Lawrence, BU, bask in Hockey East title

BOSTON – The Boston University hockey team has certainly filled 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 its first Hockey East title since 20006 Saturday at Boston Garden.But a stubborn UMass-Lowell team, which shocked Northeastern in overtime Friday, did its best to stand in the way. However, 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 Jason Lawrence of Saugus. “Kieran has been unbelievable this season and tonight he showed how good he is.”Lawrence; Lynnfield’s Chris Higgins and St. John’s Prep grad John McCarthy were freshmen in 2006 when, ironically, Yip scored in overtime to give BU the win.”We haven’t had a lot of success in this tournament in the last couple of years,” said 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, earned the No. 1 seed in the East Regional (and the NCAA tournament) to be held on Saturday and Sunday at Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H. and will play No. 4 seed Ohio State in the semifinals.”It’s been a great season. The guys on this team really have had their eyes on the prize from day one,” Lawrence said.Playing for the final spot in the 16-team NCAA field, Lowell 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 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 vying 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 the night and came up huge when he slid across and stole a goal from Campbell as time was running out.