3/21 Recap: Eagles get by with a little help from Na-than

Boston College LW Nathan Gerbe piled up three assists as the Eagles stunned favorite New Hampshire in triple overtime, 5-4, to advance to the Hockey East championship game against Vermont. The NCAA leader in shots on goal, Gerbe used the extra time to rack up an impressive 15 on the night. Two of his assists were secondary, but he had many scoring chances of his own throughout. The junior was robbed by a Kevin Regan (BOS) kick save early on, missed an open net on a late-second period power play, and later was unsuccessful on breakaway in the second overtime. The triple helper vaults Gerbe into the national lead for points-per-game (1.45). Andrew Orpik, perhaps still feeling the lingering effects from his previous shoulder injury, again centered the Eagles' fourth unit. At the WCHA tournament, D Chris Butler was even in Denver's 3-1 win over North Dakota. The win propels the Pioneers into the tourney finals this evening in St. Paul, where they'll face surprising Minnesota fresh off an upset of Colorado College. Harvard D Alex Biega notched an assist in their 3-1 ECAC semifinal win over Cornell. The sophomore earned the point when his point shot was tipped by Jon Pelle for the third Crimson goal. Harvard will face Princeton tonight in Albany. In game two of their first-round playoff battle, D Drew Schiestel was +2 with a power-play assist as Niagara defeated Mississauga-St. Michael's, 3-1. The IceDogs jump out to a 2-0 series lead, with game three dropping on Easter Sunday. Paul Byron scored Gatineau's third goal as les Olympiques opened their playoff year with a 4-3 win over Shawinigan. Byron's first of the playoffs came on the power play in the final minute of the second period. Ray Giroux (PHI) made a pretty pass to the centerman, who corralled the puck on his tape to snap a quickie past Cats' goalie Kevin Maletto. J.S. Allard cashed-in a pair a goals, while T.J. Brennan added one of his own in the Fog Devils' 8-5 loss to Acadie-Bathurst. Allard and Brennan each picked up assists as well as St. John's falls behind 1-0 in the first round match-up. The Waterloo Black Hawks’ five-game win-streak ended with a 4-3 loss to Chicago that saw a total of 63 minutes in penalties doled out to both teams. Drew MacKenzie of Waterloo drew the harshest penalty of the game when he received a five minutes major for grabbing the face mask, and a 10 minute game misconduct for the face mask incident. In the AHL, Rochester won their second in a row with a 4-2 defeat of Grand Rapids. Marc-Andre Gragnani one-timed his 11th of the season to get the Amerks on the board in the first. Dylan Hunter would add a pair of goals (16,17), while Clarke MacArthur scored his 13th in the win. Adam Dennis made 32 saves for Rochester, who heads to Binghamton tonight for a 7:05 start. The Rundown: Hunter - two goals, +2 MacArthur - goal, assist, +2 Gragnani - goal, assist, +1 Mancari - assist, +1 Zagrapan - 0-0-0 0 0 Dennis - 32 saves