Third period PP goal lifts BU over UMD and into Frozen Four

Boston University’s Evan Rodrigues scored the deciding goal at 2:24 of the third period to give the Terriers a 3-2 NCAA Northeast Regional final win over Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday night in Manchester, N.H. sending the Terriers to their 22^nd Frozen Four appearance

Rodrigues scored BU’s first and third goals, with the game winner coming on a nifty toe-drag to beat almost everybody on the ice during the Terriers’ second power-play of the game.

In an extremely close and exciting contest, Andy Welinski wrapped his stick around a BU player, taking him out in the defensive zone corner and putting BU up a man early in the third. Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin said he was surprised by the call.

“There are things you can’t control, all we can control is trying to kill it, we almost did and they ended up making a great play and scoring the winning goal,” Sandelin said. “It’s frustrating sometimes but just trying to get our guys focused on the penalty and we almost did.”

The game, in its entirety, was a chess match between two fairly equal teams with back-and-forth possessions and goals.

“I wasn’t surprised how that game unfolded. It was kind of like a heavyweight fight” Boston University coach David Quinn said. “We controlled the first few rounds, almost had a couple of opportunities to deliver a knockout punch. Then they’d come back and dominate for about 10 or 12 minutes.

“Then we’d come back and dominate for about 10 or 12 minutes.”

The Terriers twice took the lead at 1-0 and 2-1 before finally ending Duluth’s season 3-2.

Boston University’s Matt Grzelcyk, who assisted on the play, said Rodrigues’ winning goal “unbelieveable.”

“It’s something that he’s done quite a lot over his four years here,” Grzelcyk said. “As soon as I passed it to him, I wanted him to shoot because he seemed to be wide open, but he made a great play and just a great shot after that.”

Rodrigues’ first goal occurred when Duluth failed to clear the zone and Brandon Fortunato intercepted the puck on the blue-line. Fortunato passed it Rodrigues, who was all alone at center ice, and he whipped around and golfed a no-look shot past Kasimir Kaskisuo.

“At the end of practice we play games where we bat pucks up in the air and just start whacking them” said Rodrigues, “So I kind of knew I had a beat on it and I’d make contact.”

UMD had its own unconventional goal when Kyle Osterberg lobbed the puck into the Terrier zone and Matt O’Connor tried to just stab the puck away. Simultaneously Jared Thomas was crashing the net and the puck just trickled in through O’Connor’s five-hole. Thomas took several whacks at the sliding puck but its own momentum took it across the line. That goal tied the game at two goals apiece.

“After two periods you’ve got a 2-2 tie and then I thought that we did what we do best,” Quinn said. “I thought we played a great third period. We were relentless. We were smart. And we just did the things we needed to do to win an incredibly important hockey game and extend our season.”

After beating Michigan 3-2 in overtime to take the national title in 2011, UMD has twice made it to the regional final game, only to lose to Boston College in 2012 and Saturday to Boston University. This was the first meeting between the Terriers and the Bulldogs since 1999 – an 8-5 Duluth victory.

“It was a great hockey game, just unfortunate the way it ended,” Sandelin said. “Hats off to them … a lot of back and forth, zone time for both teams in certain situations but they made a play at the end, right at the end of the power play, won a hockey game … they’re moving on and we’re not.”

Boston University heads to the Frozen Four riding a seven-game winning streak with an overall record of 27-7-5. They will play the winner of the North Dakota and St. Cloud State University West Regional game played Saturday night. The University of Minnesota-Duluth ends their season with an overall record of 21-16-3. The Frozen Four will be played in Boston this year on April 9^th and 11^th.

“It’s obviously pretty cool,” Grzelcyk said of playing at home in Boston. ”I think I’d be just as excited if the Frozen Four were anywhere else. Obviously, we’ve had a pretty good amount of success at the Garden so it’ll be nice to get back on familiar ice. I’m sure the guys will be excited to be back in the environment.”

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UMD blanks Notre Dame 3-0 for third at Ice Breaker Tournament

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Two days after a disappointing Ice Breaker Tournament loss to Minnesota in which its comeback bid fill short, Minnesota-Duluth rebounded and never trailed in defeating Notre Dame to capture third place.

Dominic Toninato and Alex Iafallo each had a goal and an assist and Matt McNeely made 23 saves as the Bulldogs cruised to a 3-0 victory over the Fighting Irish on Sunday at the Compton Family Ice Center.

Minnesota-Duluth made a few lineup changes all around, but the biggest change was that of McNeely playing in net for Kasimir Kaskisuo. Although the Bulldogs were in control for much of the game, there were times when the Irish applied serious pressure but McNeely stood very tall and confident during the Irish attack.

The Bulldogs held the shot advantage 29-23 and scored twice on the power-play, which also looked better on Sunday than it did on Friday. Both teams had plenty of chances on the power play as there were 18 total penalties for 42 total penalty minutes. Austin Farley was assessed a 10-minute misconduct towards the end of regulation.

Iafallo and Toninato looked great all weekend, producing much of the Bulldog offense. In addition to his two points today, Toninato had four points (2-2-4) on the weekend. Iafallo brings speed and finesse to the lineup while Toninato brings grit and hard hits.

Notre Dame was able to keep up with Minnesota-Duluth for most of the game but the Irish special teams were nowhere to be found. They seemed to struggle getting a rhythm going at even-strength coming off of their penalty kills.

Although many fans wanted to see the Lucia-Lucia matchup again, having Notre Dame play Minnesota-Duluth was just as fun for the fans to see as these two teams do have some history. The Bulldogs beat Notre Dame at the 2011 Frozen Four in Saint Paul before beating Michigan in overtime to take their first national title. Since that time the Bulldogs and Irish have played pretty evenly-matched contests.

