Milwaukee – Tom Gilbert scored a power-play goal, Robbie Earl added another and Brian Elliott made 22 saves to lead Wisconsin to its sixth national title and first since 1990 with a 2-1 victory over Boston College on Saturday night.
The Badgers had trouble solving Eagles goaltender Cory Schneider, who was brilliant with 37 saves.
After stopping two earlier slap shots by Gilbert, the offensive defenseman came through on the power play with 10:28 left in the third period when he took a pass from Joe Pavelski and ripped a shot from between the circles that beat Schneider to give the Badgers a 2-1 lead.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘I’m not going to strike out three times,”‘ Gilbert said. “Joe Pavel- ski made a great pass to me and I just buried my head and I knew the puck was going to go in.”
BC’s Anthony Aiello hooked Jack Skille a minute earlier to set up the final goal just after Wisconsin (30-10-3) ran its successful penalty-kill streak to 36.
Boston College (26-13-3) couldn’t break through the bigger, stronger Wisconsin defenders, and Elliott didn’t face the second chances the Eagles said they had to have to win.
Chris Collins fired a shot wide with just over two minutes to play, and BC failed to score after pulling Schneider with 23 seconds left as BC’s desperation shot by Peter Harrold hit the right post with 1.7 seconds left.
“Unfortunately a quarter-inch to the right and it bounces out,” Harrold said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes, I guess.”
Said Elliott: “Posts are your best friends, and I got one tonight.”
It looked promising early for the Eagles, who finished 0-for-4 on the power play while Wisconsin was 1-for-8.
“We had this where we wanted,” BC coach Jerry York said. “Ten or 12 minutes left in the game, and it’s 1-1. They capitalized on their power play. We didn’t capitalize on ours. That was the difference.”
Despite peppering Schneider with 17 first-period shots, Wisconsin trailed 1-0 when the Badgers broke through just over a minute into the second period.
Boston College’s Brian Boyle lost the puck in his own zone to Pavelski, who finished with two assists. Pavelski found Adam Burish, who sent a pass to the crease that Earl tapped in for Wisconsin’s first goal.
“It was everything it lived up to be in our dreams,” said Ryan MacMurphy, a senior and part of a Badgers’ team that won just 13 games his first season.
