Falling in heartbreaking fashion to third seeded Boston University in the Hockey East quarterfinals, the University of Vermont men’s hockey team gave new definition to the Ides of March.
After alternating victories in the best of three series’ first two contests, the sixth seeded Cats battled back from a two goal deficit to force overtime in the deciding third game at Agganis Arena in Boston, MA.
A power play goal by Terrier Brandon Yip at 9:22 of the extra stanza gave BU a 3-2 victory and ended the Cats 06-07 campaign.
“I’m just so proud of our team. It’s hard for me to go in there and tell them how well they did because they are hurting pretty bad in there right now,” said head coach Kevin Sneddon.
“I give a lot of credit to our leaders and our seniors for really picking up the team emotionally and finding that energy. I thought we played a great game, it’s just tough to lose in overtime.”
On March 8, the visiting Cats rode a trio of even strength goals and the stellar goaltending of junior goaltender Joe Fallon (20 saves) to grab a 1-0 series advantage.
Picking up tallies from junior assistant captain Mark Lutz, freshman Brayden Irwin and sophomore Peter Lenes, UVM held off a late Terrier rally to earn a 3-2 victory.
“I thought we did a great job tonight especially in the third period when BU put a lot of pressure on us,” Sneddon said.
“I thought our defensive core and Fallon did a great job of making some of those in tight saves,” Sneddon said.
Televised on NESN, the rematch on March 9 saw the Terriers come back to even the series with a 2-0 shutout.
Terriers goaltender John Curry was the standout, finishing with 29 saves.In the third and deciding contest on March 10, the Cats quickly fell behind 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
However, displaying their trademark resiliency, UVM battled back to even the score with their season on the line.
Freshman Viktor St?_lberg sparked the comeback with a second period strike to pull the Cats within a goal.
Lenes’ power play goal at 6:52 of the third period capped the surge before UVM fell in overtime.
The Cats wrapped up the year with a 18-16-5 (12-10-5 Hockey East) overall record. Lenes’ outstanding playoff performance earned him Athlete of the Week honors.
Irwin was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie squad while senior co-captain Kenny Macaulay and junior co-captain Torrey Mitchell earned Hockey East All-Star honorable mentions.
Senior Ryan Gunderson and Fallon finished as runners-up for the Len Ceglarski Sportsmanship award and ITECH goaltending champion, respectively.