Minnesota-Duluth (1-1) will play a home-and-home series against Minnesota-State Mankato this coming weekend. The Friday, Oct. 17 game will be held in Duluth while the Saturday, Oct. 18 game will be held in Mankato.

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Adam Wilcox shuts out RPI as Gophers win second straight Ice Breaker title.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Minnesota looked like an entirely different team in its shutout of Rensselaer Sunday afternoon than on Friday against Minnesota-Duluth. Playing nearly flawless hockey, the Gophers blanked the Engineers 3-0 in the Ice Breaker Championship at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

The Minnesota offense fired 34 shots while holding the Engineers to 22 in winning its second consecutive Ice Breaker title and third overall.

“I thought we were much better today in how we played and I thought we played the game the right way today,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “We held the puck better, got some pucks down low in the offensive zone and we spread the rink a little better, too.”

The Gophers came out strong Friday against the Bulldogs, but tapered off late in the game to let Minnesota-Duluth almost make a comeback. Sunday was a different story that saw the Minnesota defense limit second-chance rebound shots to almost zero.

“Their D-core just skates so well that when we’d get a push, they’d limit it to one chance and then they’d get the puck,” Rensselaer coach Seth Appert said. “It’s usually the second or third chances that get it in the net, not the first ones – especially when you have a goalie of Wilcox’s caliber.”

The few times the Gopher defense lapsed in judgment Adam Wilcox came up big. RPI started laying down thick pressure several times late in the second period and early in the third, but Wilcox kept the door shut to keep the Engineers off of the score sheet.

“We did a good job of boxing out and when I was able to get the puck and cover it there wasn’t anyone in my face, especially after the whistle with not letting them get close to me,” Wilcox said. “Sometimes that can cause a little discomfort for a goalie but our structure in front of the goalie was second to none tonight.”

Minnesota scored one goal per period with Seth Ambroz starting the scoring off with just over five minutes left in the first period. Tournament Most Valuable Player Hudson Fasching then scored just over 90 seconds into the second period to extend the Gophers’ lead to 2-0. Connor Reilly netted Minnesota’s third and final goal just three seconds into a power-play near the midway point of the third period.

“We’ve got a lot of guys with speed on our team and we knew that was going to be an advantage for us today,” Fasching said. “I think the speed on our defensive end was big because they got a lot of chip-outs and they were racing to get back.”

After playing just two games last season, RPI goalie Jason Kasdorf played great over the course of the Ice Breaker weekend. It took a lot of grit and getting bodies in front of the net to get anything past him in either game.

“I think to come out here against two top-tier programs and to perform the way the he did solidifies in the back of his mind that he’s back,” Appert said of Karsdorf. “It was a good mental hurtle to get over.”

The Gophers (2-0) will have some time off before their next series when they host the Bemidji State Beavers, Oct. 24^_25.

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No. 1 Minnesota squeezes by UMD in Icebreaker opener.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – To say Minnesota’s 4-3 win over Minnesota-Duluth on Friday to kick off the annual Ice Breaker Tournament was sloppy would be an understatement. Even a first-time hockey observer in attendance at Compton Family Ice Arena on the campus of the University of Notre Dame would have probably been able to tell you the game was the season opener for each team.

“It was definitely the first game for both teams” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin, “We really don’t like spotting a team like that two goals, they’re too good of a team.”

Had this not been a rivalry game between two storied teams, it could have been an ugly game. But since there’s bad blood between the two, there were flashes of great plays and hard hits. Both teams exchanged moments of greatness and moments of absent-mindedness. In fact, at least four of the seven total goals scored were created off of sloppy play and turnovers.

“I thought at times our game got real sloppy, for the first game of the year which is not a surprise” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia, “I thought once we’re up 4-1 going into the third we were in good shape, but then you give up a turnover now it’s game back on and it’s 4-3.”

Given the circumstances, both teams played a relatively good game overall, especially with many freshmen seeing NCAA ice for the first time.

One of the most impressive performances was that of UMD freshman goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo. He was slightly hung out to dry early in the first period by turnovers and sluggish backchecking, but he recovered very quickly, especially for a freshman goalie in his first college hockey game against a hated rival (which also happens to be ranked No. 1 in the country).

“That was hard, it’s one of those things where you’re going ‘oh boy’. I mean, [Kaskisou’s] first shot is a breakaway from one of the best players in the country” said coach Sandelin, “It’s probably not the start we envisioned but I thought he battled through it. He probably had nerves just like every typical freshman but I thought he settled down and looked pretty good the second half of the game.”

Minnesota’s was more of a veteran presence as Kyle Rau led the Gophers offensively netting one goal and two assists. Minnesota broke out to a 3-0 lead before UMD battled back to make it 3-1. But the Gophers took a 4-1 lead into the second intermission.

“I thought we had the puck quite a bit but we just kept turning it over” said coach Sandelin, “There’s not a lot of teams you want to be poor with the puck, but thank God they kind of had the same thing going on as the game went on.”

Minnesota (1-0) goes on to face the winner of Friday night’s game between Notre Dame and RPI at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday in the Icebreaker title game. Minnesota-Duluth (0-1) takes on the loser of that game at noon on Sunday for third place. The one-day break between games is due the Fighting Irish football team hosting North Carolina on Saturday afternoon.

“I thought our ten minute game today was real good, we were able to score a couple of early goals and Kyle was a big catalyst of that” said coach Lucia, “I thought at times we tried to play too cute and that’s not where we need to be.”

These two teams will meet again in a home-and-home series Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14 and 15, with Friday night’s game in Minneapolis and Saturday’s in Duluth. The two teams could also meet again in the North Star College Cup Championship game on Saturday, Jan. 24.

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