Quinnipiac’s Sam Anas (left) was called for hooking UMass-Lowell’s Niklas Folin in the first period, leading to a River Hawks power-play goal (photo: Omar Phillips).
ALBANY, N.Y. — It’s hard to find faults with a team that has lost only three games all season, but if Quinnipiac had any, it’s that the Bobcats have taken penalties at inopportune times throughout the season.
Leading scorer Sam Anas was rarely among those finding himself in the box, as he entered Sunday’s Northeast Regional final against UMass-Lowell with only 12 penalty minutes in 40 games.
[scg_html_e2016]Yet it was an Anas who took the Bobcats’ first two penalties of the game: a hooking penalty that resulted in Dylan Zink’s blast from the point to give UMass-Lowell a 1-0 lead at 3:01 in the first and a tripping call near the midway point of the second period.
Those plays might have been uncharacteristic of the junior, but the two that followed were anything but.
With Quinnipiac still trailing 1-0, Anas set up Landon Smith for the tying goal at 10:33. Minutes later, he broke in alone on River Hawks goalie Kevin Boyle, deftly moving the puck from his forehand to his backhand before roofing a shot over the senior’s arm and into the back of the net to give the Bobcats the lead for good in a 4-1 win.
“The defense stepped up at the red line and I was able to poke it by them,” Anas said. “We had been talking that the goalie likes to challenge and I gave a little fake shot and put it to my backhand and was able to get it past him.”
Anas, who was a game-time decision in both regional contests after suffering an injury in the ECAC Hockey title game last weekend, finished the regional with a goal and two assists and was named to the all-regional team.
He played limited shifts at even strength both nights, but saw time on the Bobcats’ power play.
“It was kind of a stressful weekend but in the end it’s playoff hockey,” Anas said. “A chance to go to Tampa; it’s the best time of the year. I don’t think there was any chance I was going to let myself not play. The doctors did a great job getting me ready.”
With Anas’ availability in question on the weekend, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold dressed an extra forward for warmups on both nights.
“Both times after warmups, I didn’t know if he could go or not, and he’s like, ‘I wanna play,'” Pecknold said.
However, Pecknold’s plan hit a minor snag Sunday, as he told the wrong player to be ready to go in case Anas was out. As a result, freshman Thomas Aldworth was out of the lineup while classmate Craig Martin took his place after sitting out Saturday’s win over the Tigers.
UMass-Lowell coach Norm Bazin said the River Hawks didn’t change their game plan entering the night, despite Anas’ limited availability.
“He’s somebody that at 60 percent is as good as some at 100,” Bazin said. “He capitalized tonight and good for him.”
While Anas was able to do the most with his limited minutes, he also gave his teammates a lift.
“To see him come out and battle through an injury and do the things he does well, it really picks up the bench,” linemate Landon Smith said. “We kind of look at it like, ‘hey, if he’s battling like he is, we’ve got to step it up too,’ so it’s huge for our team.”
Boston College will make a record 25th Frozen Four appearance (photo: Melissa Wade).
The field for 2016 Frozen Four is set, and the national semifinals are a study in contrasts in terms of the history between the teams.
In one game, top overall seed Quinnipiac will play Boston College for the first time. In the other, longtime conference rivals North Dakota and Denver will meet for the sixth time this season and the 275th (or 276th) time overall.
The Bobcats and the Eagles drew the early semifinal, with a 5 p.m. EDT faceoff scheduled on April 7 in Tampa, Fla. The Fighting Hawks and Pioneers take the ice at 8:30 p.m.
The semifinals are on ESPN2. The April 9 championship game is on ESPN, with an 8 p.m. EDT start.
Three of the six teams with the most all-time Frozen Four appearances are in the field: Boston College leads all teams with 25, while North Dakota has 22 and Denver has 14. Quinnipiac is making its second appearance.
The Pioneers and Fighting Hawks will be playing for the 275th or 276th time, depending on which school’s records you use. (North Dakota leads the all-time series 142-122-11 in its records but 142-121-11 in Denver’s.)
