NCAA men’s hockey regional recap: Cornell upset highlights Thursday’s semifinal action

Boston University, St. Cloud State, Cornell and the University of Minnesota have advanced to their respective regional title games after an exciting first day of action:

Terriers too strong for Western Michigan

Boston University has now won eight in a row and has a chance to advance to the Frozen Four with a 5-1 win over the Western Michigan Broncos on Thursday.

The Terriers will now face Cornell University in the Manchester Regional on Saturday evening.

Western Michigan managed to score first, but was waved back due to goaltender interference. Hugh Larkin got the initial shot on net but was stopped by Drew Commesso. Larkin kept with it, and by around the fourth whack at it, the goal was called back.

That saved the Terriers, who eventually broke the deadlock at 15:24 with his wrist shot in clean air. The goal broke a 35-year-old U-19 defensive scoring record, with Hutson – now at 48 points – passing Brian Leetch for third all-time in a single season.

Lane’s older brother, Quinn Hutson, scored to make it 2-0 at 8:53, and Matt Brown followed that up just a few shifts later to make it 3-0.

Jason Polin, a top UFA once the NCAA season ends, eventually got WMU on the board at 32:34. Some good puck work from Ryan McAllister and Tim Washe led to Polin scoring his 30th of the season, giving his team some life.

Unfortunately for WMU, not much more came from it. Wilmer Skoog potted a goal with just three minutes to go in the second period, giving Boston a 4-1 advantage – a lead Western Michigan couldn’t do much about. Ethan Phillips’ empty-netter with a few minutes to go in the third helped seal the deal, giving BU a berth in Saturday’s final.

St. Cloud shuts out Minnesota State

In what many expected to be a tightly contested battle, the St. Cloud State Huskies managed to beat Minnesota State 4-0 in a convincing effort in Fargo.

St. Cloud will play the University of Minnesota after the top-seeded team managed to beat Canisius in the late game in North Dakota.

The opening period was scoreless, but Minnesota managed to take a 10-4 shot advantage into the first break. St. Cloud was lucky to get out of there without being down a goal, and they’d make the Mavericks pay in the second as a result. Just over 12 minutes into the second on the power play, Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Veeti Miettinen scored on a blister of a shot to make it 1-0.

Then, with just 2:37 left in the frame, Jack Peart scored his third of the season with a quick wrister, beating Keenan Rancier for the 2-0 goal.

Minnesota State kept the action alive, but a late third-period goal from Zach Okabe made it 3-0 for St. Cloud. The Mavs pulled their goalie in an attempt to generate something with around six minutes left, but Grant Cruikshank’s empty-netter with 3:16 left sealed the deal for SCS.

Cornell pulls off upset over defending champs

We’ve got ourselves the first upset of the national regional championships.

Cornell University is off to the final of the Manchester Regional after beating Denver 2-0 on Thursday. They’ll battle against Boston University, who beat Western Michigan to kick off regional action earlier in the day.

It was a fantastic effort for the Big Red, who scored twice in the third period to take all life away from Denver. It started early when Jack O’Leary finished off a play that saw Cornell hold significant pressure, beating Magnus Chrona for the 1-0 goal.

Less than 10 minutes later, Ben Berard managed to beat an outstretched Chrona, who lost track of the puck and was forced into a desperate situation. The teams traded five-minute major penalties in the second, but neither team generated a scoring chance. Denver went 15 minutes without a shot, and had just two late in their five-minute power play, but they couldn’t do anything to spark a comeback. Cornell managed to hold on, putting them one win from making the Frozen Four.

Top-ranked Minnesota avoids loss to Canisius

With multiple leads in the contest, it looked like Canisius – ranked 42nd in the pairwise rankings – was going to pull off a major upset over the No. 1 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

That didn’t end up happening, though, as Minnesota came back from trailing 2-1 to win 9-2 in a game that was close for the 40 minutes of play.

Minnesota will play St. Cloud State University on Saturday for a chance to advance to April’s Frozen Four.

Minnesota started off well, with defenseman Luke Mittelstadt taking Mike Koster’s feed to make it 1-0 at 6:08. But two minutes later, Daniel DiGrande whistled one past Justen Close for the tying goal on the power play, making it a 1-1 game. That score remained that way until Nick Bowman deked past two defenders to score at 23:23, putting Canisius in the lead in shocking fashion.

The Griffins held onto the lead for five minutes, when Aaron Huglen’s wrister in the slot beat Jacob Barczewski and in for the tying goal. Connor Kurth then scored 10 minutes later to give Minnesota its first lead of the game.

A game misconduct to Canisius’ Stefano Bottini for contact to the head changed the course of the game. Jimmy Snuggerud scored in the first minute of the five-minute advantage, and Brody Lamb scored a minute later to make it a 5-2 game.

Just before the halfway point in the third, Bryce Brodzinski looked like he scored on a shot that hit both posts. But after a review on the play, the officials determined that the puck never crossed the line, and you could tell Brodzinski wasn’t pleased.

On the next scoring chance, Logan Cooley deked past two defenders before finding Brodzinski all alone, who then fired the puck in for the 6-2 goal. Brodzinski scored two more to complete the hat-trick, while Mason Nevers scored his first goal as Minnesota completed the big 9-2 victory.

NHL Implications

Keep an eye on three of Western Michigan’s top forwards: Jason Polin, Ryan McAllister and Max Sasson. Polin scored his 30th of the season, while McAllister fell just short of the 50-point mark as a freshman. Both are assumed to have some serious NHL attention, while Sasson, a sophomore, also turned heads with a huge campaign.
Jack Perbix (Anaheim) and Carter Berger (Florida) have finished their senior seasons for WMU. Both of their respective NHL teams will have until August 15 to decide whether to sign them. If unsigned, they’ll both become free agents.
With Minnesota State now out, two of the best UFA defensemen – Jake Livingstone and Akito Hirose – can now be signed. Both are believed to have received some significant NHL attention, with Livingstone considered one of the best UFAs out of the NCAA.
With Magnus Chrona’s four-year college career now complete, it’s up to the San Jose Sharks to see if they’ll ink him to a deal. The 6-foot-6 goaltender was originally drafted by Tampa Bay in the fifth round in 2018 and posted a 73-34-5 record in 113 games with Denver. Kaapo Kahkonen is the only goaltender signed for 2023-24 in San Jose’s system, with Eetu Makiniemi and Strauss Mann set to become RFAs.