ST. PAUL, Minn. — It takes more than a strong offense to win championships.
For No. 2 overall seed Boston University and No. 3 overall seed Denver, set to face off in the first NCAA Men’s Frozen Four semifinal Thursday, defense isn’t typically the first thought. But it just might come down to who has the better overall play. Disrupting the other team’s rhythm will be what it takes.
Staying focused on the ultimate goal and having a short memory was the key for BU after a blowout loss to archrival and top overall seed Boston College in the Hockey East championship on March 23.
Head coach Jay Pandolfo credited the short turnaround and the long trip halfway across the country to Sioux Falls, S.D., for the regionals the next week as a big part of his team’s success in advancing to St. Paul.
“We were certainly disappointed but we knew we weren’t done,” he said. “Our guys, they took it upon ourselves to move on.”
Macklin Celebrini leads the way for the Terriers as the nation’s No. 2 scorer (32 goals, 32 assists). While the talented 17-year-old Hobey Baker Hat Trick finalist is expected to be the top overall pick in the next NHL draft, he insisted Wednesday that his focus is bringing home the program’s sixth national championship and first since 2009.
The same goes for his teammates. So what will it take to keep pace with Denver’s top-ranked offense of 4.71 goals per game?
“I think for us it’s dictating the way we want to play,” said defenseman Case McCarthy. “I think when we’re playing our style, we’re hard to deal with.
“[Denver is] a deep team. We’ve just got to make sure we manage the game,” Pandolfo said. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re staying above the puck, make sure our reloads are really good, make sure our gaps are good for our D so they don’t have a lot of time and space.”
For the Pioneers, that mighty offense was held in check in the Springfield Regional. But DU qualified for its second Frozen Four in the last three years by winning in a way it couldn’t early in the season — defense.
The Pioneers won a pair of 2-1 games over UMass and Cornell in their regional without having to put up big offensive numbers like they did March 22-23 when they took the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship in the same building they’re playing in this week, the Xcel Energy Center.
They know they’re capable of lighting the lamp any time they want, and the improvement of their defense in the second half to complement the scoring makes them a tough out. But they’re not about to underestimate a skilled Terriers team as they pursue their 10th title.
“We want to play Denver hockey,” forward McKade Webster said. “We want to make them come through us, want to play a 200-foot game stopping on pucks and make them come to us.”
“Every team [here] has offensive weapons,” said Pioneers coach David Carle. “Limit their
opportunities and time and space the best we can, and I think our team showed how committed they are to team defense.”
