Boston College’s men’s hockey team will play for a national championship Saturday night in St. Paul, Minnesota. Boston University’s will not.
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The two Comm Ave rivals, in the Frozen Four together for the first time since 1990, split Thursday night’s national semifinals, with the Eagles routing Michigan, 4-0, after the Terriers fell to Denver, 2-1, in overtime.
Let’s start with BC. The Eagles continued to show why they’ve been the No. 1 team in the country for months, winning their 15th straight game to advance to the national title game for the first time since 2012, which is also the last time they won it all.
Their stars once again led the way, with Will Smith scoring twice, Cutter Gauthier scoring once, Gabe Perreault recording a goal and two assists, Ryan Leonard setting up a goal, and Jacob Fowler stopping all 32 shots he faced.
The Eagles opened the scoring just 1:20 into the game when freshman stars Leonard and Smith took off on a 2-on-1. Leonard slid a pass over to Smith, who calmly buried a shot past a sprawling Jake Barczewski for his NCAA-leading 70th point of the season.
Smith, a Lexington native who was the fourth overall pick for the San Jose Sharks this past summer, is just the third freshman in the last 30 years to hit 70 points, joining Jack Eichel (71 for BU in 2014-15) and Kyle Connor (71 for Michigan in 2015-16).
The Eagles had chances to extend their lead, with their second-ranked power play getting two opportunities in the first period. Their first was negated by a Leonard hook 35 seconds in, and their second struggled to get set up in the offensive zone.
On the flip side of the special teams battle, BC’s No. 1 penalty kill also shut down Michigan’s No. 1 power play, holding the Wolverines off the board on all four of their man advantages on the night.
Michigan’s third power play was cut short by a Dylan Duke trip, and it was during the ensuing 4-on-4 that the floodgates opened for BC. Smith wheeled behind the Michigan net and threw a pass to the front that pinballed off two Wolverine skates and in. That made it 2-0 with 7:35 left in the second and brought Smith up to 25 goals and 71 points on the season.
Just 49 seconds later, Gauthier made it 3-0 when he stole the puck from Rutger McGroarty, took off on a breakaway, and fired a shot past Barczewski. That was Gauthier’s 38th goal of the season, which is tied for the most in a season since 2000 (Minnesota’s Ryan Potulny also had 38 in 2005-06).
That also tied BC’s program record for goals in a season, matching Scott Harlow in 1985-86 and David Emma in 1989-90. Gauthier, a top Anaheim Ducks prospect, is one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, which will be handed out on Friday.
Perreault added a fourth BC goal 5:03 into the third when he collected a loose puck in the neutral zone, led a rush into the offensive zone, kept the puck himself, and tucked a wraparound past Barczewski. Perreault, a 2023 first-round pick of the New York Rangers, now has 10 points in five games since returning from an injury that kept him out a month, and has joined linemates Smith and Leonard as 60-point scorers on the season.
In Saturday’s national championship game, BC will be facing a Denver team that actually beat them, 4-3, at Conte Forum way back in October. That was one of just five losses this year for the Eagles, who now have a record of 34-5-1. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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In the first national semifinal, Boston University fell to Denver, 2-1, in overtime. Tristan Broz scored the winner for the Pioneers with 8:51 left in the first overtime when he pulled up on the rush and beat BU goalie Mathieu Caron five-hole with a snap shot.
This marks the second straight year the Terriers have lost in the national semifinals, but this one will be especially tough to swallow given how good of a season they had, having been ranked first or second in the country just about all season.
It will likely be the last college game for freshman star Macklin Celebrini, who will almost certainly be the first overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and possibly the last for stud sophomore defenseman Lane Hutson as well. Hutson could now sign with the Montreal Canadiens, who drafted him in the second round in 2022.
Adding to BU’s frustration was some highly questionable officiating. The Terriers, who have the No. 3 power play in the country, did not get a single man advantage in the game despite a few blatant penalties committed by Denver. The Pioneers, on the other hand, got four power plays.
The Terriers controlled much of the first period, outshooting Denver 10-3 in the frame. The Pioneers got the lone power play of the period, but that wound up being when BU scored.
As the man advantage wound down, Luke Tuch pounced on a puck that jumped over a Denver stick at the line and raced in on a shorthanded breakaway before ripping a shot past Matt Davis’ glove.
BU continued to control play early in the second, but couldn’t extend the lead. Then Denver made its push late in the second and tied the game with 4:39 left in the frame. After a rough turnover by Hutson behind the net, Tristan Lemyre snuck a shot through Caron’s five-hole.
The Pioneers nearly took the lead with 23 seconds left in the second when they caught BU in a line change and Aidan Thompson wound up in alone behind the defense. Caron, unfazed by the goal a few minutes earlier, absolutely robbed him with an incredible save, though, pulling Thompson’s backhand shot off the goal line with his glove.
The Pioneers had the better chances in the third, including another goal-line robbery by Caron, and outshot BU 12-5 in the period, but that was in large part because they got three power plays in what wound up being a poorly officiated 20 minutes.
While the refs seemed perfectly content to keep sending Denver to the power play, they somehow didn’t call two blatant penalties on the Pioneers – a hit from behind on Shane Lachance in the neutral zone and a trip of Hutson in the offensive zone as he deked around a defender.
All things considered, the Terriers were fortunate just to survive the third and all the Denver power plays. Forty-seven seconds of the Pioneers’ final power play carried into overtime, but BU’s penalty kill completed a perfect 4-for-4 night.
The Terriers had the better chances in overtime for several minutes after that, with both Celebrini and Hutson getting multiple good looks at the net, but they couldn’t finish. That set the stage for Broz’s heroics at the other end.
The Pioneers will now be playing for their third national title in eight years (seven seasons), as they won it all in 2017 (when Jim Montgomery was their head coach) and 2022. They will be looking for their 10th national title overall, which would break a tie with Michigan for the most ever.