| | PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Lee Goren might someday find himself welcome in Boston. For now, though, Hub hockey fans will curse his name.
The North Dakota forward and Boston Bruins draft pick scored the tying goal and assisted on Jason Ulmer's game-winner Saturday night as the Fighting Sioux won the NCAA championship with a 4-2 victory over Boston College.
|  | | North Dakota's Mike Commodore opened the scoring at 3:48 of the first period. |
Playing in the home rink of the Bruins' top minor league affiliate, Goren also added an empty-netter with 45.2 seconds left and was selected the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
"I don't know how that's going to work out," he said, noting that the Sioux also beat Boston University for the title in 1997. "I just need to keep going, keep working. Hopefully, I'll be in this building, or another building."
Karl Goehring made 21 saves for the Sioux in front of a partisan Boston College crowd just an hour south of its Chestnut Hill campus. The Eagles won in 1949 -- the tournament's second year -- but haven't won a title in any sport since then.
"I think that's a great motivating force for us to win another," coach Jerry York said. "We're focused, and we want to win the championship."
Jeff Farkas and Marty Hughes scored for BC, and Scott Clemmensen stopped 32 shots as the Eagles lost in the Frozen Four for the third consecutive year.
"We don't really think back to when we last won it. We just try to concern ourselves with this year," said Mike Mottau, the Boston College defenseman and New York Rangers draft pick who won the Hobey Baker Award on Friday as the top player in college hockey.
"To come up this short is very disappointing. But North Dakota is a great team and they deserve a lot of credit."
North Dakota trailed 2-1 after two periods but scored three times in the third -- and Goren had a hand in all of them, giving him 34 goals and 29 assists for the season. Although he is a senior, Goren had to sit out the 1997 title run because he played two games in a Canadian junior league.
"He wants to be a member of the Boston Bruins," North Dakota coach Dean Blais said. "He's a tremendous leader in the locker room. He's the vocal leader on the team. Guys respect him -- and how could you not respect a guy that's scored that many goals, and works that hard to get where he is."
Goren tied it 2:43 into the third when he took a drop pass from Ryan Bayda and put it through the legs of a defenseman and the screened goalie.
Ulmer rebounded Goren's shot with 5:38 left and slapped it into the net to give the Sioux a 3-2 lead. Clemmensen came out for an extra skater with 1:12 left, and Goren split the empty net from the blue line.
North Dakota took the lead just 3:48 into the game when Bryan Lundbohm's shot rebounded to Commodore on the right side of the net and he swept it in.
Boston College tied it with 3:13 left in the first period when Blake Bellefeuille one-timed a pass from Brian Gionta just under Goehring's right pad. The goalie fell backward -- almost sitting on the puck -- but Farkas was able to swipe it the last few inches over the goal line before he was checked into referee Matt Shegos.
The goal light never came on, and the teams kept playing. But as soon as Shegos could get to his skates he signaled a goal, which was confirmed by the replay official.
Hughes gave BC a 2-1 lead 6:51 into the second period when he came around the back of the net and stuffed it past Goehring. | |
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