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April 6, 2006
NCAA Frozen Four Notebook
Turning the Tide
An improved penalty kill has gone from weakness to threat for BC

By Jeff Howe, Joe Gladziszewski and Mike Eidelbes

Cory Schneider makes one of his 36 saves for BC. (Photo by Larry Radloff)

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – National champions aren’t typically born with an obvious weakness. Though we’re still two days away from knowing whether or not Boston College can stake claim to the king’s chair of the college hockey world, the Eagles would have never earned a slot in Saturday’s title tilt without rectifying their clear early-season weakness on the penalty kill.

Giving up goals while skating a man down was a common occurrence around Chestnut Hill a few months ago, but BC has since turned the tide and is seeing the red light shine on the other end of the ice for a change.

The Eagle penalty kill has closer resembled a power-play unit of late – which is a good thing considering how little production BC's man-up unit is creating – and it struck again in the 6-5 victory over North Dakota in the Frozen Four on Thursday.

After a North Dakota shot was deflected high in the BC zone about seven minutes into the first period, Chris Collins collected puck and headed down the ice all alone. His wrist shot from the left point sailed past the left shoulder of Jordan Parise to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. It proved to symbolize just how different the penalty-killing strategy is in comparison to what it was back in December.

“Coach [Mike] Cavanaugh is always stressing defense first, but in the back of our minds, we’re thinking offense,” Collins said. “If we can get a good bounce or a good shot block, we’re off to the races. I’m not excited when someone takes a penalty, but I do get excited to kill a penalty. I feel like there is more out there, and I feel like I can get good chances to score on the penalty kill.”

It was Boston College’s third short-handed score in its last two games. The PK unit is outscoring its opponents’ power play by a 3-2 margin since the Hockey East semifinal against Maine, a span of five games.

“It’s the mindset,” Collins said. “We go into the penalty kill knowing that we’re going to get a chance. We’re thinking defense first, but if we get that one little bounce, we’re off and going. We’ve all played together a lot, and we know how to read each other.”

It’s obviously nice for goalie Cory Schneider, who has seen the offensive pressure shift from his end to the other lately. Schneider, just a sophomore, said the transition from being woeful to wonderful on the penalty kill was just a matter of the younger players learning the system from the veterans.

“At the beginning of the year, we were a little tentative,” Schneider said. “We had a lot of freshman we were working in who weren’t sure of what to do. Boyle was back on defense. Chris [Collins] and [Stephen] Gionta have been killing penalties for four years now, and they really handle the charge. They’re aggressive, and they’re capitalizing on their chances so I think the younger guys are figuring out how to kill penalties by following their leaders.”

The Eagles didn’t have to look far to implement the actual systematic change of the PK. They just studied the effectiveness of their opponents’ special teams units and made them their own.

“We’ve developed a new thing where we’re swarming by sending three guys into the corners so they don’t have any time,” Collins said. “By not giving them any time to set up, it’s really tough for them to make plays. We took that from other teams who were doing that to us at the beginning of the year and just ran with it. We’ve got guys who can win those battles.

“Just get after it, go as hard as you can and don’t lay back,” Collins said. “We’ve got to make them uncomfortable on the power play, and when they’re uncomfortable, they turn the puck over and we get offensive chances.”

GERBE GETS WICKED

Nathan Gerbe finishes off his highlight-reel goal. (Photo by Larry Radloff)

Nathan Gerbe’s goal made the score 6-3 in favor of Boston College with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game. He took the puck with speed through the neutral zone straight at North Dakota defenseman Matt Smaby. Gerbe slid the puck past Smaby’s mistimed poke check and skated by the off-balance defenseman. As Gerbe collected the puck and broke in on Parise, Smaby fell to the ice and was just getting to his feet as Gerbe’s forehand deke was tucked inside of the left post.

Humility and modesty from players on spectacular plays is the norm. Gerbe sheepishly described the play.

