#1 Virginia, and #5 Duke met tonight up at M&T Bank Stadium for the third time this season to decide who would play in the National Championship. The Hoos got things going in the right direction Saturday as attack Chris Bocklet scored the first goal of the contest at the 12:47 mark. It was his 50th goal of the year. The 50 goal mark has not not seen by the Wahoos since 1996. A bad outlet pass by Virginia Jr. goalie Adam Ghitelman made it easy for Duke’s Rotannz (1 goal) to tie it up less than a minute later.
The television coverage started with usually fantastic play-by-play guy Sean McDonough getting tongue tied and becoming overcome by emotion when he started speaking about Yeardley Love. McDonough tried a little later to talk about how much he respected how Yeardley’s mom had handled the horrific tragedy, and he again had a tough time speaking.
Steele Stanwick (3 goals, 2 assists), scored two quick goals for the Hoos which interrupted some really sloppy play for both teams. At the 2:55 mark of the first quarter, Duke’s Justin Turri (3,1) scored a sweet between the legs goal to make it 3-2 Hoos.
Virginia really seemed to be on the defense end for most of the first quarter. The Wahoos had eight turnovers in the first period as well. With 6 seconds to go in period one, Shamel Bratton (1 goal) scored on a really pretty left handed goal, his 24th goal of the season, which made it 4-2 to end the first stanza.
Duke started the second period with an extra man opportunity, and it took Duke only 19 seconds for the Blue Devils to score to make it 4-3 Hoos. Next up, it was Virginia, who received the extra guy as Duke was called for a slash. The penalty expired without any meaningful offensive attempts by Virginia. At the 11:06 mark Chris Bocklet scored his second goal of the game to make it 5-3 Hoos.
The Blue Devils got the scoring going again on a strong 87 mph. shot by Justin Turri again to make it 5-4 Hoos at the 9:19 mark in the second period. The Blue Devils started the game with a 7-4 faceoff advantage. Duke again scored to make it 5-5, and the momentum had cleared swung back in Duke’s direction.
At the 2:25 mark, Virginia returned to playing smart, mistake free lax and went back in the lead on a nifty right-handed Colin Briggs shot. Duke won the ensuing faceoff again, but missed a shot attempt that was wide to the right of the Virginia goal. To close out the first half of play, Virginia’s Brian Carroll scored his 92nd career goal on a powerful right handed shot that hit the bottom right ground, just in front of the goal on the turf. 7-5 Virginia at the half.
First-half stats: UVA was 12-14 on clears, Duke 5-11. Duke won 10 faceoffs, UVA won only 3. Both goalies had 4 saves.
To start the second half, Virginia won the faceoff and took just two shots to get back on the board, as Chris Bocklet (4 goals) scored his third goal of the game at the 13:49 mark. The goal was Virginia’s third straight on the evening to make it 8-5 Hoos! At the 10:05 mark Duke shot and the ball got stuck in Adam Ghitelman’s face-mask. Virginia was also called for a penalty, and Duke answered the call with a score to make it 8-6 Virginia. Duke then scored again at the 5:35 mark on a pretty goal by Zach Howell (2,1) to make it 8-7 Virginia.
You could really tell the emotion was again swinging in Duke’s favor at this point. Duke again scored at 3:12 on a beautiful goal by Ned Crotty (1,2) to tie things up 8-8. 3 unanswered goals by Duke. A penalty on Clausen again handed Duke the extra man opportunity, which they again turned in another outstanding goal to make it 9-8 Duke. The goal gave the Blue Devils their first lead of the night. In the final minute of the third quarter Duke out hustled Virginia on an errant shot, and was awarded the ball, but was unable to get a shot off.
The fourth quarter began with Duke controlling the faceoff and immediately scoring to make it 10-8 Blue Devils. It was only the third goal of the season for the long-stick Constabile. Duke leads the nation in long-stick scoring. Duke scored again to give them a 3 goal lead. The Hoos just looked out of gas at this point. Virginia, then looked completely out of sorts as they totally lost their composure and it led to another Duke goal to make it 12-8 Duke at the 12:08 point. Lights out for the Hoos… Or so I thought…
The Hoos finally found the goal again at the 10:36 mark as Rhamel Bratton (1,1) took a little off on his shot and found the top left portion of the goal. The goal was Rhamel’s first of the NCAA tournament. The Bratton goal stopped the barrage of 7 straight Blue Devils goals. Virginia came right back and scored another Bockett goal to make it 12-10 Duke. Phew, the momentum had firmly changed back the Hoos’s way again! Quickly, the Hoos came right back, and Brian Carroll scored to make it 12-11 Duke with a little under seven minutes to play. 3 straight goals for the Hoos! Virginia then had a very costly turnover, and Duke was back on the move again offensively. Duke scored after a stall warning called by the officials, to make it 13-11 Blue Devils.
An incredible shot by Steele Stanwick got the Hoos within one goal at the 1:50 make. The most important faceoff of the game was then won by Virginia, and then Bocklet made an errant shot that was backed up by the Hoos. Brian Carroll then got the hat-trick on a sweet center shot to tie things up at the 1:21 mark. The ensuing faceoff was won by Duke and then the Blue Devils called their last time-out of the game.
Off the TO, Duke scored an incredible Max Quinzani goal with 12 seconds remaining. It was his 68th goal of the season. Virginia got one more chance to tie things up with 8 seconds remaining, but came up short because of an inexcusable offsides call on the Hoos. Another boneheaded play by Virginia to end the Hoos’ season.
Duke goes on to play Notre Dame on Monday in the National Championship game. The winner of that contest will bring the Championship trophy home for the first time ever to which ever school wins, since neither team has ever won this game before. Duke got hammered by the Golden Domers earlier this season.
Final statistics:
Shots: Virginia 46 Duke 42
Saves: Virginia 8 Duke 7
Faceoffs: Virginia 11/30 Duke 19/30