After running away with the Hockey East regular-season title, Boston College saw its conference tournament run end in the quarterfinals on Sunday, as the Eagles suffered a 4-2 loss to Notre Dame in a decisive Game 3.
This is the first time the Eagles have not made it to TD Garden for the conference semifinals since 2004, and it’s the first time in league history that no Boston team has reached the semis. The Fighting Irish, meanwhile, will head to the Garden in their first season in the league. They will take on UMass-Lowell Friday night.
“It’s certainly a very difficult loss for us based on the winner goes to the Garden to play for the Lamoriello Trophy,” said BC coach Jerry York. “It’s something that’s been one of our major goals. The locker room is just crushed. We’re very, very disappointed in the outcome.”
York and the Eagles still have plenty to play for, though. They will be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, which gets started in two weeks. York was quick to point out that plenty of teams have reached the national championship game after not playing for their conference championship.
Yale won the national title last year after losing in the ECAC semifinals. In the 2012 national title game, BC met a Ferris State team that had lost in the CCHA quarterfinals. And in 2007, the Eagles lost to a Michigan State team that had gotten bounced in the CCHA semis.
“The most major goal we all have is the national championship,” York said. “You don’t necessarily have to win your league title to win a national championship. It probably happens more often the other way. That’s where our mindset is now. … We have two weeks to prepare for a national championship.”
BC opened the scoring 4:43 into the game when Adam Gilmour picked off a pass in the offensive zone and fed Kevin Hayes for an easy finish. Notre Dame tied it seven minutes later when Stephen Johns threw a backhander on goal that sneaked between Thatcher Demko and the post. The play was originally ruled no-goal, but replay showed the puck clearly crossed the line.
The Irish went up 2-1 a little more than four minutes into the second when Bryan Rust collected a loose puck in the slot and fired it past Demko before the freshman goalie could get set. The Eagles answered four minutes later when Patrick Brown bunted in a rebound for a 5-on-3 goal.
BC appeared to take the lead a minute and a half later when the puck bounced in off Brown’s chest, but much to the dismay of the Conte Forum crowd, the goal was eventually waved off and Brown was called for goaltender interference.
It looked like the game would head to the third tied, but then Notre Dame found itself on a 4-on-3 rush with under 10 seconds to go in the second. T.J. Tynan took a pass in the high slot and then slid it over to Rust for the senior winger’s second goal of the game.
The Eagles controlled play throughout the third, but they couldn’t solve Notre Dame goalie Steven Summerhays, who made 30 saves on the day. The Irish sealed the win when Jeff Costello scored on a breakaway with 1:52 to go.
“Finishing in eighth place and getting to the Garden is [pretty good],” said Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson. “We had a tough first half, and some crazy things happened. It was an adjustment to the league. The conference is so deep that I think we had a lot of surprises. We were in eighth place, but five points out of second. That just tells you about the quality of the conference.”
Johnny Gaudreau‘s 31-game point streak came to an end in the loss. That streak ties Paul Kariya‘s from the 1992-93 season for the longest in Hockey East history.
- Christian Folin and A.J. White scored first-period goals and UMass-Lowell held on for a 2-1 Game 3 win over Vermont. The River Hawks head to the Garden for the second year in a row, and they do so as the defending tournament champions. They will face Notre Dame in the semifinals. The Catamounts are currently 13th in the Pairwise rankings that are used to determine the 16-team NCAA tournament field, meaning they will be scoreboard watching all next weekend hoping they hold onto an at-large berth.
- New Hampshire is headed to the Garden for the first time since 2011 after picking up a wild 5-4 win over Northeastern in Game 3. The Wildcats led 3-1 after one, but Northeastern scored twice in the second to send the game to the third tied 3-3. Kevin Goumas, who had a hat trick in the game, scored 4:40 into the final period to put UNH up 4-3, and Brett Pesce added to the lead nine minutes later. Mike Szmatula cut the lead to 5-4 with 3:50 to go, but that was as close as the Huskies would get.
UNH is up to 18th in the Pairwise with the win, but the Wildcats still need to win at least one more game to have a shot at making NCAAs. They will take on Providence in the semifinals Friday night. Northeastern, meanwhile, dropped to 16th. It isn’t impossible for the Huskies to get an at-large berth, but the chances are definitely pretty slim.