FINAL SCORE: No. 17 Vermont 3, No. 9 Boston College 1CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Brady Shaw scored a pair of power play goals in the first period and
Brody Hoffman tied a career-high with 39 saves as No. 17 Vermont earned a 3-1 victory over ninth-ranked Boston College in Game 2 of the Hockey East Quarterfinal on Saturday night at Conte Forum.
The Catamounts improved to 21-14-4 to knot the series at one and force a decisive Game 3 on Sunday night at 6 p.m. The Eagles dropped to 21-12-3 with just their fifth home loss of the season.
Shaw registered his 18th and 19th goals of the season, increasing his total to six in four meetings with Boston College this season. The sophomore has scored 11 goals in his last 14 contests and leads Vermont with 13 tallies in the second half.
"It was a great college hockey game. Our power play got us off to a good start going 2-for-2 early in the game," said head coach Kevin
Sneddon. "From that point on, BC did a great job of putting a lot of pucks on our net but I thought Mr. Hoffman was really the difference in the game, certainly for us."
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CatamounTV PostgameBox Score Shaw opened the scoring for the Catamounts near the nine-minute mark of the first period as he fired a shot blocker side on Thatcher Demko (22 saves) inside the left post.
Brendan Bradley and
Alexx Privitera picked up the assists on Shaw's first power play tally.
The sophomore added his second of the frame at 16:36 after receiving a pass in the right faceoff circle from
Mike Paliotta. Shaw stepped into a wrister and beat Demko glove side through traffic for a 2-0 cushion.
Jake Fallon also assisted on Shaw's ninth power play tally of the season.
Hoffman took over in the second period, making 19 saves to keep the Catamounts on top. With under six minutes left in the frame, Ryan Fitzgerald drew one back for BC at the tail end of a 4-on-3 power play. Fitzgerald gathered a feed from Michael Matheson in the slot and wristed a shot low glove side through a partial screen.
Boston College pressed for the tying goal in the third period, but Vermont limited the Eagles to a handful of perimeter chances and killed off a penalty with seven minutes remaining.
UVM retained its 2-1 cushion into the closing minutes when BC pulled Demko for an extra skater. Shaw chased a full-ice clearance from
Yvan Pattyn behind the Eagles' net and centered a pass to Bradley, who buried a one-time backhander for an insurance goal to seal the win.
Hoffman's 39-save effort tied his performance on Dec. 15, 2012 as a freshman when he stopped 39 shots in a road win over St. Lawrence. The junior was making his first start in five weeks and has stopped 51 of the 52 shots he has faced this weekend.
The Catamounts finished the night 2-for-3 on the power play, while the Eagles went 1-for-4. BC held a 40-25 edge in shots on goal.
The teams face off in Game 3 of the series on Sunday (March 15) at 6 p.m. in Chestnut Hill with a berth in the Hockey East Semifinal on the line. The game will be televised live on NESN with Tom Caron and Billy Jaffe on the call.
Pre-game radio coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. on WVMT 620-AM,
SportsJuice.com, and the TuneIn Radio app with
Alastair Ingram and
Joe Gervais on the call from Conte Forum.
