They and the rest of the Zamboni crew work hard to keep the ice smooth for one of college hockey’s top programs, led by head coach Jerry York (915 career wins and counting) and old friend and Eagle defenseman Greg Brown.


Yes, life has been good at the Heights lately. Keep up the good work, all.

Boston College Claims Third NCAA Title in Five Seasons

For the third time in five seasons, and the fifth time ever, Boston College is the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey National Champion.

The Eagles (33-10-1), who finished the 2011-12 campaign with a 19-game winning streak that dated back to January, earned this year's NCAA title with a 4-1 win over Ferris State on Saturday at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Fla.

BC junior goaltender Parker Milner recorded 27 saves and freshman forward Johnny Gaudreau scored an electrifying goal with three minutes to play to break open a one-goal contest. Junior forward Steven Whitney then iced it with an empty-net tally with just over a minute left that put BC up by three.

Whitney also scored the first goal of the game, as he did in Thursday's 6-1 national semifinal win over Minnesota, while Paul Carey deflected home the game-winning goal on a first-period power play.

It wasn't as easy as it sounded.

Garrett Thompson scored Ferris' only goal of the game just 5:19 into the contest, which pulled the Bulldogs (26-12-5) into a 1-1 tie, before Carey scored midway through the opening stanza to put BC ahead for good.

The score remained unchanged for nearly 40 minutes, although both teams had plenty of offensive chances. Ferris kept pressing for the tying score, forcing Milner to make several tough stops, before Gaudreau's nifty one-man effort put matters to rest. The rookie from Carneys Point, NJ put the puck through the legs of a Ferris defender, and then backhanded in a high shot over the right shoulder of Bulldog net-minder Taylor Nelson (33 saves), who had earlier stopped Barry Almeida on a shorthanded attempt point-blank.

BC, which was playing in its 11th national title game overall, is now 5-6 in NCAA championship contests out-shot. The Eagles outshot first-time finals participant Ferris by a 37-28 margin before 18,818 fans at the Forum, which was hosting its first Frozen Four. The Eagles, who went 10-0 in the gold throwback uniforms they wore this season, inclduing all four NCAA tournament contests, went 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Bulldogs were scoreless in four man-advantage attempts.

Milner earned Frozen Four Outstanding Player accolades for his work on the weekend, stopping 57 shots in all and allowing just two goals in four NCAA tournament games this spring. He also posted a pair of shutouts at the NCAA Northeast Regional two weeks ago in Worcester, Mass. against Air Force and Minnesota-Duluth.

Milner also led BC to the 2012 Beanpot title, and both the Hockey East Association regular-season and playoff crowns this season. For the season, the undrafted Pittsburgh native went 29-5-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average, a .937 save percentage, an .853 winning percentage, and three shutouts.

BC head coach Jerry York, who now has 913 career wins, has led the Eagles to national titles in 2001, 2008, 2010, and 2012. He also led Bowling Green to the 1984 national crown.

Perhaps an omen of sorts for the insurance goal by New Jersey native Gaudreau came in New Jersey itself on Saturday afternoon, as former Eagle forward Stephen Gionta scored the game-winning goal in the New Jersey Devils' 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators. For Gionta, whose older brother Brian is BC's all-time leading goal scorer, it was his first career NHL goal.

Boston College Wins Its 17th Beanpot Title

A Boston boy made it BC’s night. Well, a kid from Needham, Mass. anyway.

Bill Arnold’s goal with 6.4 seconds remaining in overtime lifted No. 3 Boston College to a 3-2 win over No. 2 Boston University and its third consecutive Beanpot crown on Monday night. Arnold, a sophomore forward and a Calgary Flames draft choice, took a cross-ice pass from Stephen Whitney and let go with a wrist shot from the right circle that eluded the glove of BU netminder Kieran Millan (44 saves) to give the Eagles the 60th Beanpot title, and their fourth Beanpot championship in five years.

Pat Mullane and Chris Kreider scored in regulation for BC, which held 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the contest at a sold-out TD Garden. Mullane’s goal was shorthanded, while Kreider’s power-play tally helped him hit the 20-goal mark for the first time in his college career.

Garrett Noonan had both goals for the Terriers, including the game-tying tally in the third period on a two-man power-play advantage. Parker Milner finished with 32 saves for the Eagles, while freshman forward Johnny Gaudreau was named Beanpot MVP for his two-goal, two-assist output in BC’s two games, including a 7-1 win over Northeastern last week. BU had topped Harvard, 3-1 in the first round, while Harvard edged Northeastern, 3-2, in the consolation game yesterday.

Millan, who had backstopped BU to a Beanpot title three years ago as a freshman, earned Eberly Trophy honors as this year’s top tournament goaltender. He stopped 29 shots in the win over Harvard, and finished with 73 saves on 77 shots against in all.

The win also evened the season series between the two MBTA Green Line rivals at two wins apiece. BU won both games at BC’s Kelley Rink in the fall, while BC later returned the favor in the lone game contested at Agannis Arena.

Boston College Starts Season Strong

As badly as last season ended for Boston College, with a stunning loss to Colorado College in the 2011 NCAA West Regional, things started off exactly the opposite to begin the 2011-12 campaign. The fifth-ranked Eagles topped Michigan State, 5-2, and then battered tournament host and No. 3 North Dakota, 6-2, to claim the 2011 IceBreaker Tournament on Oct. 7-8 in Grand Forks, N.D. It's the third time ever that BC has claimed the traditional season-opening tourney, and it did so this time without the benefit of any sort of exhibition warm-up game.

Bill Arnold topped the BC scoring scroll with a goal and four assists in the two victories, while Pat Mullane tallied two goals and set up two others. Chris Kreider and Stephen Whitney had two goals and an assist apiece, with Kreider also copping tournament MVP accolades. Kreider also scored the game-winner against MSU in the third period on Friday to break a 2-2 tie, before Whitney and Barry Almeida added insurance tallies.

Eagles newcomer Johnny Gaudreau scored his first career collegiate goal in the win over UND, and also added three assists for his first four career points. BC overcame a 2-1 second-period deficit against the Fighting Sioux by scoring five unanswered goals, which came from Kreider, Gaudreau, Mullane, Arnold and Whitney.

In the other Ice Breaker games at Ralph Engelstad Arena, North Dakota edged Air Force, 4-3, on Friday night. MSU then edged Air Force, 3-2, in overtime in the consolation game on Saturday afternoon.

Parker Milner, now BC's No. 1 netminder, stopped 39 of 43 shots, while the Eagles' penalty-killing unit blanked nine of 10 man-advantage attempts. Milner also joined Kreider and Arnold on the All-Tournament Team along with BC blueliners Patch Alber and Tommy Cross. Rounding out the all-tournament lineup was Michigan State forward Lee Reimer and North Dakota winger Brock Nelson.

If there's something that BC needs to work on, it's the Eagle power play, which connected just once in eight tries in the two Ice breaker outings. North Dakota also won 35 of the 63 faceoffs contested between the two squads on Saturday, so there's room for improvement in the red circle.

Things won't get any easier for the Eagles, not with Denver coming to BC's Conte Forum on Friday, and the Eagles traveling to Hockey East rival New Hampshire on Saturday to open the conference slate. But hey, it's a long way from now to April.

Two games down, 30-plus more to go.