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BOSTON -- Boston College struggled all night to find a way to beat Clay Witt. The nation's top offense threw everything they could at Witt, but the junior goaltender turned away most of their skaters chances all night.
So BC threw in a new wrinkle: a shot while laying down.
Patrick Brown scored the decisive Beanpot championship goal with the seat of his pants on the ice, and Boston College captured its fifth straight Beanpot trophy with a 4-1 win.
"You've just got to focus; you've got to keep your eye on the puck," said Brown of his deflection. "But we've got some big, mean D, so they do a great job of training you for that in practice."
On the winner, Brown skated into the circle, putting himself in a good position to deflect the puck. But with John Stevens draped all over him, Brown was pushed down on the ice as the puck left Isaac MacLeod's stick from the point.
"MacLeod works really hard on shooting for sticks. He's got a great shot-pass," Brown said. "I was just trying to find a spot in the slot where he could hit my stick. I was getting mauled a little bit, I fell, and I was just able to get my stick on it because he made a great tape-to-tape pass."
With Brown on the ice, he was able to find a piece the puck, and deflect it past Witt.
"Right at the top," York said of the goal, ranking it against others he's seen in the Beanpot. "I want to see it again on film. From the bench, he's on his knees, and back, and reached back and redirects the puck. It's an amazing goal for us.
"I'd like to see it on film, but I think it's going to be highlight reel."
The game up until that Brown tally though was played incredibly evenly. The Eagles opened the scoring midway through the first off a great individual effort from Johhny Gaudreau. The junior broke in and had a chance off the rush turned aside by Witt. With the puck still in the zone, Gaudreau managed to work it out to Kevin Hayes, who beat Witt from between the circles to give the Eagles a 1-0 edge.
Boston College would hold that through most of the second with Witt and Eagles' netminder Thatcher Demko trading big saves. Northeastern finally was able to crack the freshman late in the second period, when an Eagle turnover gave the Huskies the puck deep in their own end.
Kevin Roy was the beneficiary, as he pounced on the loose rubber and took it in on goal. Demko stopped his initial shot, but Stevens was able to get to the rebound and throw it in on the backhand.
"[Roy] jumped an errant pass by the BC defenseman and jumped in and his shot didn't go in but the rebound by Stevens did," said Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan. "[Roy] played well. He was jumping, looking for opportunities to get in and around the net.
"Everyone knows when he's on, kind of like we all know when [Gaudreau] and [Hayes] are on for them."
The goal came late in the second period during a furious stretch for the Huskies that created many quality scoring chances. However, Northeastern was only able to find the one goal, and went into the final frame tied at one.
"You have to bear down and make sure you finish your opportunities," said Braden Pimm. "We had the chances but we couldn't bear down to get one by."
His coach, though, said he thought the team was in a good place entering the game's final 20 minutes.
"If you can be 1-1 or up a goal or down a goal going into the third period, you've got a chance to win," Madigan said. "I just liked where we were going into that third period, and we just couldn't generate the offense.
"In the third period we just couldn't match their speed."
Still though, despite the Eagles possession and shot edge, BC was unable to find the elusive second goal for most of the third, until Brown's late tally. Gaudreau would add an empty-netter, and Brown netted his second on a breakaway with 50 seconds remaining to put the game out of reach.
"I think it's just that we compete," Brown said. "We compete until the very end. You win it once as a freshman and you come in here and learn the culture.
"It's ‘we want to win trophies'-that's what everyone wants to do and you really cant get enough of it.
"It's a great feeling, but the most important thing is that our freshman got their first one. It's great to have that trophy."
