SUNDAY COLLEGE HOCKEY ROUNDUP: Northern Michigan upsets Bowling Green for WCHA semifinal spot, Penn State bounces Notre Dame in B1G quarters, Niagara bests Robert Morris to advance to AHA semis

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Northern Michigan’s Mikey Colella celebrates one of his two goals Sunday against Bowling Green (photo: NMU Athletics).

Nine conference quarterfinal games were played Sunday, with some teams eliminated from the 2020-21 season and some advancing to play another day.

WCHA

Northern Michigan 5, Bowling Green 1

Northern Michigan is off to the WCHA senifinals after a dominant 5-1 win Sunday night over Bowling Green.

Mikey Colella tallied twice for the Wildcats, while Joseph Nardi posted a goal and an assist and Ben Newhouse and Vincent de Mey added goals in the win.

Between the pipes, Rico DiMatteo finished with 39 saves to garner the win.

Andre Ghantous and AJ Vanderbeck each chipped in a pair of assists for NMU.

For the Falcons, Sam Craggs netted the lone goal and goalie Eric Dop made 29 stops in goal.

Next weekend’s WCHA championship will open with semifinals on Friday as NMU plays Minnesota State at 2:07 p.m. CST and Bemidji State plays Lake Superior State at 7:37 p.m. CST.

Friday’s semifinal winners will advance to Saturday’s WCHA title game at 7:07 p.m. CST.

ATLANTIC HOCKEY

Niagara 2, Robert Morris 1

Purple Eagles goalie Chad Veltri was the difference, making 44 saves as Niagara moves on to the Atlantic Hockey semifinals next week to play AIC.

Walker Sommer and Jack Billings scored for Niagara, while Randy Hernandez broke Veltri’s shutout bid with a goal in the waning seconds of the third period.

Robert Morris goalie Noah West finished with 30 saves for the Colonials.

BIG TEN

Michigan 4, Ohio State 0

Michigan used two goals and a goal and an assist from Cam York to down Ohio State 4-0.

Strauss Mann stopped 26 shots for the win between the pipes.

Eric Ciccolini posted the Wolverines’ other goal.

Michigan now plays Minnesota in the Big Ten semifinals on Monday.

For the Buckeyes, Tommy Nappier made 35 saves in the OSU cage.

Penn State 6, Notre Dame 3

Connor McMenamin and Chase McLane scored two goals apiece to pace the Nittany Lions.

Tim Doherty and Christian Sarlo recorded one goal each and Alex Limoges, Kevin Wall and Connor MacEachern added two assists apiece.

In goal, Oskar Autio stopped 33 shots for the victory.

Jesse Lansdell, Colin Theisen and Ryder Rolston scored for Notre Dame and netminder Dylan St. Cyr made 33 saves.

Penn State plays Wisconsin at 4:30 p.m. EST Monday in the other Big Ten semifinal.

Minnesota 2, Michigan State 1 (OT)

Sampo Ranta’s goal 10:35 into overtime lifted the Gophers past the Spartans and into the B1G semifinals.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “Michigan State did exactly what you knew they were going to do tonight. They were going to play a good, stingy hockey game. I thought we were good, too. You find yourself in those games – we had plenty of chances, we just couldn’t get one by that goalie.

“Thank goodness Bryce (Brodzinski, 15:01 of the third period) tied it up late. I felt we deserved to win, but they were going to make it hard on us.”

Jack LaFontaine collected 22 saves in goal for the Gophers.

Dennis Cesana netted MSU’s lone goal and Pierce Charleson made 48 saves in taking the loss in goal.

HOCKEY EAST

Bobby Trivigno celebrates his goal for UMass on Sunday against Northeastern (photo: UMass Athletics).

Massachusetts 4, Northeastern 1

The Minutemen advance to the conference semifinals with a 4-1 win behind Bobby Trivigno’s goal and two assists.

UMass now plays Providence on Wednesday.

“I thought the kids did a great job today,” said UMass coach Greg Carvel. “We wanted to play a real strong defensive game. We wanted to be disciplined and stay out of the penalty box and the refs made that a 5-on-5 game today, which I think plays to our favor. Northeastern’s got a very good power play and we wanted to limit their opportunities there. We wanted to check well and I thought the kids did a really good job of that today.

“I thought we really kept the game on the outside of the ice. I thought we transitioned pretty well and got a big goal early that kind of set the tone. I thought our kids played a really good 60 minutes, good playoff-style hockey.”

Zac Jones, Philip Lagunov and Garrett Wait also scored in the win, while Filip Lindberg steered aside 25 shots for the win in the UMass net.

Jeremie Buechler scored for Northeastern and Connor Murphy finished with 24 saves.

Providence 6, Connecticut 1

Brett Berard, Nick Poisson, Uula Ruikka and Tyce Thompson all had a goal and an assist for the Friars while Jaxson Stauber made 40 saves in goal.

Parker Ford and Max Crozier added goals and Ben Mirageas tacked on a pair of assists in the win.

For UConn, Jachym Kondelik scored and Tomas Vomacka stopped 37 shots between the pipes.

Boston College 3, New Hampshire 2

The Eagles held off a comeback attempt from the Wildcats on Sunday to secure a 3-2 victory to advance to host UMass Lowell on Wednesday in a Hockey East semifinal.

Boston College stormed out to a 3-0 first-period lead, scoring three times in less than three minutes on goals from Alex Newhook, Mike Hardman and Nikita Nesterenko.

Spencer Knight finished his first career playoff start with 35 saves.

Matt Boldy had a pair of assists for the Eagles, increasing his team-high point total to 26.

Eric MacAdams had a goal and an assist for UNH and Luke Reid also scored in the third period as Mike Robinson finished with 33 saves in goal.

UMass Lowell 2, Boston University 1

Brian Chambers tallied the game-winner at 8:19 of the third period to lift the River Hawks to a 2-1 victory over BU.

With the victory, the River Hawks have now won six of their last seven quarterfinal appearances and are headed to the Hockey East semifinals.

“We’re excited about the win,” said UML coach Norm Bazin. “It was a hard-fought battle. All the guys competed very hard. I thought our third period was our best period. This is a great time of year to be playing. We get to live to fight another day here, so we’ll concentrate on taking some time off and coming back on Wednesday.”

Matt Brown also scored for UMass Lowell and Henry Welsch made 16 saves in the River Hawks’ cage.

On the winning goal, Reid Stefanson chipped the puck away from the boards and over towards Andre Lee for the redirect towards an oncoming Chambers, who wound up from inside the near circle for the goal.

“When I saw the rolling puck, I just wanted to shoot it as hard as I could,” explained Chambers. “Luckily, it bounced in and that’s how it goes. It was a big goal, and I’m just pumped for my team.”

Jamie Armstrong registered the lone Terriers’ goal and goalie Drew Commesso finished with 27 saves.

The game also marked BU’s first playoff game at Walter Brown Arena since March 9, 2002.

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