College Hockey Update:  Quinnipiac prevailed in a close-quartered battle over Boston College in the first semifinal game of the Frozen Four today in Tampa, Florida.  From the get-go, Quinnipiac applied pressure to BC every second BC handled a puck, particularly when BC picked up a puck in their own zone. Quinnipiac defended, covered,  and blocked passes, making it very difficult for BC to get any momentum going into the neutral zone to allow them to set up offense in the Quinnipiac zone. Instead, many of these efforts resulted in Quinnipiac intercepting a pass in the neutral zone and turning it right around back into the BC zone.

This was particularly true in the first period.  Quinnipiac got on the board only three minutes into the game when a pass from behind the net went to Kevin McKernan, and he took it into the slot and fired it in to make it 1-0.  The game continued on and only four minutes later another pass from behind the net found Andrew Taverner as he was skating up the middle to the net, unescorted.  He blistered in a shot to give Quinnipiac a 2-0 lead.  While the game play continued on for the next thirteen minutes as it had in the first seven, no more goals were scored and the first ended 2-0.

In the second BC came out decidedly different, sped to the puck, and put pressure on Quinnipiac right away.  BC’s Alex Tuch was fed the puck, and he took it behind the net and wrapped one around behind Quinnipiac goalie Michael Garteig, to make it 2-1, only twenty-three seconds into the period.  About four minutes later, on Quinnipiac’s first power play, Landon Smith tossed in a rebound in front of the BC net to put Quinnipiac up 3-1.  BC continued to play a fast and opportunistic game for the first half of the second, but in the second half, it was back to the Quinnipiac straight-jacket defense.  The second ended 3-1.

In the third period, as was the case early in the second, BC showed flashes of offensive skill and brilliance, but Quinnipiac was there at the net, and Garteig did his job to keep them out. Quinnipiac had given BC four power play opportunities, and had done an excellent job on killing them, but it was on the fifth of them, with about four minutes left in the game, that BC managed a good offensive rush at the net, and BC’s Ryan Fitzgerald popped in a rebound, to make it 3-2.  With 1:37 remaining, BC pulled goalie Thatcher Demko and added an extra attacker.  BC had many opportunities, but the Quinnipiac defense held, and when it didn’t, there were brilliant saves by Michael Garteig to secure the 3-2 win for Quinnipiac at the final buzzer.

Quinnipiac advances to the championship game for their second time ever, and will face the winner of tonight’s game between North Dakota and Denver, in two days, on Saturday, April 9, at 5:00pm Pacific Time.

This result is not an upset in our pool, as 30 out of our 48 participants had picked Quinnipiac to win this game and advance to the final game.

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

— Tom