Brad Zancanaro made some noise in his college debut — literally and figuratively.
The figurative: Zancanaro scored a goal in regulation to help Boston University to a 4-4 tie with Northern Michigan in the semifinals of the Ice Breaker Invitational on Friday.
The literal: He scored the winning goal in the eighth round of a shootout, sending a ring through the Kohl Center by clanking the bottom of the crossbar in beating Northern Michigan goaltender Craig Kowalski.
The Terriers (0-0-1) won the shootout 4-3 and will play the winner of Friday night’s Wisconsin-Rensselaer semifinal game at 7:35 p.m. CDT on Saturday. The Wildcats (1-0-1), who held a 4-3 lead in the third period, will play for third place at 4 p.m.
Zancanaro had to make up for missing in the third round of the shootout, and he knew it. In his first chance, he lost the puck in some bad ice in front of the net. The next time around, there was no reason to be sorry.
“I’ve used that shot a couple times in shootouts during juniors,” Zancanaro said of the well-placed wrist shot. “It’s worked for me.”
The shootout was tied at 2 after five rounds, prompting sudden-death additional frames.
BU’s Brian McConnell and Northern Michigan’s Chris Gobert both scored in the sixth round and the seventh-round shooters each missed.
After Zancanaro’s goal, BU goaltender Sean Fields stopped the Wildcats’ Dirk Southern with his pads.
Northern Michigan scored all four of its goals on the power play and held the lead three times. The Wildcats trailed 3-2 entering the third period, however, before Terry Harrison and Mike Stutzel scored to turn the lead in NMU’s favor.
The Terriers forced overtime on Jekabs Redlihs’ goal off a strange bounce in front of Kowalski with 6:42 remaining.
Redlihs was one of three BU freshman to score in their first game. Besides Zancanaro, John Laliberte added his first collegiate goal in the second period to give BU the 3-2 lead.
“Everybody on this team, given the chance, is ready to take it,” Zancanaro said. “It’s going to be somebody different every night, and tonight was our night, I guess.”
Said BU coach Jack Parker: “I thought everybody played well, but the freshmen really displayed a lot of poise, especially the freshmen forwards — they looked like they really belonged.”
Jimmy Jackson and Bryce Cockburn also scored for the Wildcats, and Kowalski made 40 saves.
Brian McConnell scored BU’s first goal, tying the game at 1 with 5:55 left in the first period. Fields made 21 saves for the Terriers.
Jackson left the game at the end of the second period with a thigh bruise. There was no immediate word on his availability for Saturday’s game.
