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#13
BU takes on # 10 Michigan in the Northeast Regional Final at the DCU Center in
Worcester with puck drop set for 4 p.m. ET. The game airs live on ESPN2. The
Terriers, who lost last year’s Western Regional final to Minnesota-Duluth in
overtime, will be trying to overcome that same hurdle and advance to the Frozen
Four for the first time since 2015.
Michigan
earned its spot in today’s Regional final with a 3-2 win against Northeastern,
led by a pair of Cooper Marody goals.The #4 seed Terriers and #2 seed Wolverines
will be meeting for the ninth time in the NCAA tournament, with each team
having won four times. Their last meeting was in 1997 when the Terriers upset
top ranked and defending champion Michigan, 3-2 (video), in the Frozen Four semifinal.
The
Wolverine offense is led by top-line forwards Marody (48 points) and Tony Calderone (41)
and defenseman Quinn Hughes (28). Goalie Hayden Lavigne has a 2.76 GAA and a
.910 save percentage
With
Northeastern’s loss and Providence dropping a heart-breaker to Notre Dame, BU
is the sole Hockey East team remaining in the tournament.Five teams from USCHO’s pre-season
top 20 are still alive:#1 Denver,
#2 BU, #6 Minnesota Duluth, #8 Notre Dame and #19 Ohio State. Notre Dame and UMD have earned spots in the Frozen Four. Denver vs. Ohio State will decide the final spot.
Freshman
David Farrance’s third-period goal, breaking a 1-1 tie, and a 30-save
performance by Jake Oettinger sent #13 BU past #4/3 Cornell and into an NCAA
Regional championship game on Sunday. The 3-1 win at Worcester’s DCU Center,
with goals from two other freshmen, Shane Bowers and Logan Cockerill (empty-netter),
extends the Terriers’ unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1).
BU,
the 4th seed in the Northeast Regional, will face #2 seed Michigan,
a 3-2 winner over Northeastern, in the bracket championship game at 4 p.m. ET.
The contest will air live on ESPN2.With
Providence losing to Notre Dame in the final seconds of regulation in the
Eastern Regional in Bridgeport, the Terriers are the only Hockey East team left
in the tournament.
Following a scoreless first period, Cornell got on the board at 7:27 of the second when Trevor Yates one-timed a Cam Donaldson pass from the top of the right circle, beating Oettinger high to the glove side. The Big Red saw its lead vanish just half a minute later. After Brandon Hickey fanned on a passing attempt, he whirled and backhanded the puck toward the Cornell goal. A perfectly positioned Bowers redirected the puck out of the air and past goalie Matthew Galajda. Bobo Carpenter picked up the secondary assist.
Midway through the period the game's only two penalties were called, giving each team a power play. Cornell had two shots on its man-advantage, both turned aside by Oettinger. BU failed to convert on its three shots on goal and just missed on one golden opportunity in close.
The eventual game-winner came at 4:39 of the third period when Cornell hesitated on a breakout from its own end, allowing Greenway to strip the puck and get it to Drew Melanson. He fed it to Brady Tkachuk who circled behind the cage and backhanded a pass that Farrance one-timed from the left faceoff dot. The shot went off the far side post and into the net.
Late in the period, with Cornell pressing for the equalizer and BU trying to keep the puck in the Big Red's end, Tkachuk got on a forecheck in the corner and kept the puck there despite being outnumbered, bleeding precious time off the clock. When Cornell finally pulled Galajda with about just over a minute left in regulation, BU missed its first attempt to hit the empty net and Cornell resumed its 6-on-five attack. As the seconds ticked down, Carpenter collected the rebound of an Oettinger save and banked the puck into center ice. Cockerill beat a desperate Big Red defender to the puck and fired it into the empty net with 17 seconds left.
Head
coach Dave Quinn called the contest ““Playoff hockey at its finest,” adding:
“There wasn’t a lot of room out there today. I
thought two teams that just competed as hard as you possibly can, it was a
physical game, it was a fast game – that’s as big and strong of a team that
you’re going to see in college hockey, they play fast. It took everything we
had to beat them.”
Commenting
on yet another strong performance by Oettinger, the coach noted
“The
thing I like about our game is that I think we’re working in sync with him, our
D-zone coverage is working well with him, he’s making the first save, [and]
we’re not giving up a lot of second chances off the shot.”
