College Hockey Update: In the opening game of the 2023 NCAA Hockey Tournament, Boston University prevailed over Western Michigan University 5-1. Boston University had the momentum early in the first period, but at about the five or six minute mark into the period, Western Michigan seemed to regroup and started applying the pressure back to B.U., and play was more even. Western Michigan was able to put on fast charges up the middle, particularly by their first line, that the Terriers had trouble with. Western Michigan scored a goal with about eight minutes left in the first but it was called off, apparently because the scoring player used his stick to push the B.U. goalie’s leg off of a covered puck to score. four minutes later B.U. controlled a faceoff at the left point in front of the Western Michigan zone, moved it to the right across the neutral zone, and worked it up into the corner to the right of the net. Two quick passes centered the puck into the slot and to open freshman defenseman Lane Hutson, who buried the puck for the 1-0 B.U. lead, the score going into the break. Shots were pretty even in the first, 9-8 Western Michigan advantage.

In the second period B.U. seemed to jell in the second period with speed and team play, and a two-on-one B.U. break made it 2-0 after senior defenseman Dominick Fensore fed freshman forward Quinn Hutson, who buried the puck into the net nine minutes into the period. Just a minute later Matt Brown passed to senior forward Ethan Phillips, and headed to the slot. Phillips skated a curl around his defender, and passed right back to Brown who fired it in for the 3-0 B.U. lead. After this it appeared that B.U. play was a bit lax, and the two reconnected on a pass two minutes later, but Brown missed the shot plenty wide, and Denver was off to the races on a rush B.U. couldn’t handle, and scored to cut the lead to 3-1. Five minutes later, with three minutes left in the period, freshman forward Jeremy Wilmer found senior forward Wilmer Skoog wide open in the left circle, and Skoog scored to make it 4-1 B.U. going into the break. B.U. outshot Western Michigan 14-6 in the period.

In the third, B.U. appeared to be clearly trying to run out the clock — all twenty minutes of it. They actually managed to do it, but it wasn’t overly exciting to watch. Western Michigan added an extra attacker, but B.U. was up to the task, and held them off, eventually getting a fast break the to the net, and it was senior forward Ethan Phillips who shot in the last goal of the game to make the final score 5-1. B.U. advanced to play the winner of today’s Denver/Cornell game (which at the time of this writing is 2-0, Cornell, in the third) on Saturday, March 25, 2023, at 1:00pm on ESPNU.

One might say that given the way this game shook out, the B.U. win was really a 4-1 win. Either way, a four goal win, or a three goal win, Western Michigan only lost three games by more than two goals this season prior to today — all three games were three goal losses, and they were to St. Cloud State, North Dakota, and Denver.

This outcome is not an upset in our pool, as only nine participants picked Western Michigan to win, compared to thirty-nine who picked Boston University.

OUR POOL

We have forty-nine participants this year, so we seem to have recovered from last year when we only had thirty-three. This is our fourth highest ever, and it makes eight out of nine times we had forty or more since the first time in 2014. We have had 50, 58, and 52 from 2017-2021, respectively (no tournament in 2020). This year the forty-nine participants have picked eight different teams to win it all:

Minnesota . . . . 25

Michigan . . . . . . 8

Denver . . . . . . . . 7

Boston . . . . . . . . 3

Quinnipiac . . . . . 3

Harvard . . . . . . . . 1

Michigan Tech . . 1

Pennsylv. State . . 1

That’s all for now. Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom