BU plays like kings in Queen City
Terriers will play Cornell in regional final Saturday
MANCHESTER, N.H. >> Boston University has made New Hampshire’s leading metropolis its neutral site of choice in the NCAA tournament.
The No. 2 seed Terriers exploded for three goals in the second period and coasted to a 5-1 victory over No. 3 Western Michigan in the opening semifinal of the Manchester Regional on Thursday at SNHU Arena.
The Terriers will look to advance to the Frozen Four for the first time since 2015 when they face Cornell on Saturday at 4 p.m. Cornell upset defending national champion Denver, 2-0, in the second game.
BU is now 5-0 in NCAA regional games played in Manchester. The included two wins in 2009, when the Terriers last won the national championship. BU goalie Drew Commesso of Norwell made 24 saves to secure his 23rd win of the season.
“I thing it being close to Boston certainly helped us,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo. “We had our band up here and our student body and a lot of family members so it definitely was an advantage having that behind you.”
BU got into a flow from the opening faceoff and created several scoring chances with good forechecking and tape to tape passes. Matt Brown created a partial breakaway off a turnover but WMU goalie Cameron Rowe (23 saves) played it perfectly.
WMU’s formidable attack gained traction and the Broncos’ appeared to take 1-0 lead at 8:26 on a muscle by junior right wing Hugh Larkin in Commesso’s goal mouth. The play went under review and the goal was disallowed for goalie interference.
“It was kind of one of those plays where everyone was crashing the net,” said Commesso. “I knew right when it went in it would be reviewed and had a feeling it would be called back.”
BU caught a second break at 13:28 when center Max Sasson’s breakaway backhand bounced off the right post.
BU broke the deadlock at 15:26 on freshman defenseman Lane Hutson’s 15th of the season. Senior right wing Ethan Phillips won a puck battle in the right corner and fed Jay O’Brien in the circle. O’Brien relayed the puck though the low slot to Hutson, who ripped a wrister inside the near post. BU exited the frame with a 9-8 edge in shots on goal.
“We talked about getting the puck behind them and winning some puck battles,” said Pandolfo. “That was the key for us and in the middle of the first we kind of got away from that.
“But we found a way to get back to that mindset and Ethan Phillips was active tonight, I give him a lot of credit.”
The game broke open in the second period with captivating displays of north-south hockey from both camps. BU went up 2-0 when defenseman Domenick Fensore led a 3-on-1 break up the left boards. Fensore made a cut toward the net and fed Quinn Huston, who flicked a wrist shot by Rowe for his 15th goal.
BU went up 3-0 when Phillips made a sweet saucer pass to Brown, who rushed unattended down the middle of the slot. Brown did a catch and shoot that found the exposed half of the net for his 16th.
“We traded chances there in the second and we were executing pretty well on rushes and broken plays,” said Lane Hutson. “We just kind of opened up the game in that period.”
WMU made it 3-1 at 7:33 on Jason Polin’s 30th of the season. Polin, the nation’s goals leader, became second player in NCAA history to record 30-plus goals in five seasons. BU went up 4-1 thanks to a wrist shot by Wilmer Skoog from the left circle at 17:16. BU led WMU, 21-15, in shots on goal after two.
WMU coach Pat Ferschweiler pulled Rowe with just under five minutes to play in the third. Phillips made it 5-1 with an empty netter at 17:34.