The hill was just too high to climb.
Needing to not only win, but win by three goals to advance in the tournament, St. Bonaventure (14-10-1) fell to Tampa, 3-2, Friday night in the final game of pool play at the AAU College Hockey Nationals in Jacksonville, Florida.
Tampa (20-4-1), the second seed in the tournament, advanced to the national semifinals Saturday night.
The Bonnies, seeded No. 7 in the tournament, needed to win by three goals because the tiebreaker in a three-way tie — Fairfield also finished 2-1 in the pool after beating Auburn Friday morning — was fewest goals allowed in the tournament.
Tampa entered tonight’s game having given up only two goals; SBU had allowed five. Had the Bonnies won by three, they’d have won the next tiebreaker (goal differential).
A terrible break put the Bonnies in an early 1-0 hole.
Tampa scored less than 3 minutes into the game while shorthanded when a clearing pass took a crazy bounce off the end boards and went right to the stick of Tampa’s William McCann in front of a wide open net. Bonnies goalie Kyle Karoleski, waiting to play the puck off the boards, had no chance.
Tampa scored 4 minutes later on the power play to take a 2-0 lead after the first period. But SBU tied it in the second.
Sam Cichowski deflected a Miles Brown shot from the point while on the power play just over a minute into the period and Tyler Menz scored with 4 minutes left, blocking a Tampa shoot-in at the blue line and converting a breakaway to tie it.
Tampa added an empty-net goal with 2:38 left in the game for the winning score.
Karoleski stopped 35 of 37 shots for the Bonnies.
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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure is a community committed to transforming the lives of its students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a commitment to academic excellence and lifelong civic engagement. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for value and #14 for innovation by U.S. News and World Report (2024).