“I don’t even know where I picked it up but I tried to pick up as much speed as I can and tried to cut to the other side of the defenseman. Luckily I got by,” Gerbe said.

That’s why we needed to get other players to talk about Gerbe’s goal of the game.

Brett Motherwell, a fellow freshman and Gerbe’s roommate, has to defend those types of rushes in practice as one of the Eagle defensemen. He wasn’t surprised at all by Gerbe’s goal that drew oohs and aahs.

“This is my second year playing with him," Motherwell said. "We played when we were younger and he’s so shifty and he’s always doing that type of stuff in practice. He got him really good, and got the goalie, too."

Cory Schneider spoke from the goaltender’s perspective and knew what Parise was dealing with.

“Gerbe has some of the best hands I’ve ever seen when he is up close and he can really make people look foolish,” Schneider said.

What looked like the cherry on the Boston College sundae proved to be the game-winning goal, but will always be remembered more for its flash than its significance.

INCH's Three Stars of the Game

3. Boston College's freshmen defensemen So much was made of the talented youngsters on North Dakota’s roster, but the Eagles’ rookie rearguards were steady in Peter Harrold’s absence and all three contributed on offense – Brett Motherwell and Anthony Aiello scored goals, while Tim Filangieri pitched in with an assist on Nathan Gerbe’s eventual game winner. 2. Chris Collins, Boston College The team’s leading goal scorer scored three goals on college hockey’s biggest stage. The first goal, which gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead, was as pretty and accurate a shot as you’ll see at any level of the game. 1. Cory Schneider, Boston College As good as Collins was, the Eagles would have been toast without their goalie, who was especially sharp despite allowing two North Dakota goals in the closing minutes of the third period. His stop on a streaking Travis Zajac midway through the third period might’ve been the game’s biggest play, as Nathan Gerbe scored on a breakaway during the next shift to give BC a 6-3 edge.

Related Coverage

Game Story: Collins Gets Tricky The Eagles' leader leads them right to Saturday's title game.

SEEN AND HEARD AT THE BRADLEY CENTER

• A 3-0 Boston College lead after the first period would seem to indicate Eagle dominance through 20 minutes of play. The fact is that the Fighting Sioux outplayed Boston College and had more scoring opportunities. They had 12 shots on goal to Boston College’s five.

Yet Boston College was the team with the lead because they took advantage of the few opportunities they had. A bad line change by the Sioux allowed Eagle freshman defenseman Brett Motherwell to walk through the neutral zone and pick the top corner on North Dakota goalie Jordan Parise.

“We were pretty excited to come out with a 3-0 lead when the play didn’t go our way so it was something to look forward to. Cory played awesome for us in the first period,” Nathan Gerbe said.

• One can’t argue with the results, but one of Boston College’s penalty killing units is an unorthodox quartet comprised of three forwards and one defenseman. First-line centerman Brian Boyle drops back to the blue line.

“It took a little work,” Boyle said of getting acclimated to the role. “It’s a faster game in college, so it’s tougher to read rushes. But the defensive zone coverage is the same because you’re down low as a center. Guys coming in on one-on-ones [and]
guys coming in the zone in my lane were the biggest adjustments, but I felt pretty comfortable.”

• Boston College defenseman Peter Harrold should be fine for Saturday’s championship game despite spraining his right ankle in the first period of this afternoon’s game.

“I went to poke check [T.J.] Oshie and either he fell on it or I twisted it around his leg wrong,” Harrold explained. “[The trainers] wrapped it once in the first period and it wasn’t tight enough. I went out once and I had to come off almost immediately.”

Harrold had the ankle re-wrapped between periods and returned to play. A hit from a North Dakota skater in the Eagles’ zone late appeared to send him reeling, but the senior said it wasn’t case.

“I didn’t see him and he got me right in the head. I got up and almost fell again because I put a lot of weight on my ankle. People thought I was stumbling around and didn’t know where I was.”

Coach Jerry York ordered Harrold to use crutches the rest of the day as a precaution.

