BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Continuing the trend of ECAC Hockey teams winning the Friendship Four, the Union College men's hockey team defeated Boston University, 2-1, to claim the 2018 Belpot Championship on Saturday night at SSE Arena.
The win caps-off an undefeated weekend for the Dutchmen overseas, after tying Yale 1-1 in the opening game of the tournament. Union improves to 9-3-2 on the season after the weekend in Northern Ireland.
Brett Supinski opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season, and Parker Foo scored his second of the season, providing the game-winner early in the second period. Darion Hanson made a total of 39 saves in the contest, and with 70 saves on the weekend, was named the tournament MVP. Jack Adams recorded an assist on Foo's goal, giving him two points on the weekend.
Hanson has been named the @Friendship_Four MVP. With saves like this, there's no doubt. 🙌🙌🙌🙌 pic.twitter.com/nBFWcJwOiv
— Union Hockey (@Unionmhockey) November 24, 2018
How It Happened
Just like the day before, Union scored the opening goal. This time Brett Supinski scored, redirecting a shot from Anthony Rinaldi at the 11:31 mark of the first period. Greg Campbell entered the zone with the puck before dropping it off to Rinaldi along the boards. Rinaldi had his first shot blocked, but he got a second chance off the rebound and Supinski was parked in front of the net for the redirect.
18👦🏻 with the redirection on the shot from 8⚜️ for the first goal of the 2018 Belpot championship game. pic.twitter.com/0CG01VpAoi
— Union Hockey (@Unionmhockey) November 24, 2018
However, the Terriers would tie the game up before the end of the first period. BU's Ty Amonte scored his second of the season with 49 seconds remaining in the frame.
After the two teams combined for five penalties in the first period, neither team would head to the sin bin for the remainder of the contest.
Early in the second period, Jack Adams created a turnover in the neutral zone and quickly dished the puck off to Sam Morton who had a two-on-one with Parker Foo. Morton passed over to Foo, who then took the shot and beat BU goaltender Jake Oettinger low glove for his second goal of the season.
22👲🏽 with the low glove snipe to give Union the 2-1 lead. 🍎s go to 28🏄🏻♂️ and 15🐐 pic.twitter.com/mCEOyGy880
— Union Hockey (@Unionmhockey) November 24, 2018
Thanks to the heroics of Darion Hanson in net for Union, Foo's tally would be the final goal of the game. Hanson ended up making a game-high 17 saves in the second period, and 11 more in the third period. Of those saves, Hanson made two game-winning saves in the final minute of the contest to secure the Belpot championship for the Dutchmen.
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