Boston College advances to Frozen Four
March 28, 2010
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP)—Cam Atkinson had three goals and Carl Sneep scored a170-foot short-handed goal to help Boston College beat Yale 9-7 on Sunday in theNortheast Regional final for its ninth trip to the Frozen Four in 13 seasons.
Joe Whitney and Jimmy Hayes each scored twice, Brian Gibbons also scored andJohn Muse made 32 saves for the Eagles (27-10-3), looking for their thirdnational title since 2001. Boston College matched the regional record for goalsin a game and the teams set a regional record for combined goals.
Mark Arcobello scored three goals for Yale (21-10-3), Brian O’Neill addedtwo and Denny Kearney and Broc Little also scored.
Boston College, the Hockey East tournament champion, won national titles in2001 and 2008 after winning regional finals in Worcester.
With the game tied 1-1, Sneep collected a puck between the circles in hisown end, turned and fired a seemingly harmless clearing shot toward Yale’s end.As the puck approached the goal, it appeared to bounce to the right and bygoalie Ryan Rondeau.
Atkinson and Whitney each scored twice in the second period for Eagles.
The top-seeded Eagles made it 3-1 early in the second when Whitney scoredoff his own rebound. Arcobello scored on a wrist shot from the slot, cutting itto 3-2 at 4:46 before Atkinson stole defenseman Ryan Donald’s clearing pass inthe right circle and slipped a shot past Rondeau 11 seconds later.
Atkinson scored off a centering pass from Gibbons to make it 5-2 midway intothe second. Rondeau was then pulled.
Whitney fired a slap shot past backup goalie Billy Blase to make it 6-2.
Atkinson completed his hat trick on a breakaway as he was being hooked frombehind early in the third. Yale then pulled Blase in favor of Jeff Malcolm.
The Bulldogs, the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-seasonchamps, made a charge late in the second period.
Third-seeded Yale, looking to make its first final four appearance sincebeing selected as one of two teams from the East in 1952, scored twice in theclosing 3 minutes of the second to cut it to 6-4. Hayes had his two early in thethird against Malcolm, making it 9-4 with just under 13 minutes to play.
