BOSTON ? The Boston University hockey team has certainly done a great job of filling up the trophy case at Agganis Arena this season.
The Terriers had already won the Icebreaker and Denver Cup tournaments along with the Beanpot before claiming the Hockey East regular season crown on the season?s final day. On Saturday at TD BankNorth Garden, BU was looking to win its first Hockey East postseason title since 2006.
UMass-Lowell was bound and determined to not let that happen and though the River Hawks were more than game, Brandon Yip?s goal late in the first period proved to be all the offense BU needed as freshman goalie and tournament MVP Kieran Millan?s 32 saves led the Terriers to a 1-0 win and the silver anniversary Hockey East crown which wasn?t sealed until Millan robbed Scott Campbell point blank with five seconds left.
?It?s awesome to win a championship with guys like we have,” said Terrier senior and Saugus native Jason Lawrence. “Kieran has been unbelievable this season and tonight he showed how good he is.”
The tourney title was the first since 2006 when Lawrence; Lynnfield?s Chris Higgins and St. John?s Prep grad John McCarthy were freshmen. On that night, Yip also was the hero, scoring in overtime to give BU the win.
Getting back to the Garden and winning the title was something that squarely was on McCarthy?s mind.
?We haven?t had a lot of success in this tournament in the last couple of years,” McCarthy, who was named to the all-tournament team, said. “And it?s a great feeling to end here on a win.”
The Terriers, 31-6-4 on the year, is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and will face Ohio State this Friday in the Northeast Regionals.
Three other Hockey East teams made the nationals: Northeastern, which is the No. 2 seed in the Midwest, and which will face Cornell in the first round; New Hampshire, No. 3 in the Northeast, which will face North Dakota; and Vermont, the No. 3 seed in the East, which will face Yale in Bridgeport, Conn.
?It?s been a great season. The guys on this team really have had their eyes on the prize from day one,” Lawrence said.
Lowell certainly did its best to spoil the Terriers garden party on Saturday. Playing for the final spot in the 16 team NCAA field, the River Hawks played the No. 1 ranked team in the country even for all 60 minutes.
The River Hawks had a boatload of chances on the power play ? seven in all ? but the BU penalty killers were up to the task.
?Lowell really has a great team,” McCarthy said. “And they wanted to put a lot of pressure on us and they got us to play in our zone. But we were able to gut it out in the third period.”
After the two teams battled through a nearly scoreless first period, Yip was in the right place to slam home a McCarthy rebound to stake the Terriers to a 1-0 lead through one.
The River Hawks then began to take control of the game in the second as BU began to commit penalties. But the Terriers were able to duck all three power play chances the River Hawks had in the middle period.
?I thought we played really well,” River Hawks coach Blaise MacDonald said. “But you have to give BU a lot of credit; they did a tremendous job of penalty killing especially down the stretch when the game really mattered.”
Lowell thought it had tied the game midway through the second when the puck found its way in during a scrum in the BU crease that had six skaters vieing for the puck. But after video replay, referees Tim Benedetto and Jeff Bunyon waived off the goal because the whistle had blown before the puck went in.
That play would prove to be critical later in the game.
Lowell?s power play outage continued in the third where it had three man advantage changes in the first 9:47, including a 23 second 5-on-3 advantage, but failed to convert.
Then with time running out, BU?s Colin Wilson was called for tripping at 18:08, giving Lowell one final chance to force overtime. With six skaters on the ice, Millan faced his stiffest test of th
