ALBANY, N.Y. - No longer will Boston College head coach Jerry York have to listen to jeering chants of “1949” from opposing fans.
The Eagles (33-8-2) claimed their first national championship in 52 years with a 3-2 overtime win over North Dakota (29-8-9) on Saturday night at Pepsi Arena.
“We’ve been very, very close to winning three straight national championships prior to this tournament,” said York, a BC alumnus who coached Bowling Green to a title in 1984. “This team worked really hard to win a national title and they deserve it.
“Winning the championship doesn’t automatically mean we had this great, great team this year because we’ve had outstanding teams in the past. I’d much rather have a great program that’s competing for national championships every year than a team that just wins it once and disappears.”
Saturday’s game was a rematch of last year’s championship game, which North Dakota won 4-2.
But Saturday was the Eagles’ night to end five decades of frustration, although they still gave their fans an extra dose of drama.
BC, playing in its fourth-straight Frozen Four, let a 2-0 lead evaporate in the game’s final four minutes and had to earn their title with a Krys Kolanos goal 4:43 into overtime.
The Fighting Sioux sent the game to an extra frame by scoring two goals with their goalie pulled - center Tim Skarperud on a 6-on-4 power play with 3:42 to play and right wing Wes Dorey with 36 seconds left.
“I thought we were going to win the game based on momentum,” Sioux head coach Dean Blais said. “I definitely thought that if we didn’t have that intermission right away we would’ve done it.”
But Kolanos made sure the comeback was for naught, with a slick move around Sioux defenseman Aaron Schneekloth from the left wing. Kolanos, used his 6-foot-2 frame to keep the puck away from Sioux goaltender Karl Goehring’s poke check attempt and swept the puck under the netminder’s glove for the championship-winning goal.
“It was a quick transition in the neutral zone,” Kolanos said. “I was able to beat their D-man wide and put a fake on the tender. It’s a move I practice a lot, I guess you could say it’s my bread and butter.
“He does that move to me all the time in practice,” BC goaltender Scott Clemmensen chimed in with a laugh. “I can’t stand it because he’s so patient with it. But practice makes perfect I guess.”
Clemmensen made 34 saves - including several sensational stops - for the Eagles but his freshman teammate, Chuck Kobasew, earned Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player honors.
The freshman right wing, who scored twice against U-M on Thursday, tallied the championship game’s first goal at 5:26 of the second.
Goehring played the puck around the boards from behind his own net, but it ended up on the stick of BC left wing Jeff Giuliano, who fed Kobasew alone in front of the crease. Kobasew buried his 27th goal of the season as Goehring tried to scramble back into position.
“All we wanted to do all year is to win a national championship for the seniors,” said Kobasew, who was heavily recruited by North Dakota. “I couldn’t have had success this year without my teammates. We just stuck together through the tough times and the great times.”
The teams went into the first intermission deadlocked at 0-0 despite a period rife with scoring opportunities for both sides.
Clemmensen was spectacular in the opening frame, withstanding a late barrage of dangerous chances by the Sioux.
Clemmensen came up big twice against Sioux right wing Bryan Lundbohm - the nation’s second-leading goal scorer - including a magnificent glove save on Lundbohm’s breakaway with 1:12 to go in the period.
Goehring was pretty good in his own right, stopping all nine Eagle shots he faced in the first.
But the Eagles’ NCAA-leading offense - averaging 4.10 goals per game - finally got on track in the second period, tallying a pair of goals in just over three minutes.
BC’s victory over the defending champion Sioux ensures that its Beantown archrival - Boston University - will still be the most recent team to win back-to-back national championships. The Terriers did it in 1971 and 1972.
North Dakota, a No. 2-seed, advanced to the title game with a 2-0 win over No. 1-seed MSU on Thursday. No. 1-seed BC beat No. 3-seed Michigan 4-2 in the semifinals.
