BOSTON COLLEGE WINS ELEVENTH HOCKEY EAST TITLE WITH 4-1 WIN OVER MAINE
Tournament MVP Johnny Gaudreau posts two goals and assist as Eagles claim third straight league title

Tournament MVP Johnny Gaudreau celebrates his second goal of the game for BC

BOSTON, Mass. - Boston College defeated the University of Maine 4-1 on Saturday night to claim the 28th Hockey East Tournament title. The Eagles became the first team to win three consecutive Hockey East titles, and have won five of the last six and 11 since Hockey East's inception in 1984.

Boston College freshmen Johnny Gaudreau (Carney's Point, N.J.) had three points on the night, a pair of goals and an assist, and was subsequently chosen as the Bill Flynn Most Valuable Player of the 2012 tournament. He is the fifth freshman to win the tournament MVP award, the fourth from BC.

The Eagles opened up the scoring at 5:44 of the first period when Gaudreau scored his 18th goal of the year off a pass from junior defensemen Patch Alber (Clifton Park, N.Y.) Boston College would strike again just 2:07 later when they were on the man advantage. Gaudreau netted his second of the night when he scored off of Chris Kreider's (Boxford, Mass.) original shot.

The Black Bears made it a one-goal game in the second period when senior Brian Flynn (Lynnfield, Mass.) scored his 18th goal of the year. Joey Diamond (Long Beach, NY) made a cross-ice pass to Flynn who scored off a wrister. The Eagles re-established a two-goal lead at 18:39 of the second period when Pat Mullane (Wallingford, Conn.) fired a one-timer past Maine goaltender Dan Sullivan (York, Pa.) off of a wraparound pass from Gaudreau.

In the third period, Maine attempted 17 shots, but BC goaltender Parker Milner was equal to the task, stopping all of them to finish with 41 saves and up his record to 25-5-0. At the other end, Sullivan stopped all nine shots he faced in the third period and finished with 39 saves. BC added an empty-net goal from Barry Almeida (Springfield, Mass.) at the 18:59 mark.

Joining Gaudreau on the All-Tournament team were BC teammates Milner and defenseman Brian Dumoulin. Rounding out the selections were Maine's Joey Diamond and BU's Alex Chiasson, both forwards, and defenseman Will O'Neill from Maine.


Hockey East Championship Game - Postgame Notes
Boston College (#1 Seed) vs. the University of Maine (#4 Seed)

Boston College becomes the first team to win three consecutive Hockey East championships. The Eagles have also established a new Hockey East record for consecutive wins in tournament play with 12, breaking their old mark of 11 set from 1998 to 2000.

This is the Eagles' 11th Hockey East title overall, their 5th title in the last six years and their 6th in the last eight years. They are now 11-5 all-time in the championship game, 6-1 in their last seven appearances dating back to 2005.

This is the 14th time, and second consecutive, that the No. 1 seed has won the Hockey East championship. The No. 1 seed is now 14-6 in title game play.

In what is by far the most frequent championship game pairing in Hockey East history, BC now holds a 5-2 advantage over Maine. In overall tournament play, BC now leads 8-5.

Final shots on goal were 43 for BC and 42 for Maine, a total of 85. That sets a new record for most shots in regulation time of a Hockey East final, breaking the old record of 83 set by BC and BU in 1986.

Boston College recorded 20 shots-on-goal in the first period and the two teams combined for 31, just one short of the Hockey East championship game record of 32 set by BC and UNH in the 2007 final.

The 2012 Hockey East All-Tournament Team
F - Johnny Gaudreau, BC
F - Joey Diamond, Maine
F - Alex Chiasson, BU
D - Brian Dumoulin, BC
D - Will O'Neill, Maine
G - Parker Milner, BC

Bill Flynn Most Valuable Player - Johnny Gaudreau
Gaudreau is the fifth freshman to win the Tournament MVP Award. Four of the five have come from BC (Leetch-1987, Lagrand-1990, Kobasew-2001) The only other freshman to win the MVP Award was the last, BU's Kieran Millan in 2009.

Attendance for tonight's championship game was 13,709, yielding a two-night total of 27,683.


ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Championship Game BC Postgame Quotes (PDF Format)
Championship Game Maine Postgame Quotes (PDF Format)
Video: NESN Postgame (YouTube)
Video: Postgame Reactions (YouTube)