The Vermont Catamounts erased two Boston College two-goal leads, scoring two in the third period en route to a 3-3 tie in the Hockey East opener for both teams at Gutterson Fieldhouse Sunday.<\/p>\n
The fourth-ranked Eagles led 2-0 late in the second and 3-1 with 17:31 left in the third, but junior Peter Lenes sparked a rally and sophomore Jay Anctil tied the game late in the period, giving UVM a well-earned league point.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so pleased on several different fronts,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I mean, obviously, the resiliency of our team to be down two goals twice, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen our team get down in the past. I liked our attitude on the bench. I liked the fact that we were positive and believed that we could come back against a tremendous team and then to go out there and do it.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought we were night-and-day from last weekend against Miami [losing twice],\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sneddon said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Every time something happened bad tonight, we responded very well.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Lenes (one goal, one assist) and Dean Strong (one goal, one assist) had multiple-point games for the Cats, while Brian Gibbons (one goal, one assist), Ben Smith (one goal, one assist) and Joe Whitney (two assists) did the same for the Eagles.<\/p>\n
Just over nine minutes into his first collegiate game, UVM top-line right wing Wahsontiio Stacey hit a BC skater from behind into the left-wing corner boards, setting up a five-minute power play for the Eagles.<\/p>\n
The BC power play peppered the Vermont end, but the Cats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 penalty kill, ranked in the top-five nationally for most of last season, along with senior goaltender Joe Fallon, stopped all six shots.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had some good chances, we were unable to put one up on the board, there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said BC head coach Jerry York. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve liked to get one earlier like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That really sparked us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sneddon of the penalty kill. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Coming in, I think, their power play was clicking around 22, 23 percent \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and for us to weather that storm in our own building, really gave us confidence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
BC junior Nathan Gerbe nearly beat Fallon (30 saves) from the left circle with four minutes left in the period hitting the post, one of two posts the Eagles rang in the opening frame.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Ben Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goal to open the scoring came at 15:47 of the second from the top of the slot. Freshman Whitney found Smith with a pass from the left wing for the 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Less than three minutes later, while on a power play, Gibbons converted a backdoor feed from Kyle Kucharski at 18:09.<\/p>\n
Skating 6-on-5 as a delayed penalty was called, Strong spun in the left circle, beating BC goaltender John Muse (22 saves) short side. Medvec and Lenes assisted the goal.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think, really, the momentum builder was Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goal,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lenes. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were down 2-0, and going into the third was huge for us. So, that helped lift us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That goal \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 sent the message across the way that hey, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to just pack up our tent because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re down two goals.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Anthony Aiello opened the Eagles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lead back up two at 3-1, 2:29 into the third. Smith put a shot on Fallon from the right circle, which the goaltender stopped with his pad but left a big rebound for Aiello low in the slot.<\/p>\n
Vermont answered, making it 3-2 just 1:22 later. Strong made a hard indirect pass off the left-wing boards to Lenes who leaned into a shot from above the circle and beat Muse high to the glove side at 3:51.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153[Lenes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 goal] got them back in it for sure,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said York. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a poor line change by us that created a chance for them and the kid shot a rocket past Johnny, there.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Cats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 comeback was complete at 13:11 when Anctil threw the puck in front from behind the goal line. It glanced off BC defenseman Nick Petrecki\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skate and through the legs of Muse.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Reese [Wisnowski] won the draw and I just tried to get the puck to the net, got a lucky bounce,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Anctil of his second collegiate goal.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last year, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we [came back from two down] once, or since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lenes, a junior, said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been once we get down, we kind of bury ourselves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
In overtime, both teams had good chances to win it, with Boston College center Benn Ferriero hitting the post from inside the left circle, and Vermont center Strong ripping one from the right circle that Muse stopped.<\/p>\n
BC outshot UVM, 33-25, and was 1-for-2 on the power play. Vermont was held scoreless in three opportunities with the man advantage.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We always like to win games, but we did take some pretty positive stuff out of this particular game,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d York said.<\/p>\n
Boston College (1-1-2, 0-0-1 Hockey East) plays a home-and-home with Merrimack next weekend starting Friday at Conte Forum, while Vermont (0-2-1, 0-0-1 Hockey East) hosts old ECAC rival Dartmouth for another Sunday afternoon game at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Vermont Catamounts erased two Boston College two-goal leads, scoring two in the third period en route to a 3-3 tie in the Hockey East opener for both teams at Gutterson Fieldhouse Sunday. The fourth-ranked Eagles led 2-0 late in the second and 3-1 with 17:31 left in the third, but junior Peter Lenes sparked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8303"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}