GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- There were 9,420 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena tonight who witnessed Boston College throttle the UND Fighting Sioux 6-2 to win the Ice Breaker Tournament championship in men's hockey.
There were a few non-paying spectators wearing green and white uniforms who weren't counted in that attendance total.
Boston College stunned the Sioux with four unanswered goals in less than 10 minutes in the second period to erase a 2-1 UND lead and send the Eagles on to the title.
Chris Kreider scored at 7:27 of the second period to tie it at 2-2. Johnny Gaudreau scored at 13:17 to put the Eagles ahead to stay and set himself up for a four-point game.
Goals by Pat Mullane at 16:05, his second of the night, and by Bill Arnold at 17:14, completed the BC blitz against starting Sioux goalie Aaron Dell (Jr., Airdrie, Alberta).
"We were playing defense just by standing in the area but not doing the job,'' UND coach Dave Hakstol said of the BC outburst. "Positionally we were around those plays. But you need to be tenacious on sticks and make those plays. We didn't do that. Our coverage wasn't good enough for that four-minute span when they scored three goals. That absolutely changed the complexion of the game.''
The Eagles were opportunistic, converting on goal-mouth feeds or rebounds in tight against UND's faltering defense.
Dell, who came into the night with a career goals against average of 1.82, gave up five goals on the 15 shots he faced before senior Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta) took over late in the second period.
Eidsness stopped seven of the eight shots he faced and may have earned himself a start next weekend in a series at REA against another Hockey East foe, Maine.
"I thought Brad did a good job,'' Hakstol said. "He was seeing the puck well and battled hard. I'm not making decisions 10 minutes after a difficult loss, but he probably earned himself some minutes and a start next weekend.''
The Sioux, with heavy losses to graduation and to the pro ranks from a league championship team and Frozen Four team last season, showed there's work to be done.
None of that surprised Hakstol. "I said all along we have a lot of work to do before we know that we're where we want to be,'' Hakstol said. "But we'll do that work.''
The Sioux tied the game at 1-1 after one period when junior center Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) scored shorthanded at 15:55 on a 2-on-1 rush with junior Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.)
Kristo made a good move by sliding to his left coming into the zone to create passing space, then feathered a perfect feed to Knight for his second goal in two games.
Sioux sophomore defenseman Derek Forbort (Duluth, Minn.) scored his first career goal in his 40th game to give UND its only lead at 2-1.
Forbort took an offensive zone draw won by freshman center Mark MacMillan (Penticton, British Columbia) and beat BC goalie Parker Milner high with a wrist shot on a Sioux power play at 5:23 of the second period.
It was all Boston College after that as the fifth-ranked Eagles handed it to the third-ranked Sioux.
"I think we just got away from our game,'' Sioux captain Mario Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) said. "We weren't moving our feet. We weren't working back to our zone. If we don't take care of our own end, it's hard to create stuff in their zone.''
BC's outburst seemed to shock the Sioux. "It caught us by surprise a little bit and put us back on our heels,'' Knight said. "Got to give them credit. They made some nice plays and were able to capitalize. It definitely showed our inexperience. It's something we can learn from and improve on.''
Boston College, 2-0 on the season, dominated the all-tournament team as well, landing goalie Parker Milner, defensemen Patch Alber and Tommy Cross and forwards Bill Arnold and Chris Kreider on the all-tournament team. Kreider was voted as tournament MVP.
UND's lone representative was sophomore wing Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minn.), who had two goals in UND's 4-3 win over Air Force Academy on Friday night.
Michigan State forward Lee Reimer rounded out the all-tournament team.
Both teams finished 1-for-6 on the power play. UND had a 35-28 edge in faceoff wins, led by Knight (15 of 22).
Notes: The loss snapped UND's eight-game home winning streak ... It also ended Dell's 11-game (10-0-1) regular season unbeaten streak.
Foss covered UND hockey for 35 seasons for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement in 2005. He reports on Fighting Sioux home games for FightingSioux.com.