It will be the seventh meeting in the NCAA tournament and the fifth in a Frozen Four. Denver won national championship games over North Dakota in 1958, 1968 and 2005, while North Dakota beat Denver in the 1963 title game.
Most recently, North Dakota beat Denver 6-1 to make the 2011 Frozen Four.
The Pioneers have had to go through North Dakota at some point in the NCAA tournament in four of their seven championship runs.
The Fighting Hawks also have seven national championships, tied with Denver for second behind Michigan’s nine titles.
They’re making their third straight Frozen Four appearance. It’s only the third time in the 14-season era of the 16-team NCAA tournament that a team has accomplished that feat; North Dakota had one, a four-year run from 2005 to 2008, and Boston College had the other from 2006 to 2008.
Overall, it’s the Fighting Hawks’ 22nd Frozen Four appearance, breaking a tie with Minnesota for fourth-best and tying Boston University for third.
Denver and North Dakota split their season series, with each sweeping a home series. They also tied 1-1 in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff third-place game on March 19.
On the other side of the bracket, Quinnipiac and Boston College will be playing for the first time when they open the Frozen Four at Amalie Arena.
The Bobcats are 5-1-2 against Hockey East schools this season, with the loss coming to Boston University on Dec. 12, ending a 17-game unbeaten run to start the season.
The Eagles are 2-1 against ECAC Hockey teams, with two wins over Harvard and a loss to Rensselaer.
Boston College will break a tie with Michigan for the record with its 25th Frozen Four appearance. It’s the Eagles’ eighth appearance in the last 13 seasons, including in every even-numbered year since 2004.
The Eagles won the championship the only other time the Frozen Four has been held in Tampa, in 2012.
Quinnipiac is the relative newcomer in the group, making just its second Frozen Four appearance. The Bobcats beat St. Cloud State 4-1 and lost to Yale 4-0 in the 2013 tournament in Pittsburgh.
North Dakota, the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament, claimed its spot in Tampa by beating Northeastern and Michigan in the Midwest Regional in Cincinnati.
Denver’s Danton Heinen scores a first-period goal in the West Regional final against Ferris State (photo: Jim Rosvold).
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Try as they might, the Denver Pioneers just couldn’t put the Ferris State Bulldogs away until late.
Sunday’s West Regional final between Ferris State and Denver saw the Pioneers leading in shots and possession almost all game, but the Bulldogs found a way to keep that from translating into too large a deficit on the scoreboard, until DU scored three times in the final six minutes of the game.
[scg_html_w2016]While it was a 6-3 final for Denver, it was never more than a one-goal game until 15 minutes, 53 seconds into the third period.
Denver finally broke through in the final minutes of the third, but despite a dominant first period, the game was tied 2-2 after one.
“After the first, I felt really good,” Ferris State coach Bob Daniels said. “I felt like, jeez, we didn’t play well — it wasn’t nerves, it’s just, we didn’t come out very good. But I felt like, OK, it’s 2-2, we took their best punch.”
Ferris State didn’t get its first shot on net until there was 9:15 left in the first. Denver already had 10 shots on goal at that point.
Down 1-0, the Bulldogs’ second shot on goal went in, with Gerald Mayhew converting a breakaway after Tyler Dorantes found him in transition off a faceoff win.
When Denver responded to go up 2-1, Ferris State came back with a little luck on the power play. Corey Mackin had the puck at the bottom of the right circle and fired a puck across the crease that went off Tariq Hammond’s stick and in to tie the game with 20 seconds remaining in the first.
“They outshot us by a ton there, they outplayed us and they were stronger than us there in the first,” Ferris State’s Kyle Schempp said. “But going into the second 2-2, we had the right mindset. Hey, we got lucky that period, we still had plenty of time to show who we are and keep working hard.”
The Pioneers have talked about sticking to their process, and managed not to play frustrated in a game that didn’t seem like it should have been as close as it was.
“It was frustrating after the first, but at Denver and with coach [Jim] Montgomery, we preach the process, and that’s all that matters to this team,” Denver’s Grant Arnold said. “It’s not about the scoreboard, it’s about our process. If we execute on our process, we’re going to come out victorious, and that’s what happened tonight.”
