SATURDAY COLLEGE HOCKEY ROUNDUP: Minnesota and Michigan State are co-B1G regular-season champs; No. 1 BC beats UNH in shootout; North Dakota upsets No. 4 Western Michigan; No. 5 Maine holds off Vermont

Mike Koster scored with 3:04 remaining in regulation to break a 3-3 tie and lift No. 2 Minnesota to a share of the B1G regular-season championship Saturday with a 5-3 road win at No. 16 Penn State in University Park, Pa. 

“To our guys’ credit tonight, they had no quit in them,” Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said. “And we’ve been playing pretty darn well all year long. We’ve only got four losses in regulation, but we needed to find a way to win that because we have earned and deserved the right to be B1G champs. (We’re) awful proud of that.”

Oliver Moore’s 3-point night and a pair of goals from Matthew Wood drove Minnesota to a record-setting seventh B1G title. Liam Souliere had 30 saves for the Golden Gophers.

Moore’s two assists were his 18th and 19th of the year and extended his season-long point streak to five games, while he increased his point total to 30 with the empty-net goal. He is the fourth Gopher to reach the 30-point mark this year.

Simon Mack, Matt DiMarsico and Charlie Cerrato had the Penn State goals. 

No. 1 Boston College 1, New Hampshire 1 (OT; BC wins shootout)

Top-ranked Boston College skated to a 1-1 tie against New Hampshire on Saturday night at the Whittemore Center. The Eagles won the ensuing shootout 3-2 to earn the extra point in the Hockey East standings with Lukas Gustafsson scoring the deciding goal in the fifth round. 

Jacob Fowler made 41 saves in net, while Gabe Perreault scored BC’s lone goal in regulation. Eamon Powell and Ryan Leonard each tallied an assist. Powell recorded his 100th career point and Leonard extended a 14-game point streak. 

BC is 11-3-2 on the road this season and has 52 points in the league standings with one game remaining. 

No. 3 Michigan State 5, Notre Dame 2

Michigan State captured a share of the B1G’s regular-season championship following a 5-2 win at Notre Dame Saturday night. 

Third-ranked Michigan State became just the second team since the start of the Big Ten conference to capture back-to-back regular-season titles — Minnesota won the first four titles (2014-17), and then won back-to-back again in 2021-22 and 2022-23.  

Shane Vansaghi and Tiernan Shoudy had a pair of goals to lead the Spartan offense, sophomore Trey Augustine made 29 saves as the Spartans concluded the regular season with a 24-6-4 record (15-5-4 in league play). 

No. 18 North Dakota 4, No. 4 Western Michigan 3 (OT)

Jake Livanavage scored the winner at 3:19 of overtime to give No. 18 North Dakota a 4-3 win over No. 4 Western Michigan on Saturday night in NCHC action in Kalamazoo, Mich.

UND (18-13-2, 13-8-1 NCHC) had to rally, tying the game at 3-3 in the final minute of the third period on a goal from Sacha Boisvert. T.J. Semptimphelter kept the Fighting Hawks in the game, finishing with 33 saves on 36 shots against to earn the victory. 

Ben Strinden, Dylan James, and Boisvert all scored while Owen McLaughlin had two assists to give him eight points (goal, seven assists) in his last three games.

Ty Hendricks scored twice for Western Michigan (24-7-1, 17-4-1), while Robby Drazner also scored.

No. 5 Maine 4, Vermont 3

Four different players scored as No. 5 Maine picked up a 4-3 win over Vermont before a crowd of 5,043 at Alfond Arena in Hockey East action on Saturday night.

Josh Nadeau, Nicholas Niemo, Owen Fowler and Thomas Pichette were Maine’s goal scorers. 

Maine had the 41-28 lead in shots on goal. Albin Boija made 25 saves to improve to 20-6-5 on the year. He became the first Maine goalie to reach 20 wins in their first 31 games of the year since Dan Dullivan in 2011-12.

The Black Bears are now 34-30-9 in the all-time series with the Catamounts.

St. Cloud State 2, No. 6 Denver 1

St. Cloud State grinded out a 2-1 win over No. 6 Denver on Saturday night at Magness Arena to earn a split of the NCHC weekend series. 

