Did you catch the similarities between the Canada-United States men’s gold medal game at the Olympics and Saturday night’s Boston College-Maine Hockey East championship game?
Let’s start with the obvious. Both overtime games were classics that showcased the sport’s attributes to the highest degree: Pinpoint passing, great plays, good special teams, crunching body checks, top-notch saves, memorable goals, turnovers and some strange bounces.
In each case, you had a battle of longtime rivals.
You had the youngest team in the Olympics in the U.S. team and the youngest club in the Hockey East Tournament in Maine.
The U.S. squad and the Black Bears were both playing in the other team’s venue.
The Canadians were playing what amounted to being a home game in Vancouver and Maine was playing in the TD Garden in Boston where the Eagles play in the Beanpot Tournament every year in addition to the Hockey East semifinals and finals.
The United States and Maine each found itself trailing by two goals before rallying to force overtime.
The U.S. team fell behind 2-0 before tying it while Maine erased 4-2, 5-3 and 6-4 deficits.
The U.S. and Maine each tied the game with the goalie on the bench in favor of the extra attacker and they tied it with less than 30 seconds remaining.
Zach Parise knotted it up for the U.S. with 25 seconds remaining and Joey Diamond equalized for Maine with 27 seconds left.
And both lost within the first eight minutes of overtime.
Sidney Crosby scored 7:40 into overtime for Canada in the 3-2 win and Matt Lombardi supplied BC with its 7-6 triumph by jamming the puck under David Wilson 5:25 into the OT.
The shots on goal were similar, also.
Canada outshot the United States 39-36 while BC outshot Maine 34-32.
There were also two goalies involved in the games that probably weren’t expected to start the final a few weeks before the game.
Canada’s Roberto Luongo won the job when Martin Brodeur had a rough outing in a 5-3 pool play loss to the United States.
Wilson got all of the post-season starts for Maine because starter Scott Darling was suspended for violating team rules and Shawn Sirman was ineffective in back-to-back, regular-season losses to Massachusetts.
The United States team and Maine weren’t expected to play for a championship: Team USA was the sixth seed and Maine was picked to finish eighth in the preseason coaches poll and wound up fourth.
There are also a number of similarities between United States assistant coach and former Black Bear winger John Tortorella and Maine freshman right winger Diamond.
Diamond is a Tortorella clone.
Like Tortorella was, Diamond is a small, fearless agitators who constantly irritates opposing defensemen with his physical play and tenacity. Diamond drives the net like Tortorella used to and both can score.
They led their Maine teams in penalty minutes but drew a lot of penalties, also.
Diamond is from Long Beach, N.Y., while Tortorella is the head coach of the New York Rangers.
Both have June birthdays: Tortorella was born June 24, 1958 while Diamond was born June 16, 1989.
They also each have brothers who played hockey: Michael Diamond and former Black Bear goaltender Jim Tortorella.
lmahoney@bangordailynews.com
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