Denver went up 3-2 in the second and led in shots on goal 28-14 after two periods. But Ferris State showed some resiliency the night before and managed to find some more Sunday.
“Then I felt really good after the second, even though we were down 3-2,” Daniels said. “I felt like, OK, I thought we had stabilized. And realistically, I felt good right up to the last five minutes. I was always pretty confident we’d get that next goal, I really did feel good. Then when we got to 3-3, OK, five minutes to go, game on, this is perfect; this is what we need.”
Ferris State didn’t get its first shot on goal in the third until the 12:43 mark, but what mattered is that it went in, with Schempp tying the game 3-3.
Instead of another overtime game, however, Denver got two goals in a span of 25 seconds late in the third, with Blake Hillman and Nolan Zajac scoring to make it 5-3 Pioneers.
“After we got that tying goal, I feel like we kind of let up a little bit,” Bulldogs senior Simon Denis said. “Gave them chances in the offensive zone again, got caught running around.”
Daniels said the Bulldogs spent too much time chasing the puck after losing faceoffs, and that made it tough to sustain much offensive possession.
While it felt like a matter of time before Denver broke through, the results on the scoreboard didn’t show until there was less than five minutes to play.
Denver doubled Ferris State in shots on goal for the game, 42-21, including 15-3 in the first and 14-7 in the second. But the Pioneers never let the disparity between offensive chances and goals scored get them down.
“People, when you worry about results, you play nervous and you make mistakes, because you’re so worried about [the end], and you’re looking at the clock,” Montgomery said. “If you’re staying in the moment, you’re just worried about your process and what you’re supposed to do in your role to help your team have success.”
Wisconsin is preparing to announce Tony Granato as its new head coach, sources have told USCHO.
Granato, who played for the Badgers from 1983 to 1987, has been an NHL coach since 2002, including head coaching stints with the Colorado Avalanche.
For the last two seasons, he has been an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings.
He would be only the fifth full-time Wisconsin head coach since the program restarted in 1963 after a nearly-three-decade hiatus. Bob Johnson, Jeff Sauer and Mike Eaves all had coaching tenures of at least 14 seasons in that time; inaugural modern era coach John Riley spent three seasons with Wisconsin.
Sources indicated that Granato’s brother, Don, and former Badgers assistant and Ohio State head coach Mark Osiecki also appear to be part of the incoming Wisconsin coaching staff.
Don Granato is the coach of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, while Osiecki is associate coach with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs. Both are also former Wisconsin players.
Tony Granato, 51, led Colorado to the NHL playoffs in 2003 after taking over during the season and again in 2004. He returned to an assistant role after the lost 2004-05 lockout season, then was head coach again in 2008-09.
After being fired by Colorado in 2009, he spent five seasons as an assistant with Pittsburgh before joining Detroit in 2014.
The Badgers fired Eaves on March 18 after a second straight losing season. Wisconsin was 8-19-8 this season after going 4-26-5 in 2014-15.
Eaves won the 2006 national championship and made seven NCAA tournament appearances in 14 seasons at his alma mater.
The contracts of associate head coach Luke Strand and assistant coach JB Bittner were tied to that of Eaves, a Wisconsin spokesperson said. Strand and Bittner agreed to stay on during the program’s transition.
This season, the Badgers averaged fewer than 10,000 fans per game at the Kohl Center for the first time in 18 seasons playing there. Season ticket sales fell 23 percent between 2014-15 and 2015-16, and season sales this season were less than half of the level in 2006-07, the season after Wisconsin won its sixth national championship.
That result, the fifth game completed in the tournament, took the number of perfect scores from 1,534 to 80. The other five games on Saturday further whittled down the number of unblemished entries.
Of the five that have correctly picked all 10 games so far, two have North Dakota as the eventual champion, two have Ferris State and one has Boston College.
Defenseman Nick Seeler played in 36 games for Minnesota this season (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Minnesota defenseman Nick Seeler signed with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild on Saturday, giving up his final year of collegiate eligibility.
Seeler, a fifth-round pick of the Wild in 2011, played one season for Minnesota after starting his collegiate career at Omaha.
