What a great game to open the NCAA Tournament semifinals today in Philadelphia!  Two great teams going at it, throwing everything they had out on the ice against the other guys.  Whew!

Boston College got on the board immediately after they made their first line change, putting their top line on the ice.  Bill Arnold defended the puck, turned around on the Union blue line with a two-on-one, passed to Kevin Hayes, who shot on goal, and the speedy Johnny Gaudreau had come down the ice and was in position next to (actually in) the crease, and quickly flipped the rebound into the net to put BC up 1-0, two minutes into the first.  It did not seem like a particularly good omen for Union at the time . . . .  Union was lucky to hold BC off for the remainder of the first, as BC had a couple of shots bounce off the pipes.

Three minutes into the third, Matt Bodie fired a hard slap shot into the net to tie it, 1-1.  Eight minutes later, Union won a face-off, and Shayne Gotisbehere took a long shot that went high over BC goalie Thatcher Demko, but he tried to glove it, and instead he deflected it to the front of the goal, and Union’s Daniel Ciampini made an easy play to score in front of the outstretched Demko.  Five minutes later BC’s Steve Santini fired a shot in to tie it up, 2-2, which is how the second ended.

Five minutes into the third on a Union power-play, Gotisbehere fired a long shot that Ciampini redirected in for the score, putting Union up 3-2.  Immediately after this goal, a Union player boarded a BC player for a major penalty, and BC went on a five-minute power-play, which looked ominous for Union.  But Union held tight and kept BC off the board, limiting them to three shots in the five minute penalty.  Immediately after the penalty ended, Union’s Mike Vecchione added another goal to put Union up 4-2.  Down by two goals, BC went on an offensive blitzkreig, seeming to be constantly firing on the Union goal.  With about three minutes remaining, Jerry York pulled goalie Demko to add an extra attacker.  With so little time left, wasn’t the Union lead rather safe?  Well, forty-five seconds later, BC’s Fitzgerald flipped in a rebound off of Union goalie Stevens, and made it 4-3 with about two minutes left.  But with a minute left, Union’s Ciampini was able to chase a long clearing shot out of the Union zone, which was legal on the hybrid icing rule.  The puck actually bounced off the back board and came forward, in front of the net, and Ciampini had out-skated all of the BC players, and he put it in the empty net for the 5-3 lead, and his hat-trick.  With time running out, on a power play and with an extra attacker, BC’s Brown scored again to make it 5-4, with only four seconds remaining.  Amazingly, on the ensuing faceoff, BC’s Johnny Gaudreau got the puck, raced through all the Union players, crossed over the blue line, and with almost no time left, fired off a blistering shot straight to the net, which Union’s Stevens stopped as the final buzzer sounded.

Union advanced to its first ever NCAA Championship game, and will face Minnesota on Saturday the 12th at 4:30pm Pacific Time on ESPN.

While Union was not “favored” to win this game, since they did not have a majority of the picks, they did have the plurality with 17 of 40 entries taking Union to make it to the championship game — yes, 17 people chose Union to be here — where 15 took BC.

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

— Tom