Terriers Defeat BC, 4-1, Capture Sixth Straight Beanpot
February 15, 2000 | Men's Ice Hockey
BOSTON (Feb. 14, 2000) -- Freshman goalie Rick DiPietro (Winthrop, Mass.) came away with the top individual honors, while the Terrier hockey team won the coveted Beanpot for an incredible sixth straight year, as B.U. skated to a 4-1 win over arch-rival Boston College at the FleetCenter on Monday night (February 14th).
DiPietro was the unanimous selection as the tournament's MVP on the strength of his shutout of Harvard in the Beanpot opener on February 7th and then came back with a 31-save performance over the Eagles. He also received the Eberly Trophy as the tournament's outstanding goalie as he had a tournament record .981 save percentage and a gaudy 0.50 goals against average.
This marked the second straight year a Terrier player won both the Eberly Award and the team's MVP as Michel Larocque received both awards last year.
This has been an unbelievable experience, DiPietro said after the game. One of our big goals when the season began was to win the Beanpot.
We wanted to play BC in the title game, and I think this shows that we are no joke this year, said DiPietro, who improved his record to 14-2-4 with the win.
After a scoreless first period in which BC outshot the Terriers, 11-5, the Eagles took a 1-0 lead at 3:42 of the second period on a goal by Blake Bellefeuille.
As it turned out, it would be the only one of the Eagles' 32 shots that would get past DiPietro.
Just 24 seconds later, senior Chris Heron (Mississauga, ONT) answered for B.U. to tie the game at 1-1. The assist went to sophomore Dan Cavanaugh (Springfield, Mass.).
Answering that goal so quickly was big for us, said Terrier head coach Jack Parker.
B.U. would score twice more before the period was over.
The first was tallied by senior Tommi Degerman (Helsinki, FIN) at 7:11 with the assists going to sophomore defenseman Chris Dyment (Reading, Mass.) and Heron, while the second was scored by junior Nick Gillis (Winthrop, Mass.) with just 17 seconds to play in the period. Gillis was assisted by freshman defenseman Freddy Meyer (Sanbornville, NH) and freshman Brian Collins (Shrewsbury, Mass.).
The goal went in off my elbow, said Gillis, who has had a propensity for scoring big goals in the Beanpot. As a freshman, he scored the Terriers' game-winning goal in overtime in a 2-1 win over Harvard. That was a much bigger goal than the one tonight. But, it's just a thrill to score in the Beanpot.
That was a big goal for them, BC coach Jerry York said of the Gillis goal. That was tough for us to come back after being down by two goals.
Junior Carl Corazzini (Framingham, Mass.) added an insurance goal at 17:29 of the third period. Meyer picked up one of the assists, while the other went to junior Scott Perry (Dorchester, Mass.).
The real story, though, was the play of DiPietro, who continues to impress players and coaches, alike.
DiPietro played very well, said York. We had some grade A scoring chances and he stopped them.
We play with a lot more confidence with Ricky in the net, said Gillis.
Ricky really kept us in it, said Degerman.
Ricky is a great kid, and he's fun to be around, said Parker. He likes to be the class clown. He keeps everyone loose. He never gets nervous.
Questions then centered around the Terriers' unbelievable success in the Beanpot for not only was this their sixth straight Beanpot title but their 23rd overall. It's eerie, said Parker.
How does this one rank with the other Beanpots he's won3 as a player and 15 as a coach.
The best ones were the ones I won as a player, said the coach. This is a player's tournament. It's not Jack Parker's tournament. It's Tommi Degerman's tournament and Chris Heron's and Rick DiPietro's.
