Badgers are ironmen

MILWAUKEE -- Well after his team's 2-1 loss in the NCAA championship to Wisconsin last night at the Bradley Center, Jerry York still had a smile on his face as he recalled his team's furious final rush.

''An eighth of an inch," said the Boston College coach, shaking his head.

That's about the amount of iron that kept a puck, flung off the stick of BC captain Peter Harrold and possibly ticked by center Brian Boyle, from entering the Wisconsin cage in regulation's final ticks and sending the game into overtime. But that fraction of pipe stood in Wisconsin's favor, keeping the backtracking Eagles from tying the game and continuing their improbable run at the ultimate trophy.

''Posts are your best friends," said Wisconsin goalie Brian Elliott, ''and I got one tonight."

Instead of OT, the Eagles were forced to endure perhaps the most agonizing sight of all: watching their opponents fling their sticks, gloves, and helmets to the rafters.

Pat Gannon, BC's fourth-line center and most unlikely of Eagles to score his team's only goal, jabbed at the ice with his stick in frustration. Cory Schneider, whose first-period heroics (17 stops on 17 shots) and 37 saves kept the one-goal game from devolving into a rout, accepted a hug from third-string netminder Adam Reasoner, who hoped to salve the pain that only a fellow goalie would know. Stephen Gionta and Chris Collins -- seniors, penalty-killers, and fast friends since they were squirts -- shared a long embrace on the ice, rocking back and forth.

''It was our childhood dream to play at BC," Collins, his watery eyes rimmed with red, said of his fellow New York native. ''It's tough now that our careers are over. We're never going to wear the maroon and gold again."

Last night, the Badgers dominated the game from start to finish. The Badgers, rolling four lines and playing stoutly in front of Elliott, stormed BC with 39 shots, including the 17-attempt barrage in the first. Tied after two periods, Wisconsin scored the go-ahead third-period goal on the power play, using its skill to beat the goalie who had foiled them too many times before.

With rookie defenseman Anthony Aiello in the box for hooking, Wisconsin kicked off the power play with its top unit. The Badgers swung the puck from right to left, overloading the offense near the left circle. As Schneider and the BC defense shifted to follow the puck, Wisconsin defenseman Tom Gilbert, a force in all three zones last night, found an open seam in the slot. Forward Joe Pavelski, who also assisted on Wisconsin's first goal, spotted Gilbert, fed him the puck, and the defenseman sizzled a wrister past Schneider at 9:32, giving Wisconsin a 2-1 advantage and sending most of the 17,758 Bradley Center fans into hysterics.

''Tic-tac-toe," said Schneider. ''It was a great shot. Hats off to them."

Despite Wisconsin's strength, BC skated into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead, thanks to a pair of grinders. BC forward Dan Bertram, who was whistled for three first-period penalties, drove hard into the boards behind the Wisconsin net, winning the puck from defenseman Matt Olinger. Bertram wheeled the puck out front, where it bounced off Wisconsin defenseman Davis Drewiske to the stick of Gannon, who flung a backhander top corner over the glove of Elliott (22 saves) at 9:01.

That lead, however, was thanks to Schneider. The sophomore, playing behind a team that started the game jumpy, turned aside a first-period odd-man rush when he steered aside a one-timer by Pavelski. Schneider stopped Pavelski again on Wisconsin's second power play, dropping into his butterfly to get a stick on the forward's close-range backhander. Schneider went down again late in the first period, sticking away forward Ross Carlson's doorstep shot.

''It's like every single game," Collins said. ''That didn't change tonight. That one power-play goal, the guy walked right down Broadway. He didn't have much of a chance. I can't say enough about Cory Schneider. He's one of the best kids I've ever gotten to know. He's going to go a long way. He's going to have a great career and bring these guys back here."

Early in the second period, Collins threw an open-ice hip check on Robbie Earl, dropping the Wisconsin left wing. Earl, favoring his left leg, got up slowly, and started for the bench. But when he saw the puck enter the BC zone, Earl popped right up and drove to the net, beating defenseman Mike Brennan to the far post where he jammed home the centering pass from linemate Adam Burish.

And while the Badgers were jumping all over the Eagle defensemen, BC couldn't do the same. Collins and the top-line BBs of Boyle and Brock Bradford shot blanks, failing to sink any of their seven combined shots. The Eagles (0 for 4 on the power play) never got set up on the man-advantage. The Wisconsin defensemen jumped into shooting lanes, picked up sticks, and forced the BC forwards to the perimeter, preventing them from getting open looks. And when BC found some daylight, Elliott turned the Eagles aside.

But Elliott, one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, didn't need to be perfect. He left that to his teammates, who kept attacking BC, steered them wide of their own net, and fed off the energy of the crowd as the Badgers won their sixth NCAA crown.

Next year, as the Badgers chase their seventh title, they might skate into some familiar faces.

''This is just the beginning of this team," sophomore Brennan said of the Eagles. ''We're such a young team. I think Gionta, Harrold, and Collins were the catalysts to get this team off and running. This is just the beginning."

Unfortunately for BC, it was also the end.