BOSTON - Boston College freshman John Muse made 29 saves to record the third shutout of his career to lead the eighth-ranked Eagles to a 4-0 victory over No. 18 Vermont in the Hockey East Championship game on Saturday night at the TD Banknorth Garden in front of a crowd of 11,766. It marked a league best eighth tournament championship for Boston College (21-11-8; 11-9-7 HEA), who also has won back-to-back league titles. Vermont ends its season at 17-15-7 (13-9-5 HEA) with the loss.
Sophomore Ben Smith and junior Tim Kunes each scored at even strength for the Eagles while freshman Brian Gibbons notched a power-play goal. Junior Nathan Gerbe, The Hockey East Tournament MVP, added an empty netter with 65 seconds remaining.
Vermont dropped to 0-2 all-time in post-season tournament championship games. The Catamounts finished tied for 16th in the Pairwise Rankings, which determines the NCAA Tournament field. Vermont was the third team out of this year's tournament behind Minnesota State and Harvard.
"I'm just so proud of our team, not only for the way they competed tonight, but for the entire season," Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. "They're a tremendous group of young men that I had the pleasure of working with. This program is heading in a great direction. We're certainly going to miss student-athletes like Mark Lutz and the rest of our seniors, but they have left their legacy here. They've had a great four years."
"I want to congratulate Boston College in winning the championship," Sneddon added. "I thought they played a fantastic game. They have certainly played quite well down the stretch here. I want to give Jerry York and his staff and their student-athletes praise. They certainly deserved it tonight - they played fantastic."
Senior Joe Fallon (Bemidji, Minn.) finished with 24 saves in his final game with the Catamounts. Fallon ended his career second all-time in NCAA Division I shutouts with 20. His 2.05 goals against ranked 11th best in NCAA history.
Smith put the Eagles in front with 1:28 left in the first period with his 21st goal of the season. Smith knocked in a rebound after a shot by sophomore Carl Sneep squeezed through the legs of Fallon.
Vermont out shot Boston College 13-11 in the first and had several good scoring chances in the period. Muse turned away a shot by freshman Jack Downing (New Canaan, Conn.) from the low slot at 10:59. Sophomore Brian Roloff (West Seneca, N.Y.) had a pair of shots from in tight with 3:34 left, but again Muse was there for consecutive saves.
Kunes gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead 5:01 into the second period with his first goal of the season. He beat Fallon from the right point with a high shot on the blocker side.
Boston College opened up a 3-0 cushion with a power-play goal with 20 seconds left in the second. Gibbons came free at the right post and junior Andrew Orpik setup the goal with a pass from the left circle.
"To put them up 3-0 was a bit of a dagger." Senior co-captain Mark Lutz (Stevens Point, Wis.) said. "We had to stay positive in the locker room and come out in the third, but we weren't able to muster up quite enough to get ourselves back in the game."
Vermont out shot BC 12-6 in the third period but wasn't able to get on the scoreboard.
"Obviously, there's a lot of tears and emotion in the locker room right now," Sneddon said. "That's because of all the hard work they put in throughout their career. Again, I was very pleased with our effort. Unfortunately, we couldn't convert on a lot of opportunities early on, but their goaltender played fantastic, as did ours all weekend. That was really the difference in the game."
Tonight was the final game for Vermont's five seniors Joe Fallon, Jeff Hill, Mark Lutz, Slavomir Tomko and Reese Wisnowski. It was also the final game for Director of Hockey Operations Jonathan Bates, who also is a senior. The group was part of 74 wins in its four seasons at UVM.
NOTES: Tonight's game was produced by NESN and aired live NECN ... NESN replayed the game at 10:30pm ... Vermont is 4-6 all-time in the Hockey East Tournament ... The Catamounts have never won a post-season conference tournament ... Vermont made its best bid to make the NCAA Tournament this season since its last visit in 1997 ... The Catamounts went 0-3-1 against the Eagles this season ... Vermont finished 9-8-4 against ranked opponents this season.
