NCAA Frozen Four: BU weathers storms to drive all-Hockey East final

BOSTON — North Dakota was not about to go quietly. 

For its various faults and injury troubles, it remained an imposing club, and something as simple as being down two goals through 20 minutes isn’t going to do a lot to dissuade them that the game is still very much within reach.

Nor would it accede even after being down 4-1 late in the third period.

But Boston University persevered through some terribly difficult times, and instead ensured that momentum, the atmosphere, and so on remained on its side, even if somewhat insecurely. The Terriers were flattered by the 5-3 scoreline, but they’ll certainly take it.

First, North Dakota turned the game on its head after a mundane start, firing a barrage of shots, drawing a few penalties, and generally doing enough to make BU question just how safe its early 2-0 lead was. But hockey has a funny way of working out sometimes, and for all the territorial control exerted in the majority of that middle period, even an impressively placed, low-angle power play shot from Luke Johnson halved the lead.

“This was a funny game in a lot of ways,” said BU coach David Quinn. “There was a lot of peaks and valleys. I thought for the first ten minutes we played really well. I thought we were moving the puck. Spent a lot of time in their end, got up 2-0. I thought they started taking the play a little bit. We gave up the goal early in the second. It was so similar to what happened against Duluth [in the regional final] where we got deflated.’

BU entered having scored in 21 of its last 24 periods of hockey. They added to that run in the first period. And the second, with two more after Johnson’s goal. And the third, with one into an empty net. This is just an offensive dynamo, not that its opponents here tonight were all that intimidated.

Sure, North Dakota very quickly learned the lessons many other teams likewise came to understand this season: A generally good piece of advice is to not put a team with that much skill in its top-six forwards and top-four defensemen on the power play. The Terriers finished their pre-Frozen Four schedule with a 25.6 percent efficiency on the power play (40 goals on 156 opportunities). They make teams pay for their lack of discipline, and while you could criticize some of the calls in the first period for being a little soft, you can’t put the horse back in the barn either. The two goals on the man advantage came from the team’s two most impressive freshmen: Jack Eichel and Brandon Hickey.

Eichel makes his bones on economy of movement. Often, this masquerades itself as passivity or not-trying, but it’s just a supreme sense of the game. He only ever does exactly what he has to do to make things happen, and as anyone can tell when he’s on the ice from taking a quick look at his increasingly pornographic point total (he’s up to 26-44-70 in 39 games with two goals and assist tonight), he succeeds far more often than not. The amount of times he pushed off during the power play on which he eventually scored was couldn’t have been much more than a dozen. But there he was, exactly where he needed to be, just like he always is.

And on BU’s third — a Ron Simmons-level spinebuster that put North Dakota back in its place a little more than 10 minutes after Johnson’s goal — Eichel stepped off the bench and casually rifled a gorgeous pass to A.J. Greer. Three seconds after his stepping on the ice, the puck had been hammered into the back of the net, and victory all but assured. (BU added a fourth 1:50 after that from d-man Doyle Somerby, his first of the season.)

“I just jumped on the ice actually pretty late,” Eichel said. “[Defenseman Brien Diffley] makes a great play to beat the first forechecker, slides me the puck and got over the blue line. I saw A.J. opened up, tried to put it in his wheelhouse where he could hammer one." 

This game had a much different feel from the romps BU enjoyed in the regionals — and maybe you chalk that up to the improved quality of opponent — but the Terriers didn’t appear as in-control for the majority of it as they had in most of its tilts over the last month. North Dakota dictated a hell of a lot of the game, and BU was fortunate not to concede more than it did, and score as much as it did. The good news was North Dakota wasn’t getting a ton of grade-A chances (only three or four in the third, and again, they were pressing). The bad news was they buried most of them, and as the game wore on, they .

“They’re gonna push back if they’re down 4-1 and their season’s on the line,” said Hickey, a Calgary Flames draft pick who had as impressive a freshman season as any defenseman in the nation. “I think our D-zone play really combatted their offensive-zone attack. They had it a lot on the perimeter, so we defended really well tonight. Didn’t really give up too many opportunities in the slot. But they’re a really good puck possession team.”

Beyond that, though, you’ll recall this was meant to be a Frozen Four top-lined by goaltenders. Four of the best six or seven netminders in the nation led their teams here, and NoDak’s Zane McIntyre — who gave up four goals on 27 shots tonight — was supposed to have been chief among them. He was the Hobey Baker finalist who helped UND PDO its way to an NCHC regular-season championship, and this was a very well-earned season of accolades for him. But the problem with goaltenders is that, some nights things just don’t go their way. Shots take weird bounces and make their way through six bodies and what can you really do except sigh resignedly?

“We got a lot of pucks to the net,” said BU senior winger Evan Rodrigues. “We did some pre-scouting and had a couple plays [drawn up]. We knew that they would be open and we executed. We face [Matt O’Connor] every day in practice, and we knew if we got bodies in front of [McIntyre] we’d be able to get to score a lot of goals. We have been all year.”

O’Connor certainly bested his counterpart. He conceded three, albeit on 39, and albeit with none of them coming while BU was up any fewer than two goals. BU never trailed, and spent just 4:59 tied, so while things certainly got nervy, they never got as close as North Dakota probably would have wanted for all its zone time. 

Still, the one that made it 4-2, a shortie from Troy Stetcher — bounced off the end boards and ended up going between O’Connor’s legs, off his skate, and was tapped in — loomed menacingly. 

“I think they came out strong in the third and I think we kind of matched them, but then they obviously got that goal,” said Rodrigues, who added that iffy ice conditions toward the end of the second game of the day didn’t help matters. “Which, O.C., he’ll make that [mistake] once all year. It’s a fluke play.”

Quinn said after the game that BU very much dodged a few bullets, and made no bones about having to be better if it wants to win a national title on Saturday. But he also acknowledged that “human nature” — i.e. score effects when you’re up two goals in the second period, or three in the third, regardless of opponent — played a role. It’s a mistake that’s not likely to be repeated, both because there’s probably a lot of coaching to be done in the next 36 hours or so, and because neither BU nor Providence is wont to give up enough goals for score effects to make an appearance.

“I think our youth showed,” said Quinn, whose players carry the youngest average age in the nation. “A little bit demoralized. And again we weathered the storm. You're going to have to do that at this time of year against good hockey teams. You're playing in the Frozen Four. People aren't going to lay down for you.”

But when you have as much talent as BU, you can just make them.

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