CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Sturdy defense, physical play and a Johnny Gaudreau power-play game-winning goal propelled No. 1 Boston College to its 11th consecutive victory in a 3-0 shutout against No. 7 Massachusetts-Lowell on Friday night at Kelley Rink.
Rookie goaltender Thatcher Demko recorded his second shutout of the season with 33 saves, anchoring an imperative five-minute penalty kill midway through the second stanza. Gaudreau’s power play strike was accompanied by rookies Adam Gilmour and Austin Cangelosi markers early in the third period. Senior captain Patrick Brown accounted for a pair of assists in the triumph.
With the goal, Gaudreau elongated his point streak to a staggering 27-consecutive games with a point. Gaudreau has been held scoreless just once this season and leads the nation with 1.94 points per game (28-24-62).
The Eagles clipped UML by one attempt in the shot category, 34-33. Boston College’s penalty-killing unit upped its rate to 91.7 percent (132-of-144); stopping all three River Hawks’ power plays in the victory.
No. 3 Union (N.Y.) 5, Clarkson 0
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Union clinched a share of the ECAC Hockey regular season title (Cleary Cup) by virtue of a 5-0 win against Clarkson Friday night before a sellout crowd of 2,194 at Messa Rink.
The third-ranked Dutchmen (21-6-4/15-3-1) ran their home winning streak to nine games in dominating fashion. Daniel Ciampini scored twice, including his team-leading 16th marker, to extend his goal-scoring streak to six games. Ciampini scored short-handed in the opening period when a Clarkson player slid into his goaltender, creating an easy opening. Ciampini then scored from an improbable angle along the goal line in the second period to give the team a 2-0 lead.
Jeff Taylor ripped a slapshot through traffic to bump the lead to 3-0 before Shayne Gostisbehere closed second period scoring with a power play tally at 15:22. Mike Vecchione added an insurance goal at 15:41 of the third period, squeezing through the slot and sliding a shot past goaltender Steve Perry.
Goaltender Colin Stevens made 20 saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season, and the seventh of his career. He now ranks third on the school's career list for the Division I era. Union finished with a 27-20 shot advantage to complete the season series against the Golden Knights (17-14-2/10-9-0).
Miami (Ohio) 4, No. 4 St. Cloud State 3
OXFORD, Ohio -- St. Cloud State (17-7-5, 11-5-3-0 NCHC) suffered a 4-3 loss at Miami (Ohio) (11-15-3, 5-13-1-1 NCHC) on Friday at the Steve Cady Arena.
The setback was SCSU's first loss on a Friday night on the road in 2013-14 and it also allowed North Dakota to move into a tie for first place in the NCHC along with the Huskies. The two squads each have 36 league points after tonight's games.
The Huskies opened the game's scoring in the first period with a power play marker by Jonny Brodzinski at 13:10. Assists on the play were added by teammates Ethan Prow and Andrew Prochno.
Miami was next up to advantage of the power play with a goal at 16:22 of the first period by Austin Czarnik. Anthony Louis and Justin Greenberg each had assists on the play, which tied the contest at 1-1.
Miami charged to a 2-1 lead at 10:17 of the second period with a goal by Sean Kuraly and then pushed its lead to 3-1 with a goal by Blake Coleman at 14:15 of the second. The Huskies finished the second period with a goal at 19:22 by Brooks Bertsch, which was assisted by Joe Rehkamp and Kevin Gravel.
In the third period, Coleman notched the game winner at 7:57 with an unassisted goal by Coleman to make it 4-2. The proved to be the difference as the Huskies' finished the night's scoring with a power play goal by Nic Dowd at 18:52 of the third. Brodzinski and Kossila each had assists on the play for SCSU.
On the night, SCSU outshot the RedHawks 30-26. On the power play, SCSU was 2-of-5 and Miami was 1-of-3 in the game.
No. 13 Cornell 2, No. 5 Quinnipiac 1
HAMDEN, Conn. -- Nationally-ranked No. 5 Quinnipiac lost to No. 13, Cornell 2-1 in an ECAC Hockey matchup at High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center on Friday. The loss sends Quinnipiac to 21-7-5 overall and 11-5-3 in league play while Cornell improves to 13-7-5 overall and 9-6-4 in ECAC Hockey action.