• After scoring his third goal, Collins turned to face the Boston College fans and pointed to the cheering throng with both hands. The double-barreled greeting was directed at two particular members of that section.

"The first person I saw was my father and my brother was right next to him,” Collins said. “It was really special. That's something you dream of … scoring in this type of atmosphere and having my dad right there."

• Today’s first semifinal was the highest scoring Frozen Four game since Northern Michigan beat Boston University in the 1991 title match, 8-7 in three overtimes. It’s the highest scoring semifinal contest since 1976, when Michigan Tech topped Brown, 7-6, in two overtimes. Minnesota and Maine combined for 11 goals back in 1989 when the Gophers downed the Black Bears, 7-4, in a semifinal in St. Paul, Minn.

• Cory Schneider told Inside College Hockey two weeks ago that he doesn’t care if he won games by a score of 1-0 or 6-5. When Schneider was asked how it actually felt to win a game 6-5, he laughed and responded with, “Scary, huh?”

• Those of us fortunate to have access to the media dining room and work area spotted a college hockey fan’s dream lunch trio. Seated at one of the dining room’s tables were former Wisconsin head coach Jeff Sauer, current Badger women’s hockey coach Mark Johnson and head coach at Division III St. John’s (Minn.) John Harrington, a teammate of Johnson’s on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.

• North Dakota fans provided the two best signs spotted at the Bradley Center. One placard in section 224 read, “Hey M” – a maroon block letter in reference to rival Minnesota – “Wish you were here.” Meanwhile, three fans sitting in the front row of section 428 in the arena’s upper deck caught the spirit of the thing when they held up a sign proclaiming “We love hockey.”

• As usual, fans attending the Frozen Four sported a variety of sweaters representing teams from Amherst to Anchorage. Among the best this afternoon was a pair of red, white and blue NHL throwbacks – a star-spangled Washington Capitals home jersey with Michel Pivonka’s name on the back, and a Dale Hawerchuk Winnipeg Jets road model. From the college game, standouts included two orange Bowling Green sweaters, a red Rensselaer jersey with the skating puck logo emblazoned on the front, a terrific Bemidji State throwback jersey, a Michigan State game-worn model with John-Michael Liles’ name and number and two Division III jerseys – Bowdoin and Norwich.

PLUSSES AND MINUSES

Credit to the Bradley Center for providing interesting angles on its two end-zone video boards. Rather than following the puck during live game action or showing replays, the large monitors featured continuous overhead shots of the goal area at both ends.

The law of averages works in your favor when two teams combine for 11 goals, but this afternoon’s game provided a passel of pretty goals, including the top-corner lasers by BC’s Motherwell and Collins, Nathan Gerbe’s game winner and scores from North Dakota’s Travis Zajac and Rastislav Spirko.

As good as the penalty killing was for both teams, the power-play units for both teams deserve a dose of admonishment for their collective ineptitude. Not only did Boston College and North Dakota fail to generate a man-advantage goal, but the Eagles scored one shorthanded goal while the Sioux got two.

The Bradley Center stat boards located at opposite corners of the rink providing updated totals for shots on goal, saves, penalty minutes, power plays and face-off wins are a nice touch. But we’re sure BC fans objected to the heading at the top of their stat column which referred to their team as “Boston”, which just happens to be emblazoned across the jerseys of the Eagles’ archrivals at Boston University.

WHAT'S NEXT

For the ninth time in 10 years, a Hockey East team advances to the championship game. It’s been five years since the conference last claimed a national title – Boston College beat North Dakota in overtime in 2001 – and the last all-Hockey East final occurred in Anaheim in 1999, when Maine outlasted New Hampshire in OT. Count Schneider among those who would like to see the league regain some of the luster that’s been steered in the WCHA’s direction in recent seasons.

“This place will be jumping if we play Wisco,” the BC goalie said following the North Dakota win, “but it’d be nice to get an all-Hockey East final after getting shut out last year.”