MADISON — The Clarkson Golden Knights advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season on Thursday night, jumping out to an early lead over Hockey East tournament champ Boston University and never looking back.
Anne Cherkowski opened the scoring five minutes in on a break into the zone down the right side. She picked her spot and sniped a shot to the far post to make it a 1-0 game.
“They gave us a lot of time to skate on the breakout. I was able to gain a little bit of speed into the neutral zone and we were just trying to attack their defense as much as possible and put pucks on net,” said Cherkowski.
BU took a body checking penalty seconds later and Clarkson capitalized on the power play on a gorgeous passing play from Cherkowski to Sena Catterall to Rhea Hicks, who tapped the puck in to make it a 2-0 game just 31 seconds after the first goal.
Boston University looked a little rattled and their game never really seemed to settle in. They struggled with puck possession and completing passes and got drawn into committing penalties. After a postseason stretch where they rarely led but managed to come back and win in overtime, their magic seemed to run out in Madison.
“Their fore check was effective, and their defenders are so talented. They were shutting down plays. We’re really strong in transition, but I don’t feel like we got a lot of entries clean. I think we fought pucks a little bit all night,” said BU coach Tara Watchorn.
Goalie Callie Shanahan was a bright spot for the Terriers, particularly on a point blank save late in the second to keep the game close. Her defense did work in front of her, amassing 22 blocks.
A Terrier power play midway through the third looked to be an opportunity for BU, but the Clarkson defense, who had eight blocks of their 15 blocks over the final 15 minutes of the game, tightened up and kept Boston University from getting much dangerous on net.
“We knew how important that penalty kill was going to be in the third period. BU was starting to make a little bit of a push there. We wanted to make sure that that wasn’t a momentum builder for them,” said Desrosiers
BU broke through late, ending the shutout with 4:01 left in the third after pulling their goalie for an extra attacker. Lindsay Bochna cleaned up a loose puck after a scrum in front of the net to cut the lead to 2-1.
But the Terriers couldn’t find an equalizer and Sena Catterall’s empty-netter closed out a 3-1 win for the Golden Knights.
“I think just defensively as a team, we do a really good job picking up players. We pressure as soon as teams start coming down, we pressure. Everyone’s reloading hard. And I think we just do a really good job of not giving much up, so that kind of allows me to know that I can be aggressive and challenge,” said Clarkson goalie Holly Gruber.
Clarkson coach Matt Desrosiers was happy with his team’s play to start the game, but felt there were things to clean up as time went on.
“In the first period, I thought we did a great job just moving our feet and attacking and putting some pressure on them. We forced them into some turnovers. We weren’t allowing them to attack off the rush too much,” he said.
“In the second and third period, there were moments where I thought maybe we weren’t taking proper angles. We weren’t pressuring as much as we should have. We weren’t moving our feet to reload, which allowed them to attack off the rush a little bit and get into our defensive zone.”
It was a special game for Gruber, who is a native of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, about two hours away from Madison.
“A lot of my family was able to come up. I had a lot of extended family who’s honestly never seen me play an NCAA game, so it was really special to have them here and get the win,” Gruber said.
Clarkson will face top-seed Wisconsin on Saturday at 2 pm central. The teams have met three previous times in the NCAA Tournament, with Wisconsin holding a 2-1 advantage. They beat the Golden Knights 3-1 in the first round of the tournament in 2022 and won a semifinal against them 5-0 in 2019 en route to a title. Clarkson won their first meeting, beating Wisconsin 3-0 for the National Championship in 2017. Overall, Wisconsin owns the series between the two teams 5-1-1.
