{"id":30807,"date":"2022-03-25T14:58:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T18:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=30807"},"modified":"2022-03-25T20:10:37","modified_gmt":"2022-03-26T00:10:37","slug":"ncaa-tournament-western-michigan-tops-northeastern-in-northeast-regional-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2022\/03\/25\/ncaa-tournament-western-michigan-tops-northeastern-in-northeast-regional-final\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Tournament: Western Michigan tops Northeastern in Northeast Regional semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Donnelly<\/em><\/p>\n

WORCESTER, Mass. — Luke Grainger scored 1:33 into overtime, and the No. 4\/5 Western Michigan University Broncos won 2-1 against the No. 12 Northeastern University Huskies in the Northeast Regional semifinal at the DCU Center on Friday.<\/p>\n

The sophomore forward scored on a wraparound, and the puck barely crossed the goal line.<\/p>\n

“I thought Levi made a great save [at first], and he makes a lot of good saves. So I was just kind of hoping for the best and then looked up, kind of had some hope, and [the officials] made the call,” Grainger said. \u201cI really wasn\u2019t sure what I was feeling. I was looking up, hoping it crossed the line fully. So, I wasn\u2019t sure right away and then I looked and it crossed the line and the ref came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was initially thought Northeastern sophomore goaltender Devon Levi made the save, but video review confirmed the goal.<\/p>\n

“That’s a bounce. That’s hockey. That’s the way it’s gone,” Northeastern junior assistant captain Aidan McDonough said. “I just feel bad for [Levi] cause I know how much he cares. … I know he’s probably beating himself up about it, but it’s on all of us. It’s just a bounce. There’s no reason for him to hang is head.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior forward Cole Gallant also scored, and senior assistant captain Drew Worrad and fifth-year assistant captain Ethen Frank added assists for WMU (26-11-1). Junior goaltender Brandon Bussi made 30 saves.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to first congratulate Northeastern on a great season and a great battle today. I thought it was exactly what NCAA hockey should look like,” Western Michigan head coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “I think our team is really close off the ice. The group of ‘super seniors’ …. they decided to come back together. They probably had some unfinished last year, they came back, and they’ve been on a mission this year of accomplishment and supporting each other. I think that leads to belief on the ice, and that leads to our success for sure.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the Bronco’s first win in the national tournament in program history.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s huge for our program,” Grainger said. “We are very excited, but we\u2019re not done yet. We\u2019re trying to make some more history here and give our program a good look and it is a really good program.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonough scored, and Levi made 34 saves for the Huskies (25-13-1), whose season comes to a close. They are yet to win a game in the national tournament.<\/p>\n

“I’m really proud of our team today. I thought we laid it on the line. They played hard for each other today,” Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe said. “You get to overtime, and usually there’s a bounce one way or he other. Credit to Western Michigan. They played a good game and got the bounce in overtime, but that doesn’t take away from anything our group did today. … It’s never easy losing this game, but it doesn’t take anything away from what our group accomplished this year. I’m just really proud of our guys.”<\/p>\n

Both Bussi and Levi were tasked with making saves on dangerous opportunities early on in the first period with Levi coming up with an impressive blocker save on a Frank one-timer on a WMU 2-on-1.<\/p>\n

“We’re not in this game without [Levi],” McDonough said. “I mean, there’s been hundreds of goals that could have gone in this year that he stopped. I mean, even the first period on that 2-on-1 and plenty of the other chances that he’s been our backbone all year.”<\/p>\n

Gallant scored with 5:51 remaining in the first. He beat Levi with a wrist shot to the top left corner on a counter rush with Worrad after Northeastern junior defenseman Jeremie Bucheler turned the puck over to Frank in the neutral zone.<\/p>\n

“I kind of just got the puck, picked my head up, saw a little bit of net there, and threw it to the net. I scored like that against Denver, and I’ve been working on shots from the outside in practice, so it kind of worked out,” Gallant said. “It felt really good … [Levi] had a lot of great saves today, and kept them in the game very nicely. It was just nice to find the back of the net.”<\/p>\n

After being outshot by the Broncos 11-5 in the first, the Huskies responded with more offensive zone time in the second, although were 11-10 in favor of Western Michigan for the period.<\/p>\n

McDonough tied it 1-1 with 3:20 remaining in regulation after making a move to the front of the net and digging away at his rebound.<\/p>\n

“I think one of our [defenseman] made a nice, smart, quick up, and Sam Colangelo made a nice play to draw his guy to him and hit me in the middle,” McDonough said. “We got a few shots blocked there in the same spot. So I tried to pump, the kid fell, and I just kind of went around them and whacked at it a few times. Lucky enough it went in.”<\/p>\n

Bussi made 15 saves between the third period and Grainger’s goal, helping Western Michigan stave off the Northeastern pressure.<\/p>\n

“[Bussi] played exceptional tonight. He\u2019s a really good goaltender, he\u2019s been good all year,” Grainger said. “He\u2019s the backbone of our team, so when he\u2019s playing well it kind of feeds off, and you play well with that. I\u2019m just really happy for him. He\u2019s just a really good kid and just a really good goaltender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Western Michigan advances to the regional final on Sunday, and will face the winner of Minnesota and UMass, who will play the nightcap at the DCU Center at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Donnelly WORCESTER, Mass. — Luke Grainger scored 1:33 into overtime, and the No. 4\/5 Western Michigan University Broncos won 2-1 against the No. 12 Northeastern University Huskies in the Northeast Regional semifinal at the DCU Center on Friday. The sophomore forward scored on a wraparound, and the puck barely crossed the goal line. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17459,"featured_media":30808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1028,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30807"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30818,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30807\/revisions\/30818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}