Boston University, St. Cloud State, Cornell and the University of Minnesota have advanced to their respective regional title games after an exciting first day of action:
Terriers too strong for Western Michigan
Boston University has now won eight games in a row and has a chance to advance to the Frozen Four following their 5-1 win over the Western Michigan Broncos on Thursday.
The Terriers will now face Cornell University in the Manchester Regional on Saturday evening.
Western Michigan managed to score first in this contest, but the goal was waved back due to netminder interference. Hugh Larkin's initial shot on-net was stopped by Drew Commesso. Larkin kept with it and by around the fourth whack at it, the goal was called back.
That saved the Terriers, who eventually broke the deadlock at 15:24 with a clean wrist shot by Lane Hutson. The goal broke a 35-year-old U-19 defensive scoring record, with Hutson -- now at 48 points –- passing Brian Leetch for third all-time in a single season.
Lane’s older brother, Quinn Hutson, scored to make it 2-0 at 8:53 and Matt Brown followed that up just a few shifts later to push Boston University to a 3-0 advantage.
Jason Polin, a top UFA once the NCAA season ends, eventually got WMU on the board at 32:34. Some strong puck work from Ryan McAllister and Tim Washe led to Polin's opportunity and he came through in scoring his 30th of the season.
Unfortunately for WMU, not much more came from that goal. Wilmer Skoog potted one with just three minutes to go in the second period, giving Boston a 4-1 advantage -– a lead Western Michigan couldn’t do much about, especially at that point. Ethan Phillips’ empty-netter with a few minutes to go in the third helped seal the deal, giving BU a berth in Saturday’s final.
St. Cloud shuts out Minnesota State
In what many expected to be a tightly-contested battle, the St. Cloud State Huskies managed to beat Minnesota State 4-0 in a convincing effort in Fargo.
St. Cloud will play the University of Minnesota after the top-seeded Gophers managed to beat Canisius in the late game in North Dakota.
Minnesota took a 10-4 shot advantage into the first break in this one and St. Cloud was lucky to hit intermission without having allowed a goal. They would make the Mavericks pay in the second period as a result. Just over 12 minutes into the second, on the power play, Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Veeti Miettinen scored on a blister of a shot to make it 1-0.
Then, with just 2:37 remaining in the frame, Jack Peart scored his third goal of the season with a quick wrister, beating Keenan Rancier for the 2-0 lead.
While Minnesota State kept the action alive, a late third-period goal from Zach Okabe pushed St. Cloud to a 3-0 advantage which would not be overcome. The Mavs pulled their goalie in an attempt to generate something with around six minutes left, but Grant Cruikshank’s empty-netter with 3:16 left sealed the deal for SCS.
Cornell pulls off upset over defending champs
We’ve got ourselves the first upset of the national regional championships.
Cornell University is off to the final of the Manchester Regional after defeating Denver 2-0 on Thursday. They will next battle against the aforementioned Boston University, who beat Western Michigan to kick off regional action earlier on Thursday.
This game as a whole represented a fantastic effort for the Big Red, who scored twice in the third period to take all life away from Denver. It started early when Jack O’Leary finished off a play that saw Cornell hold significant pressure, beating Magnus Chrona for the 1-0 goal.
Less than 10 minutes later, Ben Berard managed to beat an outstretched Chrona, who lost track of the puck and was forced into a desperate scramble. The teams traded five-minute major penalties in the second, though neither outfit generated a scoring chance in the exchange.
Denver at one point went 15 minutes without a shot and had just two attempts late in their five-minute power play, but they couldn’t do anything to spark a comeback.
Top-ranked Minnesota avoids loss to Canisius
With multiple leads in the contest, it looked like Canisius – ranked 42nd in the pairwise rankings – was going to pull off a major upset against the top-seeded University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
That didn’t end up happening, though, as Minnesota came back from trailing 2-1 to win 9-2 in a game that was close for the 40 minutes of play.
Minnesota will play St. Cloud State University on Saturday for a chance to advance to the Frozen Four.
The Gophers started off this one well, with defenseman Luke Mittelstadt taking Mike Koster’s feed to put the team up 1-0 at the 6:08 in the first period. Two minutes later, Daniel DiGrande whistled one past Justen Close for the tying goal on the power play. The score remained locked until Nick Bowman deked past two defenders to put home the puck at 23:23, pushing Canisius in the lead in shocking fashion.
The Griffins held onto the lead for five minutes, until Aaron Huglen’s wrister in the slot beat Jacob Barczewski for the tying goal. Connor Kurth scored 10 minutes later to give Minnesota its first lead of the contest.
A game misconduct to Canisius’ Stefano Bottini for contact to the head changed the course of the contest, allowing Jimmy Snuggerud to score in the first minute of the five-minute advantage and Brody Lamb to do likewise a minute later to push the Gophers' advantage.
Just before the halfway point in the third period, Bryce Brodzinski looked like he scored on a shot that hit both posts. But after a review on the play, the officials determined that the puck never crossed the line. You could tell Brodzinski wasn’t pleased.
On the next scoring chance, Logan Cooley deked past two defenders before finding Brodzinski all alone, who then fired the puck in for the 6-2 goal. Brodzinski scored two more to complete the hat-trick, while Mason Nevers scored his first goal as Minnesota completed the big 9-2 victory.
NHL Implications
- Keep an eye on three of Western Michigan’s top forwards: Jason Polin, Ryan McAllister and Max Sasson. Polin scored his 30th of the season, while McAllister fell just short of the 50-point mark as a freshman. Both are assumed to have some serious NHL attention. Sasson, a sophomore, also turned heads with a huge campaign.
- Jack Perbix (Anaheim) and Carter Berger (Florida) have finished their senior seasons for WMU. Both of their respective NHL teams will have until August 15 to decide whether to sign them. If unsigned, they will become free agents.
- With Minnesota State now out, two of the best UFA defensemen – Jake Livingstone and Akito Hirose – can now be signed. Both are believed to have received significant NHL attention, with Livingstone considered one of the best UFAs out of the NCAA.
- With Magnus Chrona’s four-year college career now complete, it’s up to the San Jose Sharks to see if they’ll ink him to a deal. The 6-foot-6 goaltender was originally drafted by Tampa Bay in the fifth round in 2018 and posted a 73-34-5 record in 113 games with Denver. Kaapo Kahkonen is the only goaltender signed for 2023-24 in San Jose’s system, with Eetu Makiniemi and Strauss Mann set to become RFAs.
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