St. Cloud goalie Isak Posch had 38 saves for the second consecutive night, while the Huskies got goals from Daimon Gardner and Verner Miettinen. Jack Devine scored for Denver.

Posch made 20 of his 38 saves in the third period. The win in regulation in Denver was the first for the Huskies since 2015. 

No. 7 Providence 2, Merrimack 1

Chase Yoder and Tomas Machu scored while Zachary Borgiel stopped 12 shots against his former school as No. 7 Providence earned a weekend sweep over Merrimack with a 2-1 win at Lawler Arena on Saturday in Hockey East.

The teams combined for just eight shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes, with the Friars holding a 5-3 advantage. Merrimack struck for the lone goal of the period on a power-play tally from Seamus Powell at the 17:57 mark. The Providence penalty kill went to work in the second period, successfully killing off all three Merrimack attempts.

No. 9 Connecticut 7, Northeastern 1

No. 9 UConn dominated Northeastern at Matthews Arena in Boston, taking six points on the weekend with an emphatic 7-1 Hockey East win Saturday night. 

Ethan Whitcomb scored two goals for the UConn Huskies, while Viking Gustafsson Nyberg, John Spetz, Nick Carabin, Jake Richard and Kaden Shahan also scored.

Tyler Muszelik made 13 saves.

Omaha 4, No. 12 Arizona State 2

Omaha scored three unanswered goals in the third period to earn a 4-2 upset at home vs. No. 12 Arizona State on Saturday in NCHC action before a crowd of 7,808 at Baxter Arena.

Jimmy Glynn and Griffin Ludtke scored less than a minute apart in the third period to tie the game and give Omaha the lead. Brady Risk added an empty-netter. Kevin Reidler had 40 saves for the Mavericks.

Ryan Kirwan scored twice for the Sun Devils.

No. 13 Quinnipiac 4, St. Lawrence 0

The Cleary Cup will stay in Hamden, Conn., after No. 13 Quinnipiac beat St. Lawrence 4-0 on Saturday night to win the ECAC Hockey regular-season title. 

Jeremy Wilmer scored twice for the Bobcats, who also got goals from Tyler Borgula and Andon Cerbone. Wilmer also added an assist to make it a 3-point night. 

Matej Marinov earned the shutout with 19 saves.

No. 15 Minnesota State 5, Bemidji State 1

No. 15 Minnesota State celebrated a 5-1 win over Bemidji State Saturday to conclude the CCHA regular season. The Mavericks will host Lake Superior State in a best-two-of-three series beginning on Friday. 

Luc Wilson led the Mankato offense with two goals and an assist. Evan Murr chipped in a goal and an assist. Goalie Eli Pulver stopped 23 of 24 shots for his first career win.

CCHA commissioner Don Lucia presented the MacNaughton Cup to captain Josh Groll following the game as the Mavericks celebrated their ninth regular season title.

No. 17 Massachusetts 5, No. 16 UMass Lowell 3

Five different players scored for No. 17 Massachusetts, which fended off a late rally by No. 16/15 UMass Lowell to earn a 5-3 win over at the Tsongas Center on Saturday night in Hockey East action. 

Aydar Suniev, Cole O’Hara, Jack Musa, Kenny Connors and Owen Murray all scored for UMass while Michael Hrabal notched 30 saves. 

Lee Parks, Libor Nemec and Owen Cole were the goal scorers for Lowell.

Princeton 4, No. 19 Clarkson 3 (OT)

Nick Marciano had a pair of power-play goals — including the game-winner 0:37 into overtime — to record his first career multi-goal game and lift Princeton to a 4-3 win at No. 19 Clarkson in ECAC Hockey action Saturday night. 

The win secured Princeton’s first North Country sweep since 2011 and its fifth overall all-time. The win also snapped a 12-game regular season winless streak for the Tigers at Cheel Arena as Princeton had been 0-11-1 in road regular season games against Clarkson since that 2011 sweep.

Jake Manfre and Miles Gunty also lit the lamp for Princeton, and Ethan Pearson had 25 saves in net. Ellis Rickwood, Ray Fust and Tristan Sarsland scored for Clarkson.