Sabo, Pandolfo Lead Terriers Past Eagles In Beanpot Opener
February 4, 2002 | Men's Ice Hockey
Junior John Sabo (Harding Township, NJ) scored a pair of goals and senior Mike Pandolfo (Burlington) added a goal and two assists to lift the Terrier hockey team to a 5-3 win over defending champion Boston College in the semifinal game of the 50th annual Beanpot hockey tournament on Monday night (February 4th).
The victory, which improved the Terriers' overall record to 17-7-2, will send B.U. into the Beanpot finals next Monday night (February 11th) against Northeastern. The Huskies advanced to the finals after skating to a 5-2 win over Harvard in the other semifinal game.
It will be the ninth time the Terriers and Huskies will be meeting for the Beanpot and the college hockey bragging rights in Boston. In their previous eight matchups, B.U. has won five times, while Northeastern has skated off with the coveted trophy three times.
Even more remarkable is the Terriers will be playing in the championship game for the 18th time in the last 19 years, in 35 of the last 39 years, and in 41 of the 50-year history of the tournament.
"It's not luck that B.U. has enjoyed this much success in the Beanpot," Boston College coach Jerry York said after the game. "They have good players and a good coach."
"Our thought process is that we don't want to play in the consolation game," said Terrier head coach Jack Parker, who improved his overall record in the Beanpot to 43-14. In the opening round of the tournament, Parker is now 25-4. "That's what we were focused on tonight."
That might not have been evident in the first period, however, as the Eagles took a 1-0 lead on Tony Voce's goal at 9:41 of the period. Voce had won the faceoff just to the right of Terrier sophomore goalie Sean Fields (Edmonton, ALTA). He got the puck back to Jeff Giuliano who then got it back to Bill Cass at the left point. He, in turn, passed the puck back to Voce who was going to the net after the faceoff. He collected the puck and beat Fields to the stick side, and the Eagles had a 1-0 lead.
"I thought we were a little jumpy in the first period," Parker said after the game. "But, I thought we came back to play better in the second and third periods."
During the middle period, the Terriers outscored the Eagles, 2-1, as senior Jack Baker (South Boston) and Sabo sandwiched goals around BC's Andrew Alberts.
Baker, who scored his fifth career goal in seven Beanpot games, opened the Terriers' scoring at 1:04 of the second period. He came across the BC blue line and took a shot that was blocked by an Eagle defenseman. The puck came right back to Baker who came in on Eagle goalie Matti Kaltiainen and beat him just under the cross bar for an unassisted goal.
After Alberts put the Eagles ahead, 2-1, on a shorthanded goal at 6:46, Sabo responded with a goal that Parker called "the turning point of the game. It tied the game for us, and it provided a high lift for us emotionally."
One of the reasons for the big emotional lift is that Sabo's goal, as was Alberts', was a shorthanded goal.
The play was started by Pandolfo.
"I had just jumped on the ice to begin my shift," said Pandolfo, whose three points in the game brought his career total to 98. "I skated toward the BC player who had the puck, and I poked it away from him."
From here, Sabo took over.
"I saw Mike had the puck, and he was headed to the BC goal," said Sabo, who is now on an offensive tear with 4-1-5 in his last four games. "Mike always shoots the puck so I skated to the net hoping there might be a rebound."
That's exactly what happened as Sabo collected the loose puck and knocked it home to give the Terriers a 2-2 tie at 15:05 of the second period.
Freshman Ryan Whitney (Scituate) put the Terriers ahead for good when he notched his third goal of the season at 6:05 of the third period. The highly-touted defenseman came down the left wing boards. He then cut over to the left side of the goal where Eagle defenseman Brett Peterson thought he had the right angle on Whitney. Whitney took the shot down low where Peterson tried to redirect it behind the BC goal. Instead, the puck tipped off Peterson's stick passed a surprised Eagle goalie Kaltiainen, and the Terriers led 3-2.
"Whitney played very well tonight," said Parker. "He had been slipping a bit lately, and I was interested to see how he, and the other freshmen would react tonight. I was very impressed with Whitney's poise."
Just 1:55 after Whitney's goal, Sabo came back with his second goal of the game on a nifty move that deked Kaltiainen out of position. In fact, the BC goalie was on the ice after Sabo's move. And, with the goalie out of position, Sabo just tapped the puck home. Freshman Brian McConnell (Norfolk) and Pandolfo earned the assists.
"It looks as if Sabo is out of his scoring slump," said Parker. "He has been moving the puck well, and he looks loosey, goosey out there like he did when he was a freshman. It looks like he is back to his offensive self."
The Eagles made things interesting when J.D. Forrest scored on the Eagles' power play at 15:22 of the final period to cut the Terriers' lead to just one goal, 4-3.
In an effort to tie the game, York pulled his goalie with 1:01 to play in the game. The Eagles had an excellent chance to tie the game, but Forrest missed on a shot down low.
Instead, it was the Terriers who took advantage of BC's pulled goalie when Pandolfo fired into an empty net with just 11 seconds to play. Junior Brian Collins (Shrewsbury) earned the assist.
In making general comments about the game, Parker said "it was a close game, but it was not a typical B.U.-BC game. There was no flow to it. Overall, though, I was very happy with how we played in the second and third periods. In particular, I thought we played very well in the third period when we gave them just two quality shots."
Parker was then asked whether it meant something special that his team had beaten BC in the Beanpot.
"There is an incentive to beat BC even if it's at 3:00 a.m. at the Skating Club of Boston," said Parker.