“I am thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to join the Minnesota Wild organization,” Seeler said in a Gophers news release. “I want to thank the entire Gopher Hockey program for giving me the chance to be part of such a great tradition. I have been very fortunate to play hockey in Minnesota in high school and in college and could not be happier about the opportunity to continue my career in my home state.”
Seeler had 10 assists in 36 games for Minnesota this season after sitting out the 2014-15 season because of NCAA transfer rules.
He had six goals and 19 points in 70 games over two seasons for Omaha.
“Nick has a great opportunity to play for his hometown team in the Minnesota Wild, and we are happy for him,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said in a statement. “Nick was a vital part of our team this season as well as last season, and we thank him for his contributions to the Gopher Hockey program.”
Boston College’s Teddy Doherty celebrates one of his two goals against Minnesota-Duluth (photo: Melissa Wade).
WORCESTER, Mass. — When you’re a captain, you do whatever the team needs. You put yourself second and the team first.
“The idea of getting egos out of the locker room is very, very important,” Boston College coach Jerry York said. “We have a lot of players who leave that ego behind and just become Eagles.”
[scg_html_ne2016]Perhaps no player has better exemplified that trait this year than senior captain Teddy Doherty. A defenseman by trade, Doherty has filled whatever role York has needed him to play, more often than not at forward.
Doherty’s primary goal hasn’t been ego-stroking personal glory. It’s been to get back to the Frozen Four, held this year in Tampa, Fla., and give the Eagles a chance there at a sixth national championship.
“That’s Teddy’s best attribute,” star goaltender Thatcher Demko said. “He’s a team-first guy, there’s no doubt about that. Whatever Coach wants him to do, he’ll do it. He just wants to get to Tampa.
“He’s a huge leader for us. He leads by example. Guys really look up to him. He sets the tone for our team.”
In an ironic twist, while he’s sacrificed for the team and played a position he’s unaccustomed to, he’s thrived. Going into the NCAA tournament, he’d scored 11 goals, more than the sum of his first three years.
And when the Eagles took on Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday, one game away from the Frozen Four, Doherty scored two of the team’s three goals in a 3-2 victory. In doing so, he also earned a berth on the all-regional team.
Both might prove to be satisfying feats Doherty can look back on at some future date, unexpected rewards for a year of sacrifice, but neither matter much compared to the real prize.
“It’s great,” Doherty said when asked about the two goals scored in the spotlight, “but I really wanted to go to Tampa. Just to be able to extend the season by two weeks and be able to keep practicing in Conte Forum is something I valued more than two goals. Getting to Tampa has been the objective since Day One.”
That focus, along with his versatility and leadership, has been much appreciated by York.
“He’s been a really pleasant surprise because he hasn’t played a ton for us over his career, at least not in key, key situations,” York said. “This year, as a captain, he took it upon himself to improve his game in different parts and help us on defense and at forward.
“He’s a fiery guy, small of stature, but he really is a dynamite leader.”
A leader who has done his part and then some to get his team to Tampa, two wins away from a national championship.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — A championship team relies on everyone to win. And when the usual suspects don’t score, others fill in.
Said Wisconsin-Stevens Point coach Chris Brooks: “We usually don’t win if the line of [Kyle] Sharkey, [Jacob] Barber and [Lawrence] Cornellier don’t score. They didn’t score last night, and we won. We had guys who stepped up this season.”
One of those guys who stepped up this weekend was Eliot Grauer, who wound up being named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after a 5-1 victory over St. Norbert delivered the program’s fifth national championship and first since 1993.
Grauer scored twice in Friday’s game against Geneseo, playing a key role in the victory.
Then Saturday, even though that big line did produce the last three goals, it was Grauer who scored the first goal of the night to get things going.
“He was excellent this weekend,” Brooks said. “Talented, talented kid. Can’t say enough about his skill set. He’s a great player in Division III.”
Grauer ended this season with 13 goals and 16 assists for 29 points. But none were as important as the three goals in Lake Placid.
“It feels good,” he said. “It was a team effort. It was the work we did all year that got us here.”
