TAMPA, Fla. — Through two periods in Thursday’s opening game of the 2023 Men’s Frozen Four, Boston University and top overall seed Minnesota battled tooth and nail to a 2-2 deadlock.
And then Luke Mittelstadt took over.
The rookie defenseman, who entered Thursday’s national semifinal with just three goals on the season, scored twice in a span of 1:49 to break the game open as Minnesota advanced via a 6-2 victory.
The Gophers will play the winner of Thursday’s second semifinal between Michigan and Quinnipiac.
Mittelstadt scored both of his goals from nearly the exact same place on the ice — the left faceoff dot. Both shots beat Boston University goaltender Drew Commesso over the glove.
“I think Mike [Koster] gave me that first one, great screen, I don’t think the goalie saw,” said Mittelstadt. “Second one, [Ryan Chesley] gave me a great pass, same thing, screen out front and fortunate to put it in.”
Logan Cooley added two empty-net goals with 2:41 and 1:43 remaining.
The first of Mittelstadt’s goals came on the power play, a major catalyst to the victory for the Gophers. Boston University handed Minnesota seven man-advantage opportunities; the Gophers scored on three.
Minnesota coach Bob Motzko put things quite simple when asked about executing on the power play.
“It comes down to limiting your mistakes and capitalizing when you’ve got a chance,” he said. “We had three power-play goals.”
The game began with frenzy. The opening 20 minutes was one of the craziest in a Frozen Four in recent years as the two teams combined for three goals, a disallowed tally and five minor penalties. Minnesota left the frame with a 2-1 lead, but that easily could have been a four-goal advantage.
The Gophers stormed Commesso early, requiring him to make five Grade A stops early. As BU settled into the game, however, it scored the first goal.
Domenick Fensore sent a puck through traffic that was saved by Minnesota netminder Justen Close. The rebound hopped right to the stick of fourth-liner Sam Stevens, who quickly buried the puck at 10:38.
That, however, reignited the Gophers and they struck twice on the power play 50 seconds apart.
Koster fired home the first goal from the left side, a shot that appeared to deflect off Commesso’s glove at 15:09.
After BU’s Luke Tuch was whistled for interference 42 seconds later, it took just eight more seconds for Minnesota’s Aaron Huglen to find Rhett Pitlick with a no-look, behind-the-back pass at the far post for a 2-1 edge.
“Rhett [Pitlick] sent me a Sidney Crosby kind of play similar to that this afternoon,” Huglen said of the play. “I said, yeah, we’ll either try that or else break to the net. He broke to the net and I found him.”
In the closing minute of the first, the Gophers continued to press and Cooley beat Commesso with 44.5 seconds left. But a challenge by BU coach Jay Pandolfo for goaltender interference reversed the call after review, ending the frame with a 2-1 Minnesota edge.
While the second period was quieter, a Boston University power play led to the Terriers tying the game. Jay O’Brien redirected Fensore’s shot in the high slot at 8:06 to even the score at 2-2.
Minnesota looked to potentially have retaken the lead late in the frame during a 5-on-3 power play, but it was ruled that the puck, which was trickling toward the goal line, didn’t cross the line and the video review was inconclusive.
That non-goal, however, was part of a forgettable sequence of penalties for the Terriers. They were whistled for tripping with 2:05 left in the second and again with 1:00 left, giving Minnesota its first two-man advantage. And while one penalty was killed by the period’s end, a third minor was called on Cade Webber for charging as the second period buzzer sounded.
The penalty kill worked overtime for the Terriers but the closing seconds of Webber’s penalty proved to be the dagger as Mittelstadt scored his first of two.
“You play a team with that much talent [as Minnesota], you just can’t go in the box that often,” said Pandolfo. “And I think we have Dom [Fensore] and Lane [Hutson] out there killing penalties, I don’t know what their minutes were on the penalty kill. Five or six minutes. That’s just too much for those guys.
“The game might be different if we end up killing that last, I don’t know what it was, 12 seconds on that [extended] kill. And maybe it would have been different. But that’s how it goes.”
