Four teams, three ranked in the top 20 in the nation, put on a great show for the Northern Ireland fans.
But only team, fourth-ranked Quinnipiac, will travel home 3,000 miles with the Belpot Trophy. Quinnipiac scored the lone goal in a shootout to defeat 17th-ranked UMass in the Friendship Four title game after the teams were tied 2-2 after 60 minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime in Belfast.
The shootout hero was Christophe Tellier, who slipped a shot past UMass netminder Luke Pavicich. Pavicich denied Collin Graf and Sam Lipkin in the shootout. At the other end of the SSE Arena ice, with 5,893 fans looking on, Quinnipiac goalie Yaniv Perets cooly turned aside bids by Scott Morrow, Kenny Connors and Cole O’Hara. His stop on O’Hara prompted a wild celebration on the ice.
Quinnipiac (10-1-3) held a 33-23 shots advantage.
The Bobcats went 2-for-3 on the power play, while UMass went 0-for-1 with the man advantage. The Minutemen (7-5-2) began the tournament with the nation’s leading power play.
Ethan de Jong tallied a power-play goal in the first period to give Quinnipiac a 1-0. After a scoreless second period, UMass forward Taylor Makar found the back of the net. Quinnipiac again went ahead on a shot off the stick of Skyler Brind’Amour on the power play, but the Minutemen countered when Michael Cameron took passes from Morrow and Aaron Bohlinger and sent a shot past Perets.
Graf assisted on both Quinnipiac goals in regulation.
In the third-place game, Dartmouth College was looking terrific after taking a 3-0 lead over UMass Lowell in the first period.
One night after losing by a goal to rival UMass, the River Hawks found themselves down three goals, but 13th-ranked UMass Lowell rallied all the way back to win 4-3 when Stefan Owens netted a goal 1:16 into overtime.
Defenseman Ben Meehan fired a shot which deflected behind the Dartmouth net. He followed the puck, circled the net and feathered a soft pass to an upcoming Owens, who had just entered the ice. The sophomore ripped a shot over 6-foot-8 Dartmouth goaltender Cooper Black, prompting the River Hawk bench to file onto the ice to mob Owens.
UML (9-6) forced overtime when senior Carl Berglund scored with 1:18 left in regulation. A large contingent of fans, many of whom traveled 3,000 miles for the tournament, chanted “UML! UML!” after the Berglund tally.
Head coach Norm Bazin had pulled goaltender Gustavs Davis Grigals about 40 seconds earlier for a sixth skater. A Meehan shot found its way to Berglund near the right post and Berglund backhanded the puck past Cooper.
UML dominated the final two periods and overtime, outshooting the Big Green by a 30-5 margin.
Zach Kaiser netted a goal and assist, while freshman Nick Rheaume tallied his first collegiate goal.
Goals by Tanner Palocsik, Cooper Flinton and Luke Haymes staked Dartmouth to a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. Henry Welsch, who stopped 12 of 15 shos in the first period, was replaced before the second period by Grigals.
Grigals was only required to stop five shots the rest of the way.
Goals by Kaiser and Rheaume just 46 seconds apart cut Dartmouth’s lead to 3-2 and gave UML hope entering the third period.