SATURDAY ROUNDUP: No. 17 UConn locks up last HEA home-ice spot; Princeton ousts Union in ECAC; plethora of Game 3s on tap for Sunday

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Connecticut bounced back from a Friday night loss to Boston College to defeat the Eagles, 6-5, and earn the final home ice spot in the Hockey East quarterfinals (Photo: Courtesy UConn athletics)

The Connecticut Huskies will enjoy the comforts of its newly-minted Toscano Family Ice Forum as they will host the UMass Lowell River Hawks in next weekend’s single-game Hockey East quarterfinals after the Huskies earned a wild 6-5 victory over Northeastern on Saturday.

Combined with UMass Lowell’s loss to Northeastern, 7-3, UConn moved into fourth place in the final Hockey East standings.

Both Lowell and UConn will earn first-round byes in the tournament.

Justin Pearson scored a hat trick for UConn in a game they Huskies grabbed leads of 5-2 and 6-3 then held on as the visiting Eagles rallied late but fell short.

North Dakota 2, No. 14 Omaha 1

North Dakota may be the team no one wants to face in the postseason after the Fighting Hawks completed a weekend sweep of Omaha, 2-1.

Now 4-0-2 in their last six, the Fighting Hawks will face Omaha again next weekend in a best-of-three quarterfinal series. This time, the games will be played in Omaha.

Chris Jandric scored the game-winning goal for North Dakota, breaking a 1-1 tie with 3:02 remaining in regulation.

The North Dakota win with other results set up the remaining NCHC quarterfinal series. Western Michigan will host Colorado College while St. Cloud State will host Minnesota Duluth. Denver entered the weekend already having clinched the tournament’s top seed and will host Miami.

Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals (Best of three)

Holy Cross 4, AIC 3 (Series tied, 1-1)

Holy Cross brought its season back from the brink on Saturday, rallying from 2-0 down with four straight goals before holding on for a 4-3 victory in game two of the best-of-three Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal series.

The victory ties the series a one game a piece after AIC won the series opener, 3-1. The winner-take-all game three will take place Sunday in Springfield, Mass., at 1:05 p.m. ET.

AIC jumped to a 2-0 lead with second period goals by Casey McDonald at 11:52 and Nicholas Cardelli at 17:01.

The Crusaders pulled within one on Liam McLinskey’s first of two goals at 18:27 of the second, before exploding in the third period. Matt Guerra tied the game at 2:03 of the third before Matt DeBoer and McLinskey tallied 58 seconds apart for a 4-2 advantage.

McDonald scored his second of the game for AIC with 2:39 remaining but the Holy Cross defense was stifling in the final frame, limiting AIC to just three shots in the period and 14 in the game.

In other AHA quarterfinal action:

RIT 5, Mercyhurst 4 (F/OT – RIT wins series, 2-0)
Niagara 4, Sacred Heart 1 (Series tied, 1-1)
Army West Point 1, Canisius 0 (F/OT – Series tied, 1-1)

Big Ten quarterfinals (Best of three)

No. 10 Penn State 2, No. 9 Ohio State 1 (F/OT – Series tied, 1-1)

Kevin Wall scored a four-on-four goal at 10:35 of overtime to keep Penn State’s hopes of a Big Ten championship alive, giving the Nittany Lions a 2-1 victory over Ohio State to force a game three.

Ohio State opened the series with a 5-1 victory on Friday. The two teams will play on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

After what was nearly a scoreless regulation, Ryan Kirwan gave Penn State a 1-0 lead with 3:57 left in regulation. But Joe Dunlap needed just 23 seconds to find the equalizer to force overtime.

Liam Souliere put forth a fantastic 55-save performance for the Nittany Lions to earn the victory. Thanks included 17 third-period saves and an addition nine in overtime.

In other Big Ten quarterfinal action:

No. 20 Michigan State 4, No. 18 Notre Dame 2 (Series tied, 1-1)
No. 4 Michigan 7, Wisconsin 4 (Michigan wins series, 2-0)

CCHA quarterfinals (Best of three)

No. 11 Michigan Tech 5, St. Thomas 4 (MTU wins series, 2-0)

Michigan Tech may have been the first team to reach the CCHA quarterfinals, but facing St. Thomas in its first-ever league playoff series, it was hardly a cake walk.

After a 1-0 victory on Friday, the Huskies jumped to leads of 4-1 and 5-2 before holding of a Tommies rally late for a 5-4 win, advancing to next weekend’s CCHA semifinals.

After St. Thomas scored its first goal of the series at 8:25 of the first on Mack Byers tally, Michigan Tech exploded for four straight including three before the end of the first period. Tristan Ashbrook notched two of those goals and assisted on the third.

After Kyle Kukkonen gave Tech a 5-2 lead with 12:11 remaining, it seemed victory was in hand. But the Tommies struck twice on goals by Matthew Jennings and Byers second of the game.

Blake Pietila held things down late, though, stopping 12 shots in the third and 30 in the game.

In other CCHA quarterfinal action:

No. 13 Minnesota State 2, Lake Superior 1 (MSU wins series, 2-0)
Ferris State 2, Bowling Green 1 (FSU wins series, 2-0)
Northern Michigan 2, Bemidji State 1 (NMU wins series, 2-0)

ECAC first round (Single elimination) 

Princeton 6, Union 4

Spencer Kersten broke a 4-4 tie with 3:03 remaining in regulation and then added an insurance goal with 1:20 left as ninth-seed Princeton knocked off eighth-seed Union, 6-4.

The Tigers will face Harvard next weekend in a best-of-three quarterfinal series in Boston.

Princeton never trailed in the game, taking leads of 2-0 and 4-1 before Union scored three straight goals capped by Josh Nixon’s equalizer with 11:04 remaining.

Ian Murphy led the offense registering two goals and an assist for the Tigers. Aidan Porter earned the victory making 31 saves.

In other ECAC first-round action:

Colgate 5, Dartmouth 3 (Fri.)
Clarkson 5, Brown 1
Yale 4, Rensselaer 1

 

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