A night after knocking off 12th-ranked Denver, Princeton played a spirited game with No. 4 Boston College, but could not overcome an early Eagle lead as BC posted a 5-1 win in the championship game of the 2005 Wells Fargo Denver Cup. Sophomore Keith Shattenkirk scored the Princeton goal in the loss.
The teams played evenly for the first 14 minutes of the period, but Boston College got on the scoreboard first during a 4-on-4 when Chris Collins scored. The goal came right off the faceoff as Stephen Gionta won the draw to Collins who fired a quick shot that beat Princeton goaltender Eric Leroux as he came across the crease.
BC extended its lead to 2-0 on a power-play goal with 55 seconds remaining in the period. The Eagles established possession in the Princeton end and Peter Harrold fed Brian O’Hanley from the point who one-timed the puck from the face-off dot and scored. BC outshot Princeton 13-9 in the period.
BC extended its lead by a goal with a second-period tally that came on the power play at 10:17. Gionta scored the goal on a rebound off his own shot in front. It was BC’s second power-play goal of the game. Brian Boyle and Collins drew assists on the goal.
Princeton outshot the Eagles 10-9 in the period and had good chances in front, but the BC goaltender Joe Pearce and his defensemen did a good job of blocking shots and keeping play to the perimeter to allow the Eagles to take a 3-0 lead to the locker rooms.
Princeton played strong in the third and had good chances early on but could not convert. The Princeton coaching staff tried to get things going by pulling Leroux early for an extra attacker with more than eight minutes remaining in the game. Princeton pressured but BC finally capitalized on the open net with a goal at 16:30 by Tim Kunes.
BC’s Collins added a goal 1:15 later when he scored an unassisted goal. Princeton closed out the scoring at 18:34 when Shattenkirk scored on the power play. He deflected a shot by senior Brian Carthas by Pearce for the goal. Freshman Will Harvey had an assist on Shattenkirk’s second of the year.
Leroux finished the night with 33 saves, while Pearce made 27 for Boston College.
Princeton placed second in the tournament, its best finish since winning the 1998 Mariucci Classic at Minnesota. Brothers Brett and Kevin Westgarth were named to the all-tournament team, along with Ferris State’s Greg Rallo and Boston College’s Peter Harrold, Chris Collins and Joe Pearce.
