The NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Frozen Four got underway at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri on Thursday evening with the national semifinals.
National semifinal #1- Sophomore Owen Michaels scored his second goal of the night early in the second overtime, as Western Michigan in their first Frozen Four in school history advanced to the championship game with a 3-2 victory over defending champion Denver. The Broncos dominated through two periods, and got goals from Brian Kramer at 6:16 and by Michaels at 14:32 of the middle stanza for a 2-0 lead. The Pioneers would rally though, as Aidan Thompson got them on the board at 6:49 of the third and Jared Wright poked a loose puck into the net at 17:21 to send the game to the extra session. Western Michigan controlled much of the action in the first overtime, but goalie Matt Davis kept Denver alive with some big saves to take his team into double overtime. Michaels got a fortunate bounce off a deflection right onto his stick in the low slot just 26 seconds into that second OT, firing it over the shoulder glove side past Davis to end it. Freshman Hampton Slukynsky made 20 saves in the win for the Broncos (33-7-1), as they outshot the Pioneers 47-22. Davis earned one of the three stars of the game in his effort with 44 stops, as Denver ends another great run with a record of 31-12-1. This was the third straight game between the two teams that went to overtime, including the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) Championship game that was also won by Western Michigan in double overtime.
National semifinal #2- Cole Eiserman scored a game winning second period goal, as Boston University beat Penn State 3-1 to advance to the championship game for the first time in nine years in the first ever hockey meeting between the two schools. Jack Hughes put the Terriers on the board, knocking home a rebound left in the crease that couldn’t be covered by Nittany Lions goaltender Arsenii Sergeev at 1:35 of the second to make it 1-0. A beautiful 2 on 1 breakout led to the game winner by Eiserman just over nine minutes later. Cole Hutson on the rush held onto the puck until he reached the bottom of the left circle, sending a perfect tape to tape pass to Eiserman in the right circle as he ripped it past Sergeev at 10:44. PSU battled back tough, buzzing their opponents net and outshooting BU 18-9 in the third period and getting a goal from Nicholas Degraves at 2:15 to slice the deficit in half. Despite the continued push, they were unable to find the equalizer and the Terriers put it away on an empty net tally by Jack Harvey with 59 seconds left. Simon Mack and Ben Schoen each had an assist on the Degraves goal for Penn State, while Sergeev made 31 saves. The Nittany Lions end their season with a record of 22-14-4. Hughes had a goal and an assist for Boston University (24-13-2), and freshman Mikhail Yegorov stopped 32 shots. BU coach Jay Pandolfo, in his third season behind the bench, gets his team into the final after losing to Minnesota and Denver the last two seasons in the national semifinals.
Western Michigan and Boston University square off for the national title on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. The Broncos look for their first hockey championship, as they seek the first trophy for their school in 60 years. WMU has two titles in Division I in school history that both happened in men’s cross country in 1964 and 1965. The Terriers are in the final for the first time since 2015 (lost to Providence), and will try to win their sixth overall and first since 2009 (defeated Miami (Ohio) 4-3 in overtime).
