If you want to play for a national championship you have to get off your own corner first. Boston University’s hockey team didn’t win five NCAA titles and make it to 22 Frozen Fours without figuring out the March essentials. Get off campus, get to the Garden, and go from there.
And do it with as little drama as possible.
After having to come from behind three times and win Friday’s opener in overtime the fourth-seeded Terriers were in no mood for any Sunday soap opera with their fifth-seeded visitors from Connecticut.
So they got nifty goals from freshman wings Brady Tkachuk and Logan Cockerill and 36 saves from sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger to sweep their Hockey East quarterfinal series with a 2-1 triumph before 2,288 at Agganis Arena and advanced to a Friday date against top-seeded archrival Boston College at TD Garden.
It was a program-record 12th consecutive home playoff victory for the Terriers, who haven’t lost on their own ice since New Hampshire won the 2012 quarterfinal opener in double overtime.
“There were a lot of things we did tonight that we didn’t do last night,’’ said coach David Quinn after his close-’em-out canines (19-13-4) had made the tournament semifinals for the 14th time in 17 seasons. “We actually skated. We actually passed the puck. We actually hit people. Some of the things that are required in this game. It was a test because that’s a tough matchup for us.’’
The Huskies (15-19-2) might never have won a playoff game in their four seasons in the conference, but they made the Terriers sweat mightily on both nights and were a bounce away from going to overtime again and possibly to a Sunday showdown.
“This is a tough night,’’ said coach Mike Cavanaugh. “I told the players I’ve been involved in teams that lost national championship games. This certainly isn’t on that level, but it kind of feels that way to me.’’
UConn, which was everybody’s favorite opponent when it moved up from Atlantic Hockey, has become the toughest out in the league. They earned their first bye by winning seven of their final eight, beating all four tournament semifinalists along the way. “Getting to the Garden would have been the step we were looking for,’’ said Cavanaugh.
How many certificates of participation did the Huskies need to collect? How many hearty handclasps from victorious rivals wishing them a pleasant spring? So after Friday’s loss the prospect of elimination had UConn in full gear early on. But after squandering two power plays less than four minutes apart the Huskies found themselves behind just before the end of the first period.
With defenseman Adam Karashik off for roughing Tkachuk wristed one past goalie Adam Huska from the right circle with just 3.1 seconds on the clock to put the hosts up, 1-0. “It’s never good when you give up a goal with three seconds [left] but we were fine,’’ said Cavanaugh. “We were down a goal after one last night. No one was panicked.’’
The same man who’d put the visitors ahead in the opener drew them even in the second period with Max Kalter redirecting Joseph Masonius’s left-point slapper past Oettinger at 9:08. But the Terriers reclaimed the lead at 16:52 when Cockerill took a deft pass from center Shane Bowers at the right circle, waited to pick his spot and zipped a wrister past Huska.
That was all the Terriers could manage off the Slovakian stopper (17 saves), who was standing tall again after missing nearly two months with a wrist injury. To prevail they needed perfect penalty killing (3 for 3) and a magnificent performance from Oettinger, who made 15 saves in the third period and held off the Huskies when they had six skaters for the final 1:45.
“When you give up one goal in 37 shots your goalie’s pretty damned good,’’ observed Quinn. “I don’t need to watch the film to figure that out. I watched it live and I looked at the stats.’’
So UConn goes home and BU goes to Causeway Street, as they customarily do this time of year.
“We’re moving on,’’ said Quinn. “And I couldn’t be prouder of our guys.’’