As a junior, he’ll have one more shot to step up and get his team back to a national championship.
UMass-Lowell players celebrate a 3-2 overtime win over Yale in the East Regional semifinals (photo: Omar Phillips).
ALBANY, N.Y. — UMass-Lowell hadn’t won a game this season when it was trailing after the second period. That streak almost continued against Yale in the NCAA East Regional semifinals at the Times Union Center Saturday night.
Almost.
[scg_html_e2016]Trailing 2-1 after two periods, the River Hawks withstood a flurry of Yale attempts early in the third, including a breakaway by Joe Snively 30 seconds into the period. UMass-Lowell goalie Kevin Boyle made the save, but the puck came loose near the left post, where a diving Snively couldn’t put it into the net.
“I think I got kind of lucky there. I thought it was in my glove but it really wasn’t,” Boyle said. “We knew it was going to be up and down. It’s my job to weather it for the guys in front of me. I think I did that and we had a couple of shifts where we got some momentum.”
But UMass-Lowell held, and tied the game off a Bulldogs turnover and ensuing defensive breakdown later in the period. Joe Gambardella jumped on a rebound and fired it past Yale goalie Alex Lyon to tie the game at 2-2 6:12 into the third.
Gambardella’s second of the game won it for UMass-Lowell 1:37 into overtime, moving UMass-Lowell’s record to 1-6 this season when trailing after two periods.
“It just shows the kind of character we have in the locker room,” Gambardella said. “We have a never-give-up kind of mindset. We weren’t scared at all; our backs weren’t up against the wall. We knew what we had to do to come out in the third period and get the job done.”
While UMass-Lowell broke a season-long trend to emerge with the win, Yale continued a habit that has plagued it at times this season: the inability to finish its chances. In addition to Snively’s breakaway, the Bulldogs had several other chances in the third period, including a Mike Doherty slap shot that bounced off Boyle’s pad.
“They aren’t a team that has a tradition from coming from behind, so I think another goal would’ve made all the difference,” Bulldogs coach Keith Allain said.
The game was similar to the last meeting between the teams, which took place in the national semifinals in Pittsburgh on April 11, 2013. Yale beat the River Hawks 3-2 on Andrew Miller’s goal 6:59 into overtime.
It was also the second straight year that Yale’s season had ended in overtime, as the Bulldogs lost to Boston University 3-2 in overtime at last season’s Northeast Regional semifinal in Manchester, N.H.
The loss to the River Hawks marked the final game for Yale’s senior class. Rob O’Gara, Mitch Witek, Ryan Obuchowski, Stu Wilson, Carson Cooper and Cody Learned were all freshman when the Bulldogs beat Quinnipiac 4-0 in the national title game.
“Mitch Witek said it best in the locker room: Every day you put on this jersey, it’s a new best day,” O’Gara said. “That’s how I’ll remember this team.”
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — St. Norbert may have fallen one game short of winning the national championship, but the Green Knights appear to be loaded for years to come.
They have 16 skaters coming back, 10 of them freshmen, as they only graduate four.
Of course, captains tend to be the seniors leaving the program, and Erik Cooper is no exception.
Granted, he is their biggest exception being the team’s leading scorer (13-23–36).
“We’re obviously happy to call him our captain,” St. Norbert coach Tim Coghlin said. “He’s a 3.75 student. He works hard in the weight room. He works hard on the ice. He works hard everywhere he is in the classroom. He classifies what it is to be at St. Norbert.”
First, Cooper reflected on this season: “I think we were where we wanted to be. It was a surprise to the nation as a young team. We came in training camp, and this is our goal every single year. We got here and tonight we just didn’t click.”
Then, he reflected on the future of the program he will be leaving behind: “Sixteen skaters tonight who are coming back who experienced this and felt what it’s like to be on the losing end. Now, this fuels you all summertime to get back. Now they have the experience.”
The third-leading scorer is also a senior, Michael Hill (15-11–26). However, the rest of the 13 double-digit scorers are underclassmen, with six freshmen.
Both goaltenders are coming back — Tony Kujava is a junior and T.J. Black is a freshman.
