Late break is moot in defeat

Mary Schwalm, Associated Press

Mike Howe slipped a backhander past Boston College goaltender John Muse in the second period Saturday. Howe's goal tied the game 1-1..

An official's ruling gave the Gophers a brief spark, but the score came way too late.

By ROMAN AUGUSTOVIZ, Star Tribune

Last update: March 31, 2008 - 12:18 AM

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NCAA MEN'S HOCKEY TOURNAMENT BOSTON COLLEGE 5, GOPHERS 2

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WORCESTER, MASS. - With 45 seconds to play and Boston College holding an apparent four-goal lead Saturday, the Gophers needed a miracle to keep their season going.

As it turned out, Minnesota had a better chance of winning than it seemed.

The final score was 5-2 Boston College in this first-round game of the Northeast Regional, so this bizarre finish needs explaining.

Forty-five seconds after a BC empty-net goal, the game was stopped for about 10 minutes as officials tried to decide whether the Gophers' Ben Gordon had scored a power-play goal with 3:27 left.

Eventually they ruled Gordon's shot went into the net from 25 feet out.

The review had to wait until a stoppage in play, and the officials also erased Boston College's last goal. Booing was minimal, even in front a partisan BC crowd, because many of the 7,357 fans had left the DCU Center.

Not only did the score change from 5-1 to 4-2 BC, the clock was reset to the time of Gordon's goal. The smaller lead gave the Gophers hope, and they pulled goalie Alex Kangas for an extra skater.

"We were all pretty sure it went in," Gordon said. "And it kind of gave us a chance and we had some chances after it. Who knows, if we could have popped in another quick one, it might have gone down to the wire."

This was a Gophers team known more for its defense than scoring. Remember the 10 goals in eight games in midseason? "It has not been easy for this team to score all season," Gophers coach Don Lucia said.

BC coach Jerry York admitted the review could have changed the game.

"That was an interesting scenario at the end of the game," York said, "when they erased our goal and went back to the previous time. If they score a goal then, all the momentum switches to them."

But the Gophers could not get a third goal to make the Eagles sweat more. Instead, York won for the 800th time in his career and his team will play Miami (Ohio) for the regional title today.

York is 800-515-84 in 36 seasons at three colleges, including BC since 1994.

"They're an opportunistic team," Lucia said of the Eagles. "We could not get into a shootout with them. We just could not hold them to two.

"They are really good around the net, they really swarm to the blue paint. I knew this would be a difficult matchup. There is a reason they have played for the national title the past two years."

Boston College (22-11-8) took a 1-0 lead on Ben Smith's power-play goal at 6:33 of the first period. The Gophers' Mike Howe tied it at 3:01 of the second period on a backhander.

Five minutes later, the teams took turns with odd-man rushes. A Boston College defenseman deflected a pass on the Gophers' chance. Then it was BC's turn on a 2-on-1. A backpedaling Fischer committed to his left to stop Joe Whitney with the puck.

Seeing that, Whitney passed to Benn Ferriero, who scored from the left hash marks at 7:58 to make it 2-1 Eagles.

"I felt being down 2-1 going into the third period was manageable," Lucia said.

But the Eagles soon increased their lead after an early power play in the third period seemed to recharge them. Pat Gannon scored at 4:25 from the edge of the crease and Whitney at 8:46 on a nifty spin-and-fire move to make it 4-1.