Hockey East Semifinals Roundup: Donnelly and Gund’s three stars of the night
The UConn Huskies won 4-1 against the Northeastern Huskies in the first semifinal to advance to the Hockey East championship for the first time in program history, and the UMass Minutemen defeated the UMass-Lowell River Hawks 3-1 in the nightcap to continue their conference and national title defense.
UMass and UConn will square off in the conference final at 7 p.m. on Saturday at TD Garden.
Here are Patrick Donnelly and Owen Gund’s three stars of the conference semifinals. All opinions are their own.
Donnelly’s three stars
First Star: Garrett Wait, UMass – Two points (1g, 1a); two shots; plus-one rating
Wait has a knack for coming up in the clutch. Lowell came out of the gates strong, but his first period goal helped snuff out the initial momentum the River Hawks built up. He got the rush started from his own zone leading up to Bobby Trivigno’s goal, and the Minutemen turned the tide in their favor to close out the first after being on their heels at the start.
Second Star: Chase Bradley, UConn – Two assists; four shots; one block; plus-three rating
Bradley was all around it with two assists, four shots, one block and a plus-three rating for the Huskies in their win over the Huskies (of Northeastern). He made a great play to force a turnover and set up Vladislav Firstov’s goal to open the scoring, and created his own grade ‘A’ scoring chance that led to Roman Kinal’s eventual game-winner.
Third Star: Bobby Trovigno, UMass – One goal; four shots; three shots; plus-one
Trovigno showed everyone why he was named Hockey East Player of the Year tonight. His goal off a dynamic individual rush in the first period proved to be the eventual game-winner, and his usual pesky, all-round play without the puck, including a diving block in the third period in particular, helped the Minutemen hold the River Hawks attack at bay.
Gund’s three stars
First Star: Garrett Wait, UMass – Two points (1g, 1a); two shots; plus-one rating
Wait got the scoring party started for UMass with the game’s opening goal and also assisted on Trivigno’s game winner. The senior forward was a big part of UMass’ national championship run last season, and he is a big reason why the Minutemen are going back to the Hockey East title game this season.
Second Star: Ryan Tverberg, UConn – One goal; two shots; plus-one rating
About five minutes into the third period, Tverberg scored a big goal to put his team up 3-1. It was a high-skill play where he walked around Northeastern netminder Devon Levi and stuffed the puck into the open cage. Tverberg is second on the Huskies with 32 points this season. Only senior forward Jachym Kondelik has more.
Third Star: Darion Hanson, UConn – 24 saves; one goal against
Hanson was rock solid in the pipes for UConn and he stymied Northeastern’s attack all afternoon. The graduate student finished the game with 33 saves and made several key stops for his team. Hanson is calm, cool and collected in the net and does an excellent job controlling his rebounds. In his first season with the Huskies he has emerged as a leader on his team.