“I’m proud of the young guys, and I’m proud of the veteran players,” Coghlin said. “Our veteran guys did a lot to lead this group. Yes, we will go forward next year without four seniors, most notably Cooper, who had his single best season.
“We want players to come in and be freshmen and just play. And we want our sophomores and juniors to carry a lot of water. And then we want our seniors to go back to when they were freshmen and to be able to just come in and play and have a great season. And Erik was able to do that.”
Cooper said he and his fellow three seniors did their job to continue St. Norbert’s winning ways.
“Now they know what it’s like to play a full season and the expectations are to be right back here,” he said of the freshmen. “As seniors, that’s all we want. We want them to learn how to play great nights of hockey, and I feel we did that. The proof was how the freshmen performed.”
St. Norbert’s winning tradition is certainly in good hands as the Green Knights will look to end their season once again during the national championship weekend which will be in Utica, N.Y., next year.
North Dakota is headed to a third straight Frozen Four (photo: Shawn Conkle).
CINCINNATI — Paul LaDue, Tucker Poolman, Luke Johnson, Johnny Simonson and Gage Ausmus grew up playing hockey together. They also grew up watching North Dakota hockey.
It’s a family affair for most of the five Grand Forks, N.D., area players who suited up for the Fighting Hawks this weekend as the team returned to the Frozen Four for the third time in a row. Johnson and LaDue are cousins while Poolman’s dad, Mark, is the team’s athletic trainer and strength coach. In addition, Simonson’s parents are North Dakota alums.
[scg_html_mw2016]Now, yet again, they’ll each get to represent the Fighting Hawks on college hockey’s biggest stage in the Frozen Four in two weeks in Tampa after capturing the NCAA’s Midwest Regional crown.
“It’s pretty cool,” Poolman said after North Dakota’s 5-2 win in the final over Michigan. “We were all pretty familiar with each other before we got here, whether we played with each other or against each other. Growing up there, we all want UND to do great, and we take a lot of pride in playing for North Dakota.”
When the stage was biggest this weekend, the quintet of local players was at its best. Johnson scored against Michigan to run his streak of consecutive NCAA tournament games with a goal to five. Simonson scored UND’s opening goal of the weekend against Northeastern in the regional semifinal, while Poolman had a tally against the Huskies and LaDue added the game-sealing empty-net goal vs. Michigan.
All were important players defensively as well, as LaDue and Poolman formed the team’s top defenseman pairing tasked often with shutting down the explosive top lines of both Northeastern and Michigan. Ausmus, the team’s captain, was also a stalwart in defense, and Johnson drew defensive duty against the opposing top pairs, including Michigan’s noted “CCM” line.
Add it all up over the weekend and the five players had five goals, two assists and a combined plus-7 rating against the hottest team in college hockey in Northeastern and the highest-scoring in Michigan. They also did it in front of a hardy group of North Dakota fans that made the 1,000-mile trip from Grand Forks to Cincinnati.
“I have to give a shout out to the fans that traveled here,” LaDue said. “It’s a long way, and they put their hearts into this team. We can’t thank them enough. Now it’s just time to go and get those two wins in Tampa and bring it back home to Grand Forks.”
The one thing missing from each player’s legacy is a national championship. While the Fighting Hawks have made it to the Frozen Four each of the last two seasons, they returned to the banks of the Red River without college hockey’s top prize. For someone like Johnson, whose father won the national title in 1987 with UND, the chance to make history and win the program’s eighth title weighs heavily on his mind.
“It’s hard to put into words what North Dakota hockey means,” Johnson said. “I grew up idolizing the Sioux, and obviously my dad and my uncle [Chad] played here. It’s a huge tradition in my family. I take a lot of pride in playing here, and hopefully I can do something special.”
From growing up in the stands at North Dakota games to now enjoying the cheers of the faithful, the five Grand Forks-area Fighting Hawks players have helped the program continue as one of the most consistent in college hockey. The regional title was fun, but the unfinished business of a national championship is at hand.
“We don’t really talk about it, but we know,” LaDue said of the ties that bind the five. “It’s pretty special to see. I grew up with all of these guys, playing against each other. I think this is the most local talent we’ve had around playing for UND.
