SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Even if the Hockey East championship game didn’t go as planned for the Terriers, it’s how they play now that matters.
Now they’re one win away from a return trip to the Frozen Four.
Macklin Celebrini scored and had an assist to go over 60 points for the season and six different players had goals as the 2nd overall seeded Boston University Terriers pulled away from the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers 6-3 on Thursday evening at the Denny Sanford Premier Center, advancing to Saturday evening’s regional final.
“Give RIT credit,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo. “Overall, a great win.”
A slow start, maybe attributing to the bitter aftermath of a 6-2 beatdown at the hands of archrival Boston College in the Hockey East tournament final, was put behind BU quickly after they got some nice early saves from Mathieu Caron while taking control with two first-period goals.
“We started off pretty slow,” said Pandolfo. “Our goaltender was very good.”
After the first 10 minutes in which Boston University was unable to control the puck very much, they were able to break through first when Lane Hutson made a beautiful toe drag move and backhanded the puck past Tommy Scarfone. Ryan Greene doubled the lead 1:05 later with a snipe from the left circle, but RIT was able to get one back late in the first as Elijah Gonsalves roofed one on a power play.
Sam Stevens made it a two-goal game with a goal from the right faceoff dot, but the Tigers answered for the second time as Gianfranco Cassaro scored on a low wrist shot. Needing another goal to take control, Hobey Baker top-10 finalist Celebrini provided that necessary tally as he helped finish a beautiful passing sequence between himself, Dylan Peterson and Nick Zabaneh with his 32nd goal of the season, making it 4-2 after 40 minutes.
Outstanding work by Petey and Zabs leads to Mack's 32nd goal of the season!
📺: ESPNU
💻: https://t.co/m821oi6jTq (ESPN+) pic.twitter.com/fCL31jSCby— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) March 28, 2024
“It was a great rush; we had a good breakout,” Celebrini said. “Great passing.”
Jack Harvey added to the lead with an early third-period backhand goal, and Peterson capped the team’s scoring with an empty-net goal with just over four minutes to go. The Tigers added one more to their scoresheet with a Cody Laskosky goal with 56 seconds left.
In the end, the BU talent was just too much for Atlantic Hockey tournament champion RIT, who fought hard but saw their season end with a 27-11-2 record.
“Always tough to lose like this at the end of the year,” said Tigers coach Wayne Wilson. “All the chances we had, I just thought we came up a little short.
“I’m still very proud of our team and what we were able to accomplish this year.”
Caron finished with 28 saves for BU and Scarfone had 27 for RIT.
The Terriers (27-9-2) await the Omaha-Minnesota winner on Saturday at 5:30 PM CT for a spot in the Frozen Four in St. Paul.