Quinnipiac outshot Cornell 41-14 putting more shots on goal in the first period (19) than the Big Red managed for the game. Quinnipiac generated several scoring opportunities, but unfortunately were unable to capitalize. The Bobcats saw two power plays killed off by Cornell in the third period, including one late in the game, while also pulling Garteig for the man advantage in the final two minutes, but still failed to convert. Zach Tolkinen and Devon Toews both hits the post late in the game -- with both shots resulting in rebound opportunities that flew wide.
In the end, it was Cornell's Andy Iles with a 40-save performance for the win. Garteig stopped 12 of Cornell's 14 shots on goal, but was beat by a screened shot from the point and a breakaway.
No. 6 Ferris State 4, Alaska-Anchorage 2
BIG RAPIDS, Mich. -- Fifth-ranked Ferris State moved back into sole possession of first place again in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) standings as the Bulldogs skated to a 4-2 victory against third-place Alaska Anchorage in Friday's weekend series opener inside the Ewigleben Ice Arena.
The Bulldogs picked up their 22nd victory of the season and improved to 11-1-1 on home ice this campaign by beating the Seawolves in the first matchup between the two teams since 1988. FSU struck twice in the first period to build a two-goal lead and added a single goal in each of the final two frames in earning the triumph.
Justin Buzzeo, Kenny Babinski, Brandon Anselmini and Gerald Mayhew were goal scorers for Ferris State. The Bulldogs received a 29-save performance in net from junior goaltender CJ Motte, who improved to 21-5-3 overall in net this season and remains one of the nation's top performers in total victories and winning percentage. He had seven stops in the initial period followed by 10 in the second and 12 in the third.
No. 8 Wisconsin 5, Michigan State 2
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin has struggled on the power play this season, entering Friday’s contest against Michigan State (9-14-7, 3-6-6-4 Big Ten) having converted on just over 15 percent of their attempts. Turns out some things have to get worse before they get better.
The Badgers (18-9-2, 9-5-1-0) allowed a short-handed score on their first power play of the game before redeeming themselves with tallies on their next two chances to fuel a 5-2 victory at the Kohl Center.
Michael Mersch was responsible for both conversions, both coming off assists from Nic Kerdiles and Jake McCabe. The two tallies would put the Badgers on top 2-1 in the second period and UW never looked back, winning for a program record-tying 16th time this season at the Kohl Center.
No. 9 Northeatern 4, No. 17 Maine 4, OT
BOSTON -- Trailing 4-3 with less than two minutes left in regulation, Braden Pimm's one-timer off a feed from Mike Szmatula forced overtime to help No. 9 Northeastern (17-10-4, 9-6-2) to a 4-4 draw with No. 17 Maine (15-10-4, 9-5-3) on Friday night at Matthews Arena.
Pimm (one goal, one assist) was one of four Huskies with multi-point efforts, joining Jarrett Fennell (two assists), Kevin Roy (one goal, one assist) and Colton Saucerman (one goal, one assist). Clay Witt made 23 stops in goal for Northeastern, which now sits in a tie for fourth place in the league standings with New Hampshire.
Martin Ouellette had 27 stops for the Black Bears, who received a goal and an assist from Steven Swavely and two helpers from Devin Shore. NU outshot Maine 31-27 in the game while neither team could capitalize on the power play with Northeastern going 0-of-3 and Maine 0-of-1.
Penn State 4, No. 10 Michigan 3, OT
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Alex Guptill scored with 2:02 remaining in the third period to put 10th-ranked Michigan ahead 4-3 but Penn State scored with 4.6 seconds left in the third to tie the game and then got the game winner at 4:17 of overtime from David Goodwin for a 5-4 win Friday at Yost Ice Arena.
With the game tied 3-3, Guptill took a pass from JT Compher in the slot and beat Penn State goaltender Matthew Skoff over the left pad to put Michigan ahead.
But with an extra attacker out in the final minute, Casey Bailey fired a bouncing puck past Zach Nagelvoort to tie the game.
In overtime, Goodwin skated in on a 2-on-1, kept the puck and fired over the shoulder of Nagelvoort (39 saves) to give Penn State its second Big Ten win, both against Michigan. Bailey and Goodwin scored two goals to each lead the Nittany Lions offense. Penn State outshot Michigan 44-36 for the night, as Skoff made 32 saves to earn the win in net.
