BC tops Wisconsin 5-0, 2nd hockey title in 3 years
April 10, 2010
DETROIT (AP)—The NCAA hockey championship trophy is headed back downCommonwealth Avenue.
Led by goalie John Muse, Boston College won the national title for thesecond time in three years, beating Wisconsin 5-0 in the final of the FrozenFour on Saturday night.
Muse made 20 save to improve to 8-0 in tournament play, including thenational title run he made as a freshman in 2008.
When it was over Muse’s teammates tossed their sticks and helmets into theair then swarmed the junior goaltender.
“Johnny Muse was clearly on the top of his game,” BC coach Jerry Yorksaid.
BC won its fourth title and third since 2001, best in the nation over thelast decade. The Eagles’ top rival, Boston University, took home thechampionship last year. In college hockey’s version of the Duke-North Carolinabasketball rivalry, BU and BC are located just a few miles away from each otheron the Green Line trolley that runs along Commonwealth Avenue.
This championship for Muse came almost a year after hip surgery, and thegrueling rehabilitation that followed.
“There wasn’t much pain, but it was long and tedious,” he said. “I did itfor these guys. I wanted to be back.”
Cam Atkinson scored two of the Eagles’ four third-period goals to back Muse.
Atkinson’s first and Chris Krieder’s goal came 2:02 apart early in theperiod and turned a one-goal game into a rout.
“We wanted to attack and be aggressive,” York said. “We don’t like to sitback and change our style of play with the score.”
That mindset has helped put York in elite company with four national titles,including one with Bowling Green.
Just two coaches have more championships—Michigan’s Vic Heyliger won sixfrom 1948-56 and Denver’s Murray Armstrong had five from 1958-1969—and no onehas more than York’s 33 wins in the NCAA tournament.
“I’ve been at it a long time, so that helps,” York said at the end of his38th season as a head coach, and 16th leading the Eagles. “It’s always good tocoach good teams and good players, and I’ve had a whole bunch of those.”
Wisconsin beat the Eagles in the 2006 finals for its sixth title, but didn’thave much of a shot to stop BC’s faster forwards, swarming defensemen andstellar goalie in the rematch.
“We got near the top of the mountain, but we weren’t able to stick the flagat the top,” Badgers coach Mike Eaves said.
Wisconsin forward Blake Geoffrion, grandson of Hockey Hall of Famer Bernie“Boom Boom” Geoffrion, was shut down a day after winning the Hobey Baker Awardas college hockey’s top player.
Geoffrion scored 28 goals this season to help Wisconsin enter the game witha nation-high 171 goals—averaging four a game—but he and his teammatesstruggled to get pucks and bodies near the net to make Muse sweat.
“They did a good job of blocking shots and collapsing down low,” Geoffrionsaid.
Ben Smith, who won the most outstanding player award for the tournament, gotBC’s good night started with a goal 12:57 into the game.
After a scoreless second, the Eagles proved they weren’t content to just sitback and play conservatively.
Atkinson started the flurry in the third and Matt Price finished it with anempty-net goal with 4:31 left while Scott Gudmandson was pulled briefly to addan extra skater. Gudmandson made 21 saves.
A world indoor attendance record was set for hockey with a crowd of 37,592at the home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions.
Wisconsin’s Michael Davies had chances to score and perhaps could’ve blamethe ice conditions for taking away his best opportunity in the second periodwhen he whiffed on a breakaway after the puck bounced over his stick.
“It was soft, but both teams had to play on it,” Eaves said.
The games at Ford Field will be remembered for record crowds and routs thatmatched the Frozen Four record of 18 for goal differential set in 1961.
An announced crowd of 34,954 for Thursday’s two-game session smashed theFrozen Four record of 19,432 fans set in St. Louis three years ago and hockey’sindoor mark of 28,183 from Tampa Bay’s home game at Tropicana Field againstPhiladelphia during the 1996 NHL playoffs.
BC stunned top-seeded Miami of Ohio 7-1 and Wisconsin routed RochesterInstitute of Technology 8-1 to advance to a game that was expected to becompetitive.
The Eagles had other ideas, shutting out Wisconsin in another lopsided gamethat excited only for their fans in a football stadium that had a rink set upnear an end zone.
