BOSTON — Two teams separated by less than 50 miles will play for a men’s Division I ice hockey national championship in their respective backyards.
With a 5-3 win over North Dakota on Thursday, Boston University advanced to Saturday’s national title game, where it will face Hockey East foe Providence for the championship. The Friars beat Omaha 4-1 in Thursday’s opening game.
[scg_html_ff2015]While BU and its fans have plenty to celebrate, it nearly was loathing one of the most ugly, self-inflicted collapses imaginable.
The Terriers held a commanding 4-1 lead midway through the third period and headed to the power play after North Dakota’s Nick Schmaltz was whistled for interference with 8:26 remaining. But BU goaltender Matt O’Connor (36 saves) made a bad miscue, losing the puck to Troy Stecher on the doorstep to get North Dakota within two at 4-2.
Then, a too many men on the ice call on the Terriers with 4:48 allowed Connor Gaarder to one-time a puck past O’Connor to close the gap to a single goal with 3:43 left.
But the man who has been BU’s hero much of the season came through again in the clutch. Jack Eichel buried a 130-foot shot into the empty net with 18.5 seconds remaining to ice the game and send Terrier Nation to the streets of their hometown, finally able to breathe.
“At this time of the season, you just have to find ways to win,” said BU coach David Quinn, who’s looking to add to the 2009 national championship he earned as the Terriers’ associate head coach. “We’ve been very fortunate this year that we’ve won games in all sorts of ways. We won one tonight in a way that we hadn’t had to win one all year.”
It wasn’t an easy finish, but that was something both BU was prepared for (“You’re playing in the Frozen Four,” Quinn said. “You know teams aren’t going to lay down for you.”) and North Dakota firmly believed was possible.
“I think this group is resilient,” said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. “I had no question what our third period would be like. That’s a deep hole to come out of, let’s be honest.”
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000UJrvx_dVGkU” g_name=”20150409-UND-BU” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f229pkQH2MJAX2FSMZDIKcyc4wnBAF7b2.d3nxX58Rfvkaj.81w–” ]The fact that North Dakota was in a three-goal hole to begin with had to do with a BU team that was opportunistic. The Terriers jumped out to a 2-0 lead on power-play goals by Eichel at 4:59 of the first and Brandon Hickey in the closing minute of the period.
After North Dakota got life early in the second when Luke Johnson scored a power-play goal of his own at 44 seconds, a wave of green and black jerseys peppered the BU net.
A cross-checking penalty to Hickey at 6:43 gave North Dakota added momentum. But BU’s ability to kill the penalty gave the Terriers their first sniff at offense in the frame and at 11:20, A.J. Greer cashed in.
Greer one-timed a perfect cross-zone pass from Eichel past McIntyre, a shot that exploded the water bottle off the net’s mesh for a 3-1 Terriers lead.
Less than two minutes later, defenseman Doyle Somerby extended the lead by threading a shot through a double screen set by BU’s Ahti Oksanen and Greer.
That, however, hardly ended up being a comfortable lead for the Terriers. But surviving will allow them to go after the school’s sixth national title.
“We know how fortunate we are to live another day, but we also think we deserve to live another day,” said Quinn. “There’s only two teams standing and it’s going to be a heck of a game [on Saturday].”
