National Championship Preview: BU vs. Western Michigan
BU and Western Michigan will clash for the national championship on Saturday night
ST. LOUIS — Pat Ferschweiler knows what to expect from Boston University in tomorrow night's national championship game.
The Broncos have only faced the Terriers once since 1994 — a 5-1 BU win in the 2023 regionals — but Ferschweiler and Pandolfo were divisional rivals in the NHL from 2015-19 when Ferschweiler was an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings and Pandolfo was an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins.
"I prescouted BU for years," Ferschweiler said. "They were called the Boston Bruins. [BU's] style of play is exactly what Boston did. Coach Pandolfo has brought that style down. It's somewhat unique to college. It's pretty popular in the NHL. But there's a lot of similarities there. We'll put points of emphasis on what we try to do every day without trying to change our style of play at all."
Western Michigan's focus isn't going to change in Saturday's matchup. The Broncos want to get pucks behind BU's defensemen and funnel pucks to the net in an attempt to create chaos in front of 6-foot-5 BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov.
On Thursday night in the national semifinal, Denver only played five defensemen and Western Michigan was able to expose some fatigue late in the game.
BU only rotated four primary defensemen in its win over Penn State. Gavin McCarthy, Cole Hutson, Tom Willander, and Sascha Boumedienne all played 24 minutes or more. Jack Page and Aiden Celebrini were both under 10 minutes.
"Playing to the best of our ability would be us just playing north," said Western Michigan forward Grant Slukynsky. "We preach that. That means getting the puck to the opponent's end as quickly as possible, and not spending a ton of time around our zone. Defending quickly. Being hard on their top players.
"They have a big goalie, so getting pucks and bodies and traffic to the net. In these tight playoff games, sometimes the goals aren't the prettiest."
BU sounds ready for the challenge. Western has some of the same characteristics as Cornell, a team BU beat in the regional final two weeks ago.
Pandolfo sees a lot of similarities between the Broncos and UMass.
"Western plays a pro-style game," Pandolfo said. "They're a heavy team. They play with structure. They want to get pucks behind you and play below the goal line. They have some bigger bodies. They'll get to your net.
"Hockey East obviously had a great year as a league. We had some really good teams. A lot of different styles of teams. I don't know if there's one that looks like them -- maybe UMass is a little bit similar, where they're heavy on pucks, they get to your net, they do a good job of keeping you away from their net. So I think they're a team that reminds me a little bit of Western."
Added forward Ryan Greene, "If we can blend that skill and speed game within a structured and physical game as well, similar to Cornell, I think we'll get a good result."
BU has heaviness to its game, but the Terriers hope to open the game up with their speed.
The Terriers have size up front and on defense. Despite being the third-youngest team in college hockey, the Terriers are also the eighth-heaviest.
On average, they're slightly heavier than Western Michigan. Both teams are top-five in average height.
"We definitely need to use our speed and our skating," Greene said. "We're a really skilled team, a lot of fast players. So I think when we're able to be good in transition and we're making plays in the offensive zone, I think that's tough to contain. And I think that's when we're at our best."
There are no secrets at this point. There are only two teams left standing, and everyone knows their identities.
Whichever team sticks to theirs more probably wins the national championship.
"This time of year, it's really about making sure we're playing our game and it's about winning your battles," Pandolfo said. "It's about all the little things that go into winning hockey games. That's what you need to do if you want to come out on top."