{"id":37496,"date":"2023-03-25T11:32:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T15:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=37496"},"modified":"2023-03-25T11:32:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T15:32:40","slug":"mens-hockey-bu-faces-cornell-with-frozen-four-berth-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/03\/25\/mens-hockey-bu-faces-cornell-with-frozen-four-berth-on-the-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s Hockey: BU Faces Cornell with Frozen Four Berth on the Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Wax<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Cover Photo Credit: Joe Eachus<\/em><\/p>\n

After two exciting semifinal matchups in the Manchester, New Hampshire region of the NCAA bracket, Boston University Men’s Hockey (28-10-0) will take on Cornell University (21-10-2) with a spot in the 2023 NCAA Frozen Four and a trip to Tampa on the line.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s actually a benefit to have a day in between,” BU Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said after BU’s semifinal victory. “We’re used to playing back-to-back, and do it all year long.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers punched their ticket to the next round with a 5-1 victory over Western Michigan University in the early game Thursday. BU got 24 saves from junior goaltender Drew Commesso and goals from five different players in the win.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Forwards were blocking a lot of shots, [defensemen] were blocking a lot of shots,” Commesso said. “Overall, just a great team effort. Let me see the puck and do my job.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior forward Ethan Phillips led the way with a goal and two assists, the only player in the Terriers lineup with multiple points during the balanced scoring attack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Ethan Phillips was excellent tonight, and that was probably the best game he’s played all year,” Pandolfo said. “Give him a lot of credit. I was really happy for him to find a way to get the empty net at the end. That line as a whole \u2013 O’Brien, Brown, Phillips \u2013 was excellent tonight.”<\/span><\/p>\n

A few hours later, Cornell played spoiler in the late game by beating the defending national champion University of Denver 2-0. Junior forward Jack O’Leary led Cornell with a goal and an assist, while sophomore goalie Ian Shane stopped all 27 of Denver’s shots for his fifth shutout of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Tonight, we attacked more and weren’t tentative,” Cornell Head Coach Mike Schafer said following the win.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, the Terriers have a 7-6-2 head-to-head record against the Big Red in the regular season, with their most recent matchup coming this past season. Despite Cornell holding three separate one-goal leads, BU found a way to tie the game each time and ended up winning the game on a goal from freshman defenseman Lane Hutson with 3.8 seconds remaining in regulation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers lead the national tournament matchup history 2-1-0. Both teams traded wins in the national championship against one another (Cornell, 1967; BU, 1972), while BU upset Cornell in the 2018 NCAA Regional Semifinals 3-1. BU is looking to make its first Frozen Four since 2015, while Cornell is attempting to reach the Frozen Four for the first time since 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers and the Big Red will duke it out for the Manchester Regional crown and a chance to head to Tampa for the 2023 Frozen Four on Saturday. Puck drop is scheduled for 4 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Wax Cover Photo Credit: Joe Eachus After two exciting semifinal matchups in the Manchester, New Hampshire region of the NCAA bracket, Boston University Men’s Hockey (28-10-0) will take on Cornell University (21-10-2) with a spot in the 2023 NCAA Frozen Four and a trip to Tampa on the line. “It’s actually a benefit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18874,"featured_media":37463,"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\/37496"}],"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\/18874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37496"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37500,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37496\/revisions\/37500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}