Final Score: Boston College 3, Vermont 2 -- Box Score
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Boston College senior captain Peter Harrold scored the game-winning goal at 10:41 of overtime to lift the 13th ranked Eagles to a 3-2 victory over Vermont at Conte Forum in game one of the Hockey East quarterfinals. The Eagles improve to 21-11-3 with the win and take 1-0 lead in the best of three series. The Catamounts drop to 18-13-6 on the season and face a must win situation in game two of the series on Friday night.
"We'll be back," Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. "We've been in this situation before. A lot of guys in that room certainly remembered what happened last year against Dartmouth. We lost the first game and came back to win two. We have our backs up against the wall but we're looking forward to playing again tomorrow night."
Boston College took a 1-0 advantage at 5:17 of the first period when six-foot-seven junior Brian Boyle notched his 20th goal of the season. Boyle came free in the slot on the power play and fired a wrist shot past Vermont sophomore goalie Joe Fallon (Bemidji, Minn.) to give BC the early lead.
Vermont freshman Dean Strong (Mississauga, Ontario) would tie the game at one with a power-play goal at 7:47 of the opening period. Sophomore Torrey Mitchell (Greenfield Park, Quebec) set up the score with a fantastic centering pass and Strong fired a one-timer past BC sophomore goalie Cory Schneider for his ninth goal of the season. Junior assistant captain Kenny Macaulay (Baddeck, Nova Scotia) also assisted on the play.
The game stayed tied at one going to the third period. The Catamounts took their first lead of the game on a goal by senior captain Jamie Sifers (Stratford, Conn.) at 3:28 of the final period. Sifers blasted a shot from outside the left circle and beat Schneider to give Vermont a 2-1 lead. Senior Matt Syroczynski (Hamburg, N.Y.) assisted on the goal.
Down by one goal with 90 seconds to go in the game BC pulled Schneider from net for a 6-on-5. Harrold would fire a shot from just inside the blue line that was deflected in front and the puck landed near a wide-open Chris Collins. Hockey East's leading scorer took advantage by stuffing the puck past Fallon into the net to tie the game at two and force overtime. The goal was the 27th of the year for Collins.
In overtime Mitchell had a chance to win the game for the Catamounts midway through the extra session but Schneider made a sensational glove save on his shot attempt from right on the doorstep. The Eagles skated back up the ice on their next possession and Harrold fired a shot from the right circle that sneaked past Fallon for the game-winner.
"The same thing I said to our team I'm sure Jerry (York) said to their team," Sneddon said. "Just throw it at the net in overtime and you never know when it's going to take a bounce and obviously it was a little bit of a fluke there. It hit Joe (Fallon) the right way on his stick and bounced the wrong way for us unfortunately."
The Eagles outshot Vermont 34-27 and they improve to 4-0 on the year against the Catamounts. Fallon made 31 saves for UVM while Schneider made 25 stops for the Eagles.
GAME NOTES ... The loss was the first for Vermont in overtime since Jan. 31, 2004 in a 3-2 defeat against Rensselaer ... The Catamounts are now 5-1-10 in their last 16 overtime contests and 3-1-6 in OT this season ... Vermont's 10 overtime games matches the most in a season in school history ... BC leads the all-time series against Vermont 16-6-2.