BU men skate to regional final
Terriers KO RIT; Minnesota up next
BU 6 RIT 3
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — macklin Celebrini rushed up the ice with senior forwards Dylan peterson and Nick Zabaneh, who set up the freshman on a tic-tac-toe play, to give boston University a 4-2 second-period lead. It was a familiar scoring formula for the top-seeded Terriers in their 6-3 win over fourth-seeded RIT Thursday night in the NCAA men’s hockey Sioux Falls regional semifinal. No matter the team’s start — whether flat-footed or turnover-laden — BU’s timely pops of talent can quickly tilt the ice in its favor. That’s exactly what happened at the Denny Sanford premier Center as the Terriers (26-9-2) advanced to the NCAA regional finals for the second consecutive season. “Certainly happy with the win,” said BU coach Jay pandolfo, whose team will face minnesota, a 3-2 winner over Omaha, in the regional final Saturday at 6:30 p.m. “We started off a little slow. Had a really tough first period, weren’t handling the puck. Our goaltender was very good.” Junior netminder mathieu Caron made 28 saves and kept his team in the fight while the Terriers found their footing. Despite a sluggish opening 20 minutes, BU led after the opening frame, 2-1, thanks to goals from lane Hutson and sophomore forward Ryan Greene. Celebrini won a puck battle along the corner walls and popped it out to Hutson in the slot, who toe-dragged and then backhanded it home for the 1-0 lead and his 14th goal of the season.
“Whenever he gets the chance in the slot, he always buries it . . . It’s a cheat code,” Celebrini said.
The Terriers doubled their advantage just over a minute later with a goal from Greene off the rush.
The center — who now has eight points in his last five games — carried the puck through the neutral zone and ripped it past RIT goaltender Tommy Scarfone to make it 2-0 at 13:01.
The Tigers (27-10-2) capitalized on the power play to cut their deficit to 2-1 at 15:40 after forward Elijah Gonsalves lifted the puck in from the right doorstep.
The second period showed a more recognizable Terrier team — one that relies upon its depth, plays direct and spares no quarter defensively. “I thought we were starting to play behind them a little bit more, play them below the goal line, forcing them to defend a little more,” pandolfo said.
Sam Stevens extended BU’s lead to 3-1 at 8:16 of the middle stanza with a blast from the left circle following a dominant shift from the Terriers’ fourth line. The goal was a product of a strong keep-in from sophomore forward Devin Kaplan, who finished with two assists.
While the Tigers pulled within one, 3-2, at 15:20 off a tally from forward Gianfranco Cassaro, Celebrini potted his 32nd of the season less than two minutes later to pad the Terriers’ lead to 4-2 heading into the final period. Celebrini passed Craig Simpson for most goals by a U18 player in an NCAA season.
“My linemates made a couple great passes and kind of left me backdoor alone, there wasn’t much I did,” Celebrini said.
Freshman forward Jack Harvey scored 1:29 into the third period with an individual effort in transition to make it 5-2. peterson added an empty-netter at 15:46 that sealed the victory and rendered meaningless a parting shot from RIT forward Cody laskosky at 19:03.
“We still have a lot to prove,” Hutson said. “I’m just really excited about the group we have here.” ...
Jaxon Nelson helped the secondseeded Gophers (22-10-5) erase a 2-1 deficit with back-to-back goals in the third period. Nelson tied it at 9:15 before he knocked home the winner at 15:47 to set up a rematch of last season’s national semifinal against BU.