“The only thing we can do now is bring a championship back. I know that would mean a whole lot to me and all the local guys and the whole team, too. Grand Forks is a special place, they way they come around for this team, and it’s time for us to give something back.”
Denver got seven pucks behind Boston University goaltenders on Saturday (photo: Jim Rosvold).
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Naming a line that provides a lot of offense has been a trend among the media and fans during this season, whether it’s Michigan’s “CCM” line or North Dakota’s “CBS” line.
Denver has the Pacific Rim Line, but the Pioneers went old school and used a balanced offensive output from its whole lineup to trounce Boston University 7-2 on Saturday evening.
[scg_html_w2016]”This team’s commitment and focus is at an all-time high, and that’s what you need at this time of year to be successful,” senior captain Grant Arnold said after the Pioneers’ victory. “It was awesome to see us execute on a couple odd-man rushes and play good defensively. It was a great game for us. I’m proud of our team.”
The Pioneers got goals from defenseman Blake Hillman, first-line center Dylan Gambrell, defenseman Will Butcher, fourth-line center Matt Marcinew, second-line winger Evan Janssen and first-line winger Tyler Moore.
“The stats we have, I’ve been reading about where other teams have more 20-point scorers and this and that, but as a coach I’m really comfortable putting anybody in any situation,” Denver coach Jim Montgomery said. “It’s a luxury. It’s the same thing with our six [defensemen]. That play Blake Hillman made, a lot of people say, ‘well, that’s your third pairing,’ but what a great play. The kid plays with great poise.
“It’s the evolvement of our team throughout the year and players relishing their roles,” Montgomery added. “Whether you’re on the so-called first line, they know they mean a lot to our success.”
Butcher scored two power-play goals, the first making it 3-0 and the second making it 6-0.
“I can attribute a lot to my linemates,” he said. “I had two great screens.”
Both Montgomery and Boston University coach David Quinn pointed to Butcher’s first goal, the one that made it 3-0, as a turning point in the game.
“It kind of put a knife in them for a little while and allowed us to keep our momentum and stay in their end for the next six to eight minutes,” Montgomery said. “You could see them hang their head a little bit. We just talked a little about, let’s go here, let’s put the foot on the gas pedal while they’re down.”
The Pioneers’ offense was efficient on Saturday, netting seven goals on 25 shots. Denver chased Boston University starting goaltender Sean Maguire early in the second period.
Denver will get another chance to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four after falling in the regional championship game to Providence last year.
“You can’t wait for anything in this tournament; it’s a one-game series,” Arnold said. “It’s a Game 7, in NHL terms, so you can’t wait for anything. You’ve got to be ready right when that puck drops. That’s one thing I learned [from last year], and another is just taking advantage of opportunities and enjoying the moment, but not letting the moment be bigger than you are.”
Quinnipiac celebrates Travis St. Denis’ power-play goal (photo: Omar Phillips).
ALBANY, N.Y. — A battle of the No. 1 overall seed against the No. 16 seed left the mind to wander about a rout by an offensive juggernaut.
Quinnipiac played the majority of an East Regional semifinal against Rochester Institute of Technology up only by a goal, however.
[scg_html_e2016]”I was expecting a little bit more goal scoring, I guess, in general,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said after a 4-0 Quinnipiac victory on Saturday. “We needed to get a goal in there somewhere along the road and not at the very end of the game. We weren’t able to do that. I thought the second goal might have been the difference.”
The Bobcats have four players with 30 or more points on the year, and remained even keel with leading scorer Sam Anas facing limited minutes because of an injury. They still had the top power-play goal scorer Travis St. Denis.
“I don’t think we were lacking energy,” Wilson said. “We want to, as a 16 seed playing a 1 seed, put more pressure on them and see if they can handle the pressure or if they would get frustrated. We weren’t able to get that goal to get them maybe into a little bit of a frustration level for them, so very composed on their part.”
