Freshmen power UVM to Friendship Four title

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — And the youngsters shall lead them.

So it was for the University of Vermont in the Friendship Four championship game as freshmen Ross Colton and Stefanos Lekkas spurred the No. 20 Catamounts to a 5-1 victory over No. 3 Quinnipiac to win the right to bring the Belpot home to Burlington.

As Vermont displayed a quick-strike capacity rarely seen since the days of Eric Perrin and Martin St. Louis, Colton scored a pair of spectacular goals including the tally that quickly spiked the Bobcats’ desperate comeback attempt in the third period.

Lekkas followed up his 33-save performance in Friday’s 4-2 over Massachusetts with 40 stops against a frustrated Quinnipiac club that scored one goal in 125 minutes of Friendship play, discounting the shootout goal to beat St. Lawrence on Friday. Lekkas was named the top player in the tourney after QU outshot UVM 41-22, including 29-9 over the final 40 minutes.

“He really was (outstanding),” UVM coach Kevin Sneddon said of Lekkas. “When they were down 2-0, 3-0, they were throwing everything at him, getting traffic and crashing the net. They were very tenacious to the puck but the only goal they scored was a 6-on-4 that goes off one of our shin pads and in.”

While Colton recorded his fifth and sixth goals, senior Mario Puskarich and freshman Derek Lodermeier also contributed highlight tallies and junior Jarrid Privitera put in a hustle power play tally.

“He’s getting better and better and now he has confidence,” Sneddon said of Colton. “Early on he was getting his chances and they weren’t going in for him. Now he’s starting to finish his opportunities. He’s a special player.

“We scored some nice goals tonight. We’re putting up some good offense in a quality way. We’re starting to see some of the confidence and skill come out of our guys.”

Despite the sizable score advantage, the Catamounts (9-3-2, 4-2-1 HEA) had to work furiously against the Bobcats (9-4-1, 5-1-1 ECAC). After falling behind 2-0 on Colton and Puskarich goals in the first — UVM also sabotaged a 5-minute power play with two minor penalties — Quinnipiac controlled play for much of the second only to slip behind 3-0 on Privitera’s score.

Even when QU finally scored 7:58 into the third — Bobcat coach Rand Pecknold pulled goalie Andrew Shortridge (17 saves) to give his team a 6-4 skater advantage on a power play — Colton’s goal only 51 seconds later restored UVM’s 3-goal advantage and Lodermeier bumped it to 5-1 2:17 after that.

“I’m so proud of our guys,” Sneddon said. “We had to fight some adversity (Friday) when we did not play particularly well in the first period but we found a way to come together collectively to get to the championship game and win two important Hockey East points.

“Tonight I thought we had solid play for 60 minutes and even when they scored, we answered on the next shift,” Sneddon said.

One aspect that hindered the Catamounts were the number and type of penalties incurred, though UVM’s penalty killers again excelled by stopping six of the Bobcats’ seven power plays.

“It’s a balancing act. We talked about how physical and how hard (QU) plays … and we kind of crossed the line in the second period,” said Sneddon, who said it still was better to try settling players down than firing them up.

The Catamounts played without defenseman Ori Abramson, who sustained a lower body injury in Friday’s game. He will be evaluated at home but appears to be week to week. Sneddon also shuffled the lineup a bit to insert fresh legs.

UVM returns to Gutterson Fieldhouse on Dec. 9 and 10 for a two-game Hockey East series against Boston University, the first two of eight consecutive home games.

Correspondent Ted Ryan contributed to this reports. Contact him at TedRyanVT@aol.com and follow him on Twitter at @TedRyanVT.