College Hockey Playoff Roundup (3/15)
Arizona State wins a wild one, and Northeastern knocked off No. 1 BC on Saturday night. Plus, our first NCAA ticket was punched.
Thanks to NCAA reclassification rules, Minnesota State punched the first ticket to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night. The Mavericks will host St. Thomas in the CCHA Championship next week, but the Tommies aren’t eligible for the NCAA Tournament during its reclassification period from Division III.
Elsewhere, some teams advanced to league semifinals or finals next weekend, and we have some Game 3s set for Sunday.
Sunday Schedule (All Game 3s)
Harvard vs. Clarkson (ECAC)
Denver vs. Colorado College (NCHC)
Here’s a recap of Saturday’s playoff action.
Atlantic Hockey
Holy Cross 5, Army 1
Holy Cross wins series 2-0
Army put up a fight, but Holy Cross put the Black Knights in an early hole and closed out a 5-1 win to end Army’s season, and Brian Riley’s era behind the Army bench. The Black Knights outshot the Crusaders and had more xG (3.8-3.4). Thomas Gale made 29 saves for Holy Cross, who will host the AHA Championship game next weekend.
Bentley 3, Sacred Heart 0
Bentley wins series 2-0
Another shutout for Bentley goaltender Connor Hasley, who recorded his 11th shutout of the season in the win. That ties him for second all-time in a single season with Yaniv Perets. He’s just one shutout behind Greg Gardner for the most shutouts in a single season.
Ethan Leyh scored two goals for the Falcons.
Big Ten
Michigan State 1, Notre Dame 0
Michigan State advances to the Big Ten Championship
Isaac Howard scored the only goal of the game 19 seconds into the third period. The Spartans dominated the game and outshot the Irish 46-18.
Ohio State 4, Penn State 3 (OT)
Ohio State advances to the Big Ten Championship
Gunnarwolfe Fontaine scored the game-winning goal in overtime to lift Ohio State past Penn State in the Big Ten semifinals. Fontaine also scored the first goal of the game for the Buckeyes.
CCHA
St. Thomas 3, Bowling Green 1
St. Thomas advances to the CCHA Championship
Jake Sibell made 32 saves to carry the Tommies to next weekend’s CCHA final. The Tommies cannot play in the NCAA Tournament this season due to NCAA reclassification rules. That means Minnesota State (see below) will advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Minnesota State 4, Bemidji State 0
Minnesota State advances to the CCHA Championship
The Mavericks became the first team to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament thanks to St. Thomas’ win. But the Mavericks will try to win a CCHA Championship first. Adam Eisele scored twice for the Mavericks and Alex Tracy stopped 27 shots.
ECAC
Harvard 3, Clarkson 2 (OT)
Series tied, 1-1
Harvard came back from a two-goal deficit to score a 3-2 overtime win and force a Game 3 tomorrow night in Potsdam. Zakary Karpa, Mason Langenbrunner, and Casey Severo (OT winner) scored for the Crimson. Harvard wasn’t penalized in the game.
Cornell 3, Colgate 0
Cornell wins series 2-0
Mike Schafer and the Big Red are heading back to Lake Placid. Ian Shane recorded a 21-save shutout. Colgate was 0 for 7 on the power play.
Quinnipiac 4, Brown 0
Quinnipiac wins series 2-0
Matej Marinov made 34 saves to help Quinnipiac punch its ticket to Lake Placid. Brown posted 34 shots. Max Scott recorded seven shots on goal for the Bears.
Dartmouth 7, Union 2
Dartmouth wins series 2-0
The Big Green ended Union’s season and punched its ticket to Lake Placid on Saturday. Luke Haymes had two of Dartmouth’s seven goals.
The loss ended Union’s season, and thus ended Union’s era at Messa Rink. The program will move into its new arena next fall.
Hockey East
Boston University 3, UMass 2
BU advances to Hockey East Semifinal
Cole Eiserman was the overtime hero, scoring at the 2:59 mark of the extra period to send BU to TD Garden on Thursday night.
UMass registered 38 shots. Mikhail Yegorov made 36 saves for the Terriers.
Maine 7, UMass Lowell 1
Maine advances to Hockey East Semifinal
Maine dominated from wire-to-wire in this game. Sully Scholle started the scoring at the 7:13 mark of the first period and the Black Bears led 3-0 at the first intermission.
Maine outshot UML 42-28. Both teams had major penalties in the game. Brandon Chabrier was given a game misconduct for butt-ending in the first period. Scout Truman was given a game misconduct for contact to the head in the second period.
Northeastern 3, Boston College 1
Northeastern advances to Hockey East Semifinal
Down goes No. 1!
Cameron Whitehead (30 saves) was brilliant for the Huskies, who advanced to the Hockey East semifinals as the No. 9 seed in the tournament. This will be the first time a No. 9 seed has ever advanced to TD Garden.
Boston College is still a lock to be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
NCHC
Western Michigan 6, St. Cloud State 2
Western wins series 2-0
The Broncos won Saturday’s game by the same score they won Friday’s game. This was a dominant performance by Western. The Broncos outshot SCSU 38-20. Alex Bump and Tim Washe scored two goals for Western.
North Dakota 3, Omaha 2
North Dakota wins series 2-0
Another NCHC series with identical scores back-to-back nights.
Weird.
Omaha led 2-0 through two periods but North Dakota scored three goals in the third period. Carter Wilkie scored at 6:10 to cut Omaha’s lead to 2-1 and Cade Littler, who scored last night, tied the game just 29 seconds later.
Jayden Jubenvill scored the game-winning goal with 1:36 left in the third period.
Denver 6, Colorado College 3
Series tied, 1-1
Denver forced a Game 3 against CC. Noah Laba struck first for the Tigers just 2:15 into the game, but Denver would score four of the next five goals in the game.
Zeev Buium scored two goals for Denver.
Arizona State 6, Minnesota Duluth 5
Arizona State wins series 2-0
The Sun Devils are headed to St. Paul in their first season as an NCHC member. Ryan Kirwan scored the overtime winner for Arizona State.
This was a wild game.
Minnesota Duluth took a 3-0 lead in the first period. ASU scored three goals in the first five minutes of the second period to tie the game, 3-3.
UMD scored midway through the second to take a 4-3 lead. Artem Shlaine scored in the third period to tie the game. UMD’s Dominic James gave the Bulldogs the lead again 1:31 later, but Bennett Schimek tied the game again (on the power play) two minutes after that.
That set the stage for Kirwan’s overtime heroics. … His overtime winner was the first time ASU had a lead in the game.