Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Minutemen Tie-up Eagles

BOSTON – Both teams had something to play for, albeit entirely different things.

The Boston College hockey team was playing for position in the upcoming NCAA tournament, while Massachusetts was trying to keep pace with Merrimack for the last playoff position within Hockey East.

For one night both teams played for the same thing, a win.

But a win would elude the Eagles and the Minutemen escaped with a much-needed point in the conference.

At the end of 65 minutes of feverish hockey action, the contest at Conte Forum would end in a tie. The tie allowed UMass to move into a deadlock for eighth place with the Warriors as they lost to Maine 5-4 in overtime at the Volpe Complex.

The Maroon and White were able to escape with a tie due in large part to the play of goaltender Mike Johnson. The junior made a career-high and UMass Division I record 60 saves en route to the draw.

“Good goaltending is like good pitching. It can do a lot of things to help a team out,” UMass head coach Don Cahoon said. “I thought our guys competed. Obviously, we are what we are and they [BC] are what they are. Clearly they’re very good offensively and put so much pressure on you. But we were resilient enough and never got discouraged when they got goals back and we stayed within ourselves.”

“I didn’t really feel that great before [the game], but you feel good after the first save and a few saves later it turned out okay for us,” Johnson said. “I’d rather have a night like tonight where you’re just diving around. You’re into the game the whole time. The guys helped out, [denying] them third and fourth chances. I just had to make one and they’d clear it.”

Diving around and making saves was an understatement as Johnson was forced to make numerous saves while down and out to keep the Eagle sharpshooters from finding the back of the net.

UMass got on the board first when a Brad Nizwantowski shot was saved by BC netminder Scott Clemmensen, but the puck was batted around in front of the net and Kris Wallis banged home the rebound.

But the lead would be short-lived as Johnson was unable to keep Hobey Baker Award candidate Brian Gionta off the scoreboard. With Darcy King in the penalty box for tripping the vaunted BC power play knotted the game.

Freshman forward Ben Eaves made a beautiful cross-ice pass with the man advantage to a wide-open Gionta at the left post for the goal.

The score remained that until midway through the second period when R.J. Gates tallied on wrist shot from the slot. The Gates goal was made possible by a superb individual effort by Jeff Turner. Turner led a two-on-one up ice, but as he skated into the Eagle zone the puck was poke-checked away. This did not bother the senior captain as he made a diving pass to Gates who was all-alone in the slot.

But the lead would be relinquished just over a minute later when Krys Kolanos beat Johnson with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. The goal was the end result of a powerful one-on-one effort in which the sophomore outmuscled UMass defenseman Samuli Jalkanen, which allowed him to get the shot on net.

The Minutemen would one again grab the lead late in the middle frame when Tim Turner scored his team-leading 15th goal of the season. The goal occurred after a BC penalty had expired, but Kolanos was unable to get back in the play before the goal.

The Eagles would get the equalizer at the 7:08 mark of the third period when Gionta broke from behind the net and ripped a shot that was stopped by Johnson. The Minutemen were unable to clear the rebound and Jeff Guiliano scored to tie the game at three.

The score would remain that way until the final horn as both teams were unable to solve the opposing team’s goalie.

“It was important for UMass, but it was important for us, too, BC head coach Jerry York said. “Both of us had a lot on the table.

“We certainly put a lot of shots on Johnson, but the finishing part wasn’t very good for us. If we get that many chances, we’ve got to get more goals. UMass battled hard and stayed right in the game.”

Saturday night the No. 2 Eagles showed the crowd at the William D. Mullins Center why they ranked so highly in the national polls and sit atop the conference.

BC came out of firing as it peppered UMass goalie Markus Helanen with shots early in the first period. Helanen was up to the task for much of the period, but the relentless Eagles showed that they could score goals in a hurry as it took down the Maroon and White, 6-4.

Freshman Chuck Kobasew opened the scoring at the 15:23 mark when he scored on a shot from the high slot. Just over two minutes later Gionta would net his second of three goals on the weekend when a clearing attempt by Helanen hit him on the shaft of his stick and trickled into the net.

“I was forechecking the puck and trying to stay out own his way so I didn’t run into him, and it hit off my shaft and bounced in the net,” Gionta said. “But I’ll take it.”

Gates would cut the BC lead in half with a goal midway through the second, but Bobby Allen would get it back less than a minute later.

Scott Horvath would again cut the lead tow one goal as he scored his sixth goal of the season on a rebound in front of the net.

Marty Hughes would double the lead when he finally solved UMass goaltending for his fifth goal of the year. Hughes as had numerous chances in previous games versus the Minutemen, but has been blanked in the score column.

Tim Turner would score his second goal of the weekend early in the third to cut the Eagle lead to one goal, again, but it was as close as the Maroon and White would get as BC netted two goals on breakaways late in the third period to seal the UMass’ fate.

“We had a couple of breakaways early in the game and I don’t even think we put the puck on net,” Cahoon said. “Trade that off with a couple of breakaways that they had at the end of the game. They get two goals out of their breakaways and we don’t, and that tells the difference in the game – their ability to capitalize and our inability to capitalize.”

With the loss the Minutemen gave up their advantage in the Hockey east standings as Merrimack and Maine skated to a 1-1 tie. The tie puts pressure on UMass to earn points in its final series of the regular season this weekend against No. 7 New Hampshire.

Merrimack has a single game left Friday night at Walter Brown Arena when they take on Boston University.

“One of the things that we talk about as Hockey East coaches is the balance in our league,” York said. “Players like Brian Gionta separate teams. I think that he’s the best player in college hockey at this stage of his career. We’re very fortunate to have him at BC and that’s probably been the difference [reason for being in first place].”

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