One could look at the Hockey East semifinals and assume there’s little at stake.
Only Northeastern, the No. 9 seed, is fighting for its survival beyond this weekend — the Huskies need to win the Lamoriello Trophy for a bid to the NCAA tournament. The other three schools — Connecticut, Boston University and Maine — are already in, based on their position in the PairWise.
But look again. UConn, with only two players who were on the team the last time it made it to Boston, would love to take some conference-championship vibes into what will be the program’s first NCAA tourney berth. Maine, having last year broken a 12-year semifinal drought, is itching to make it back to the final for the first time since 2012. And BU is looking to become the first Terrier team since 2009 to lift the Lamoriello Trophy and the Beanpot in the same year, and the first since Northeastern in 2019.
The 2022 tournament marked the last time UConn made it this far. That year Mike Cavanaugh’s club, as the No. 4 seed, beat top seed Northeastern 4-1 in the semifinals before dropping an OT thriller, 2-1, to No. 2 Massachusetts. Only forward Hudson Schandor and defenseman John Spetz remain from that team.
“We’ve got a group in there that’s really looking forward to competing,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “We know we have a great challenge in front of us. (There’s) not a lot of holes in the Terriers, so we’re going to have to play extremely well.”
TD Garden will be the venue on Thursday night starting with No. 4 UConn vs. No. 3 BU at 4 p.m., followed by Northeastern vs. No. 2 Maine in the second game of the semifinal doubleheader. The championship game is set for Friday night at 7:30 p.m. All three games will be on NESN-plus.
BU last skated on the Garden ice just five weeks prior, beating rival Boston College, then ranked No. 1 in the USCHO men’s D-I poll, 4-1 in the Beanpot final.
“I think it certainly helps that our group has experience playing in that building,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo said. “It certainly can’t hurt you, that’s for sure. But I think once the game gets going, I don’t know how much it matters after that.”
After a breaking a dozen-year streak of zero appearances in either the Hockey East semifinals or the NCAA tournament, Maine was one-and-done in each in 2024. To go deeper in this year’s league tournament — and get a possible playoff rematch vs. BU, which eliminated the Black Bears in the 2024 semifinals — senior forward Harrison Scott said it will be important for his team to stay mentally focused.
“It’s just going to come down to the little things, the little details,” said Scott. “And it’s about managing the game in our head. We can’t get too worried about the external pressure, the noise. It’s fun, but it comes down to being locked in — being focused on what you need to do to win.”
Northeastern comes into this year’s Hockey East semifinals as the clear underdog/Cinderella story. With an 14-19-3 overall record and 9-14-3 conference mark, Northeastern pulled off a 3-1 win over conference regular-season champion (and defending tournament champ) BC in the quarterfinals.
The win was not an aberration to Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe, who noted his team has given up 10 empty-net goals this season, indicating it has played in a number of close games. The team has played in nine games decided by one goal, and one statistical analysis indicates it has endured the fourth-toughest schedule in the country.
“This time of year, that’s the goal — to try to flip those one-goal games,” Keefe said. “This group has some confidence right now. It’s not going to be easy (against Maine). It wasn’t easy (against BC), it wasn’t easy against Merrimack (in the preliminary round). We’re going to have to go into the Garden, stick to our plan, and win a close game.”
