BC Wins All The Beans
from Boston.com



The punch line belonged to Boston College, which got a tying goal by Ty Hennes with 3:30 to play in regulation, then won it on Ryan Murphy's power-play strike 6:07 into overtime to provide a thrilling 2-1 triumph that sent the Beanpot hardware to Chestnut Hill for the 13th time. In the 17th final between these archrivals, BC won for the seventh time, and in doing so, the Eagles denied the Terriers a 26th title.

"I thought our team played well in all facets of the game," said BC coach Jerry York in a classic understatement, for the Eagles applied pulsating pressure from start to finish. In the end, the Eagles outshot the Terriers, 52-13, and had a wide edge in scoring opportunities. "That's the system we try to put in," said the BC coach.

Truth be told, I don't know much about hockey. Just love any excuse to stick John Silber's minions faces in it.

More

BC 2, BU 1
BC wins a sizzler
Eagles roar back in OT to snatch it from BU

By Jim McCabe, Globe Staff, 2/10/2004

Surely, had the FleetCenter gathering of 17,565 watching last night's finale of the 52d Beanpot wanted more, Sean Fields could have pulled a rabbit out of the water bottle that rested on top of the goal. Maybe two or three, in fact, to go along with the times he stood on his head and caught pucks out of thin air.

It was a scintillating act, both for him and his Boston University Terriers, who are no strangers to magic acts themselves in this fabled tournament. The only thing it lacked was a perfect ending.

Instead, the punch line belonged to Boston College, which got a tying goal by Ty Hennes with 3:30 to play in regulation, then won it on Ryan Murphy's power-play strike 6:07 into overtime to provide a thrilling 2-1 triumph that sent the Beanpot hardware to Chestnut Hill for the 13th time. In the 17th final between these archrivals, BC won for the seventh time, and in doing so, the Eagles denied the Terriers a 26th title.

"I thought our team played well in all facets of the game," said BC coach Jerry York in a classic understatement, for the Eagles applied pulsating pressure from start to finish. In the end, the Eagles outshot the Terriers, 52-13, and had a wide edge in scoring opportunities. "That's the system we try to put in," said the BC coach.

But the system doesn't anticipate the goaltending display brought forth by Fields, a senior from Edmonton.

With his mates outshot, 18-5, in the opening 20 minutes, then 15-5 in the middle period, Fields was a one-man wall of defense. The Terriers had jumped ahead 3:30 into the game thanks to a blistering wrist shot by freshman Kenny Roche that BC goaltender Matti Kaltiainen never saw.

"For most of the night, I thought we did a good job protecting the lead," said BU coach Jack Parker.

The Terriers had help, of course. "A few lucky bounces," conceded Fields, a reference to a few BC scoring chances that hit posts. There also was a BC goal at 6:06 of the third period that was called back -- J.D. Forrest's score disallowed because Adam Pineault's skate was in the crease -- but truth be told, Fields is to the Beanpot what Reggie Jackson used to be to the World Series. This is his stage, and he's in the record books now as the first player since John Cunniff (1964-65) to win back-to-back MVP honors and the first player from a losing team ever named the tournament MVP.

Yet that hardly served as consolation.

"We put our hearts into it, and to come up short breaks your heart," said Fields.

Even the folks from The Heights sympathized. York raved about Fields, who was the starting netminder for two Beanpot-winning clubs. And Murphy, the hero, called the performance "unbelievable."

What Murphy couldn't describe was his winner, because it happened so quickly and came at the end of a broken play in which he had fanned on a shot. "You just knew it wasn't going to be a pretty goal," said the junior from Rumson, N.J., minutes after his fifth score of the year had given BC its fourth win over BU this season.

It was the end result of typical BC pressure, a power play that had been set in motion by Tony Voce's burst of speed around freshman defenseman Tom Morrow in overtime. Trying to catch Voce, Morrow hauled him down, and BC went on the man-advantage. "We had contained them pretty well all night," said Parker and indeed the Eagles had been 0 for 3 in regulation.

They connected on their only try in the extra session, however, with Ryan Shannon helping to set up the goal.

Fitting, perhaps, that he should be the hero, for Murphy had done the bulk of the dirty work late in regulation, the end result being Hennes's score at 16:30. Battling to keep the puck alive, Murphy had a few chances at it, then finally the rebound came to Hennes, who beat Fields for just his second goal of the season.

"We worked so hard tonight," said Murphy. "I thought we deserved it."

Minutes before Hennes's goal, BC thought it had tied the game, until Forrest's score was called back. Fields said he didn't know why it was disallowed, "but I wasn't going to give it back." The Eagles denied that their frustration hit the boiling point when refereen Scott Hansen announced the decision.

"It didn't deflate our sails at all," said Murphy. "It made us try harder."

Hennes's effort was the only one of BC's 12 third-period shots to get past Fields, who also won the Eberly Award as the tournament's top goaltender for a second straight year. The Terriers, meanwhile, generated but two shots on goal in that third period, keeping themselves in the game with a defense led by Ryan Whitney, Sean Sullivan, and Kevin Schaeffer, anchors against an onrushing tide dressed as Eagles.

"They just come at you, sending two men deep, and they don't dilly-dally with the puck," said Fields, sweat pouring from his brow as he stood in the bowels of the FleetCenter. He had stood in the same spot last year, and the year before that, both times embracing the Beanpot. This time, he had been even better. Only this time, he didn't have a thing to celebrate.

Magic acts are like that sometimes.

posted by prof_booty | 08:31 AM