Friendship Four: Bobcats win Belpot Trophy after shootout victory over Minutemen
- Published
Skyler Brind'Amour scores to put the Bobcats 2-1 in front in the Friendship Four final
Quinnipiac Bobcats were crowned the sixth champions of the Friendship Four tournament in Belfast after a shootout victory over Massachusetts Minutemen.
The final finished 2-2 and went to a penalty shootout following three-on-three sudden death overtime.
Over 22,000 people turned out over four games in two days at the SSE Arena.
You can watch the Massachusetts v UMass Lowell River Hawks and Dartmouth Big Green v Quinnipiac Bobcats games on the BBC iPlayer.
The tournament returned after a three-year absence due to the pandemic, with four NCAA Division One college hockey teams battling it out for the coveted Belpot Trophy.
The Bobcats took the initiative with the opening score in the first period through Ethan De Jong. A tense second period followed with Quinnipiac maintaining their slender advantage.
Celebration time for Taylor Makar after equalising for the Minutemen at the SSE Arena
The game sparked to life in the final period as Massachusetts levelled up through forward Taylor Makar.
Quinnipiac appeared to have clinched the game with a late winner when senior forward Skyler Brind'Amour put them back in front, only for the Minutemen to respond just 30 seconds later through Michael Cameron.
With the game tied at full time and the scoreboard unchanged after five minutes of overtime, the final went to a best-of-three shootout.
Quinnipiac's Cristophe Teller netted the only goal, with the Bobcats netminder Yaniv Perets saving all three Minutemen shots. It was the college's first triumph in the tournament, after losing the final to Vermont in their only previous visit in 2016.
Minutemen captain Zach Metsa received the distinctive Belpot Trophy and also, as is now tradition, got to 'ring the bell'.
"It was something the coaches really wanted, obviously we really wanted it," said the defenceman. "We have a set goal for the trophies we want to win, this was one of them this year, and we had to battle against two great teams that put up an unbelievable effort, so it feels even better."
Earlier, an exciting consolation game saw the UMass Lowell River Hawks came from 3-0 down against Dartmouth Big Green to clinch a 4-3 victory in overtime.