College Sports
The Terriers, seeking their first NCAA title since 2009, will face Western Michigan in the championship game on Saturday.
ST. LOUIS — Jack Hughes thought he broke in a little too late. His teammates on the Boston University men’s hockey team won’t be offering up any complaints.
The senior opened up the scoring in Thursday night’s Frozen Four contest against Penn State to get BU rolling in the right direction en route to a 3-1 win and a trip to its first national championship game since 2015.
“He made a lot of plays tonight,” said coach Jay Pandolfo. “First period [he] made two or three plays where we just didn’t put the puck in the net. I’ve been really happy with him.
“And he’s really determined. He knows this is his last opportunity. He’s been, number one, playing great, but his leadership has been excellent for us. He doesn’t wear a letter, but his leadership on the bench, calming guys down, in the room, he’s been excellent.”
The Terriers will face Western Michigan, which defeated defending national champion Denver, 3-2 in double overtime, as they search for the first title since 2009 on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
After a scoreless first period, BU (24-13-2) finally broke through when Hughes was able to poke in a rebound of Matt Copponi’s shot at 1:35 of the second period. Copponi fired a shot from the left circle that Arsenii Sergeev (30 saves) stopped, but he lost track of the puck, which was resting in the crease before Hughes came charging in to poke it into the net.
“Matty shot it, and I started driving maybe a little too late,” said Hughes. “Got a fortunate bounce, and it was just laying there. Obviously feels good to get on the board early and play a little bit looser for us and with a little bit more confidence.”
It was a nice change of pace for a BU squad that had surrendered the first goal in its previous two tournament games against Ohio State and Cornell before rallying for the win.
The lead grew to 2-0 at 10:44 of the second period when Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman broke in for a 2-on-1, with Hutson carrying the puck down the left side before sending it over to Eiserman for the one-timer and his team-leading 24th goal of the season. The two were sprung for the breakaway off a nice backhand pass from Devin Kaplan from behind the BU net.
“I think whenever [Cole Hutson] has the puck, you’re always expecting to get it,” said Eiserman. “He’s such a great player. With him, he was just looking for an angle. He could have went around the net four times, he still could have found me. It was great. It was a late pass, but great play.”
The lead nearly became 3-0 when Copponi took advantage of a misplay by Penn State and broke in for a good look, but Sergeev made the glove save to keep the Nittany Lions within striking distance.
BU would take a 2-0 lead into the final period, with Mass. natives Hughes (Westwood), Copponi (Mansfield), and Eiserman (Newburyport) figuring in the scoring.
It wouldn’t take Penn State long to cut the lead in half, scoring 2:12 into the third when Nic DeGraves knocked a rebound of Ben Schoen’s shot past Mikhail Yegorov. The Nittany Lions were aggressive to open the period, but Yegorov was able to deny several bids before DeGraves cut the lead to 2-1.
But that was all Yegorov (32 saves) would surrender. Sophomore Jack Harvey sealed the win with an empty-netter, and after coming up short each of the last two years in the Frozen Four, the Terriers found themselves back in the championship game.
“Obviously it’s not easy to get here, but once you get here you’ve still got to find a way to win the first hockey game so you actually have a chance to play for the national championship,” said Pandolfo. “We certainly came up short the last two years. It helped our team to have an understanding that you have to play a certain way if you want to get to that final game. I thought for the most part tonight we did that.
“It feels good to get there. We certainly hope that the job’s not done yet.”