On
Armed Services Night at USA Hockey Arena, 2018 recruit Jake Wise scored twice
and assisted on another goal as the NTDP U18s doubled up Chicago, 8-4, and
clinched a first-round USHL bye. Wise, a former Central Catholic standout, has seven
goals and nine assists in the last eight games and is tied for fifth in scoring
for the U18s with 36 points. Fellow recruit Joel Farabee assisted on a pair of
goals including Wise’s second goal.
Clayton
Keller scored his 22nd goal and added an assist to extend his
Coyotes’ rookie scoring mark to 59, but Arizona dropped a 4-2 decision to
Florida.
After
staving off elimination twice last weekend en route to the Hockey East
Championship, the #13 Terriers will seek to further extend their season, taking on #4/3
Cornell in the NCAA Northeast Regional at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Puck drop is at 1 p.m. for the contest that will air on ESPNews and will be
live streamed on WatchESPN and TSN Go.
Today’s
game will be the 47th between the teams (Cornell leads 24-19-3) but
just the third in NCAA tournament play. The Big Red beat BU, 4-1, in the 1967
national title game; five years later, the Terriers blanked Cornell, 4-0, for
its second straight championship.
In
last November’s Red Hot Hockey game at Madison Square Garden, BU rallied from a
4-1 deficit but could get no closer than 4-3.
BU,
currently unbeaten in its last seven games (6-0-1) will face the challenge of
denting Cornell’s best-in-the-nation defense that has allowed only 1.53 goals
per game. It’s freshman goalie, Matthew Galajda has the top GAA (1.49) and
third best save percentage (.940), earning himself a spot as a Hobey Baker
top-10 finalist. AnthonyAngello leads a
balanced attack with 26 points and 13 goals.
For
BU, junior Jordan Greenwayis playing the
best hockey of his college career and is tied with Bobo Carpenter atop the
Terrier scoring list with 33 points. Freshman Shane Bowers has 31 points. Drew
Melanson led BU in goals during the four-game Hockey East playoffs with four.
Goalie Jake Oettinger, who earned MVP honors for his 1.85 GAA in the Hockey East
tournament, posted a .958 save percentage during BU’s current unbeaten streak.
Yesterday, Coach David Quinn, captain Brandon Hickey, Bobo Carpenter and Drew Melanson met with the media.
Former BU All-American and Most Outstanding Player of the 2009 NCAAs Colby Cohen guested on The Pipeline Show (audio), discussing the NCAA tournament. He is doing game analysis for ESPN at the Midwest Regional in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Looking
ahead
2018
recruit Joel Farabee scored an extra attacker goal, assisted by fellow recruit Jake Wise, that
pulled the U18s even with Chicago and Team USA went on to a 5-4 overtime
victory. Farabee has 27 goals and 62 points. 2019 recruit Robert Mastrosimone
had an assist for the Steel and is the fourth leading scorer among USHL rookies.
2018
recruit Hugo Blixt(photo)assisted on a power play goal as Tri-City edged Sioux Falls, 1-0. The 6'4" defenseman from Sweden has 25 points in 51 games.
2019
recruit Trevor Zegras (photo) scored his 16th goal and assisted on two others in the
NTDP U17s’ 9-3
win against Central Illinois. Zegras has 47 points in 41 games. Alex Vlasic
scored his seventh goal for the U17s. Vlasic, a 6-5 defenseman, has 25 points
in 46 games.
This week’s episode of Inside
BU Hockey features Bernie Corbett’s interviews with Head Coach David Quinn,
sophomore goalie Jake Oettinger, former Terrier standout, assistant coach and
head coach at Princeton and UMass Don “Toot” Cahoon and Cornell play-by-play
announcer—and BU alum—Jason Weinstein.Oettinger, a 2017 first-round draft pick by Dallas, was the MVP of last
weekend’s Hockey East Championship tournament won by the Terriers.
Cahoon, who starred
on BU’s 1971 and 1972 national championship teams, was an assistant to Jack Parker
from 1983 to 1991, He led Princeton to the ECAC title in 1998 and led UMass to an
NCAA Regional final in 2007.In 1991, he
coached Team USA in the World Junior Championships. Cahoon is currently a hockey commentator on TV broadcasts.
