ST. PAUL, Minn. — As the NCAA tournament whittles down to the last team standing, every game becomes harder to win.
That was the case Thursday for Boston University, which started strong against Denver but ultimately couldn’t find the knockout punch it needed. The Pioneers slowly wrestled momentum away from the Terriers and ultimately prevailed 2-1 in overtime to advance to the national championship game on Saturday.
“The margin of error in these one-and-dones is very slim,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo said. “We made some mistakes that cost us, and there’s no tomorrow for us. So it’s a tough tournament. It’s a very tough tournament to win.”
The Terriers controlled play in the opening period and were rewarded at 7:45 when senior Luke Tuch won a race for the puck and converted for a short-handed goal to put the Terriers up 1-0.
BU outshot Denver 10-3 in the first period and carried that momentum into the second before a giveaway behind the Terriers net resulted in Tristan Lemyre’s second goal of the season to even things up.
Denver gained momentum after that goal and had several grade-A opportunities thwarted by BU net minder Mathieu Caron, but Tristan Broz’s game-winner 11:09 into overtime ended the Terriers’ season.
“I thought the first period we played very well,” said Pandolfo. “(Through) the first 12 minutes of the second period, I think, they may have had five or six shots. And I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit by not continuing to play behind them. They got a little bit of momentum and then they found a way to score a goal.”
“(Early in the game), (BU) was winning all the 50/50 races to the walls,” Denver coach David Carle said. “I thought in the second period we started to win some of those. When you win the first one, it’s easier to win the second and third one in the offensive zone, and that led to some of our possession time that we were able to generate.”
The Terriers’ chances 5-on-5 dwindled as the game went on, and BU’s potent power play never had a chance. Denver had four power plays to none for BU.
“(The lack of power plays) is not the reason we lost the game,” said Pandolfo. “We have to find ways to put teams away 5-on-5, and we didn’t do that.”
For the second season in a row, Boston University’s season ended one win away from the title game. Failure to put the Pioneers away early proved costly.
“That’s the difference in games like this,” said Pandolfo. “You don’t have another opportunity. Of course, do you need a little bit of puck luck and bounces here and there? Of course you do, but you’ve got to create that, too.
“We didn’t create enough of that tonight after the way we played the first half of the game.”