As Quinnipiac played through almost 40 minutes with a one-goal lead, RIT held down a Bobcats team that averages 3.88 goals per game. The Bobcats’ Michael Garteig worked overtime, stopping 27 shots to keep his team ahead while RIT pounced in the first and second periods. He was rewarded with his eighth shutout of the year.
Junior Devon Toews said the impact of the defense, starting with Garteig, was the catalyst in holding on to the lead provided by St. Denis’ first-period, power-play goal.
“I think it’s huge for us,” Toews said. “We create offense, at the same time we play solid defense and Gartsy’s always big behind us as part of our D corps. I think we like to get pucks out of our zone, and we do that by communicating well, and our forwards help us out in the D zone as well. They’ve got to get a lot of credit as well.”
In a season of commanding wins and late-game comebacks, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold saw a consistency in the confidence of his team that has held strong through ECAC Hockey regular season and conference championships.
“Our guys are a confident bunch; we deal with adversity well,” Pecknold said. “That’s one of our strengths. It’s a mentally tough group. We knew it wasn’t our best effort through two periods, Gartsy was bailing us out a lot.
“We had a lot of confidence going into the third period. We get that early one and we just kept coming. We had a good third. It’s a resilient group, it’s a great group of guys, great character. Even though they weren’t playing well, they felt like they were going to win. It was never in doubt, from a confidence standpoint.”
St. Cloud State was 2-for-4 on the power play in an overtime loss to Ferris State on Saturday (photo: Tim Brule).
ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Cloud State came into the NCAA tournament with its power play on fire, according to coach Bob Motzko.
The Huskies had gone 39-for-135, 28.9 percent, and went 2-for-4 against Ferris State on Saturday. The two power-play goals from Mikey Eyssimont were crucial for a team that struggled five-on-five against the Bulldogs.
[scg_html_w2016]”We were hoping to hold it to three or less power-play opportunities,” Ferris State coach Bob Daniels said after the Bulldogs escaped with a 5-4 overtime victory in a Midwest Regional semifinal.
“They got four [opportunities] and you can see they were 2-for-4, and even the ones they didn’t score on they looked good.”
Eyssimont got his 13th goal of the season on a third-period power play, scoring on the rush by cutting to the middle off of a Kalle Kossila pass.
Eyssimont then got his 14th after Joey Benik’s shot came off the back boards right to his stick and he had nothing but net to shoot at to make the game 4-3.
The Huskies finished the season at 29.5 percent on the power play, trailing only Michigan in the nation.
Huskies travel well
When a host team fails to make the NCAA tournament, there are always concerns about attendance, and for at least the first game of the weekend there was a good atmosphere.
“It was awesome to see,” Benik said. “It’s something that obviously got us through the game because we came out slow. And for the fans to show their support and pretty much have every person in building be a St. Cloud hockey fan was awesome to see and fun to play in front of.”
The 2017 Frozen Four is set for United Center in Chicago with Regionals in Manchester, N.H., Cincinnati, Providence, R.I., and Fargo, N.D. The 2018 Frozen Four comes to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., but the sites for regional play have not been selected yet and it’s well known that many options are being discussed like super regionals or a return to campus sites.
“I felt our St. Cloud State crowd was awesome today,” said Motzko. “I think that’s a little bit of a story of how many people showed up on our side. I think we were expecting a smaller number and they came through.”
Another No. 1 seed falls fast
The East Regional top seed Providence was knocked off in overtime by Minnesota-Duluth on Friday, and St. Cloud State became the 17th No. 1 seed to lose in the opening round since the tournament expanded to 16 teams in 2003.
“We did some uncharacteristic things with the puck, but give them credit and the style that they play, they make it hard on you. They’re going to be a tough out,” said Motzko. “Ferris plays a very distinct style to try to limit you. Mankato got one shot last weekend in the third period; they can smother you. I thought we were busting through, the problem is we turned the puck over.”
The Huskies committed four turnovers during regulation that led to goals for the Bulldogs.
“They got some bounces and they ended up playing around for a lot of that first period. Then, just pucks at the net for the entire game, keeping us on our heels with that,” said St. Cloud State’s Nathan Widman. “That’s pretty much what we expected them to do, but they executed very well.”
