MINNESOTA DISMISSES BOSTON UNIVERSITY

College Hockey Update: This is a very late posting, but these games were not easy to summarize, so let’s give it a whirl. In the early semi-final game of the Frozen Four in Tampa, FL., Minnesota and Boston University battled closely — for the first two periods. Boston University scored first after winning a faceoff in the Minnesota zone, and a shot by Domenick Fensore from the center of the blue line ricocheted off the pads of the goalie. But B.U. senior Sam Stevens had headed to the crease, and managed a shot in while face to face with Minnesota goalie Justen Close, and with Minnesota defenseman Jaxon Nelson draped on his back, eleven minutes into the period. But it was almost all Minnesota in the first period as the Gophers out-shot the Terriers 13-7, did a better job of “staying home” defensively, and very importantly capitalized big time on two of three power play opportunities in the frame provided to them by fairly undisciplined play/penalties by B.U., two of them by Luke Tuch. The first Minnesota goal came only four minutes after the B.U. goal when Mike Koster saw a shooting lane open up in the defense and he fired it in from the shooter’s left circle, to tie it at one apiece. And then, only a minute later, Minnesota won a faceoff in the B.U. zone, fed the pack back toward the blue line, and passed left across the zone to the point. Up at the crease, Aaron Huglen moved across to the left side as well, taking the B.U. defenseman with him. The puck was passed from the circle to Huglen as Rhett Pitlick moved down the slot to the void near the crease caused by Huglen moving over, and Huglen executed a perfect no-look pass between his legs to Pitlick behind him, that actually went between a B.U. defenseman’s legs, and Pitlick tapped it in to make it 2-1 Minnesota. The period and game were notably marked by flurries of Minnesota shots on goal, and apparent Minnesota goals that were called off after replays revealed them to have not crossed the goal line or to have been executed during goalie interference.

The second opened up with Minnesota picking up where they had left off, charging forward and strong in transition. But things shifted quickly and seven minutes into the frame the game total of shots had shifted from the first quarter B.U. 7-13 deficit to a 14-14 tie, and right then a Minnesota penalty gave put B.U. on the powerplay. A minute later another Domenick Fensore shot from the center of the blueline headed to the crease, and senior Jay O’Brien, standing right in front of goalie Close, deflected the waist-high shot down a bit and past Close to tie it up at two apiece. Two more B.U. penalties at about the eighteen and nineteen minute points gave Minnesota a man advantage for a minute, and a two man advantage for a minute to end the period. B.U. goalie Drew Commesso was working double and triple time to try to avert a total disaster for B.U., and he dodged many bullets as the period ended knotted at two. But B.U. could not stop accumulating the penalties they were racking up, and they tallied their sixth of the game with one second remaining in the period! While shots on goal were pretty even, with a slight 10-9 advantage for B.U., B.U. had a 7-1 advantage in the first seven minutes, and Minnesota had an 8-3 advantage in the last thirteen minutes.

The third opened up with Minnesota on the 5-on-3 powerplay for the first minute, and then on a man advantage for the next minute, and 1:40 into the period, a pass to the shooter’s left circle was jetted to the net by freshman Luke Mittlestadt, and Minnesota had the 3-2 lead, the third power play goal of the game for the Gophers. About two minutes later another pass to Mittlestadt at the shooter’s left circle was fired in, and Minnesota had their first two goal lead of the game, 4-2; this was the third goal for Minnesota from the shooter’s left circle. B.U. was not “staying home” anywhere near as well as Minnesota — the only two goals of the game for B.U. were scored within inches of the net. It seemed that if B.U. allowed any shooting lane to the net to open up, that Minnesota could see it, and capitalize on it instantly. B.U. fought to get back in the game, but it was really stay at home time for Minnesota, and B.U. didn’t crack it. B.U. pulled goalie Drew Commesso with about three minutes left, but they didn’t control the puck and Logan Cooley scored on a turnover to make it 5-2, Minnesota. A minute later, again with an empty net, Logan Cooley scored on another turnover to make the final 6-2, Minnesota. Boston University hung itself by giving seven powerplay opportunities to the fourth best powerplay offense in all of college hockey, by not sealing off shooting lanes to the goal, and by not cracking the through the Minnesota defense that played brilliantly throughout the game, regardless of outshooting Minnesota 14-12 in the third frame. The win by the #1 Gophers launched them to the NCAA Championship game two days later against #3 Quinnipiac, Saturday night, April 8th.

A quick note on this game. Boston University featured ten seniors and a g.s. in their lineup; all five players scoring and assisting on the two B.U. goals were seniors (Fensore had two assists, hence five players and not six). Minnesota featured seven seniors in their lineup; none of them scored a goal, and two of them tallied a single assist each. Don’t quite know what to make of that, and I’m not trying to make anything of it; it’s just an observation.

This game was not an upset in our pool, as thirty-three of our forty-nine participants picked Minnesota to win this game, compared to five who picked Boston University. Nine had picked Denver, one had picked Cornell, and one had picked Mankato State to win this game.

QUINNIPIAC DISPATCHES MICHIGAN

In the late semi-final game of the Frozen Four in Tampa, FL., Quinnipiac got on the board first with a goal by Jacob Quillan five minutes into the game with a shot from behind the net that banked in off of Michigan goalie Sam Portillo. But two minutes later Seamus Casey tied it up for Michigan at 1-1 on a smooth and unassisted goal. With eight minutes left in the first, Jacob Quillan managed to beat goalie Portillo on a breakaway opportunity to give Quinnipiac the 2-1 lead, the score going into the first break. Qunnipiac had a slight 9-8 shots advantage in the first.

Michigan managed a shots advantage of 14-9 in the second period, and after nearly the length a full period being played with no scoring, Adam Fantilli ended the drought by blasting in a laser shot from the faceoff circle to tie it up again for Michigan at 2-2, midway through the period. By uncanny coincidence, this was almost the exact timing of the second goal by B.U. in the earlier game. The 2-2 score held going into the second break, as was the case in the earlier game.

And as if on cue from the previous game, Quinnipiac scored 1:24 into the third after Portillo denied a Collin Graf breakaway attempt, sending the puck behind the net where Sam Lipkin controlled it and shot it forward, hitting Portillo’s skate, and taking a bounce right into the goal for the 3-2 Quinnipiac lead. Quinnipiac had a slight shots advantage in the third of 12-11, and the two skated scoreless for the next eleven minutes. But Zach Metsa sneaked one in from the boards at the side of the goal to give Quinnipiac a 4-2 advantage with seven minutes left in the game. Michigan added an extra attacker, but Ethan de Jong found the empty net, and gave Quinnipiac the win, making the final score 5-2, sending them to the NCAA Championship game two days later against #1 Minnesota, Saturday night, April 8th.

The outcome of this game was an upset in our pool as only fifteen of our forty-nine participants picked Quinnipiac to win this game, compared to twenty-five who picked Michigan. Three had picked Michigan Tech, two had picked Ohio State, two had picked Pennsylvania State, one had picked Colgate, and one had picked Harvard to win this game.

Well, here we are a nearly a week after the championship game, we all know who won, but who in the world won THE POOL??!!

That’s all for now. As we say here at College Hockey Update, STAY TUNED!! (and you will know pretty quickly who won it)

And, go Terriers!

— Tom