Minnesota Ends BU's Season In St. Paul

And now it's time to sit down and present you with the last game recap of the season. Tonight, Minnesota topped BU 7-3 in the first round of the NCAA hockey tournament, eliminating the Terriers and ending their season.

The game was much closer than the final score shows. UofM scored two empty net goals after going up 5-3 midway through the third.

Minnesota ran circles around the Terriers in the first. The Gophers dominated the opening minutes of the game and broke the scoring 5:55 into the first. Kyle Rau got credit for the power play goal, but it was really BU's Adam Clendening who put the puck in the net. The puck was loose in the crease and

Matt Nieto threads a pass through Minnesota's Seth
Helgenson in the third period.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Clendening tried to swat it out of harms way, but instead put it in the Terrier goal.
UofM continued to dominated the pace of play until the final minutes of the frame. That's when BU started to bring some pressure. Their best chance was on a power play with Sahir Gill left alone in front.

Gill tried to put a backhander past Minnesota goal Kent Patterson, but he was stopped.
BU got on the board at the 7:49 mark of the second period on the power play. A Clendening one timer, set up by Alex Chiasson drilled the post. That created a rebound in the crease, where Wade Megan was able to bang home his 20th goal of the season.

Less than two minutes later, Minnesota's Jake Parenteau regained the lead for the Gophers. Parenteau beat Kieran Millan high for just his second goal of the year.

Four minutes later, Ross Gaudet capitalized on a fluky turnover in the low slot. A Minnesota skater turned the puck over as he was coming through the goal mouth. Gaudet was right there as he turned it over and wasted no time, as he beat Patterson upstairs to tie the game at 2-2. It was Gaudet's 5th goal of the season.
A little over two minutes later, Seth Helgeson ripped another high shot past Millan. It was his fifth goal of the year from Zach Budish and Kyle Rau at 15:09 to again give Minnesota the lead.

Later in the period, BU really shot themselves in the foot. Justin Courtnall was called for a five minute contact to the head roughing penalty. No more than 30 seconds into the all you can eat power play, Jake Hansen tipped Nate Schmidt's shot through Millan's five hole to give the Gophers a 4-2 lead headed to the third. This would be the only goal Minnesota would score on the Courtnall major. The two Gopher goals came 20 seconds apart.

Less than four minutes into the third, the Terriers cut the lead to one on the power play. Clendening beat Patterson with a high wrister from the point. It was Clendening's fourth goal of the season. The assists went to to Garrett Noonan and Chiasson.

This would be as close as BU would get to coming back. Despite some good chances for BU, Nico Sacchetti potted an unassisted goal on a strong drive to the net before tucking the puck into the net. This put UofM up 5-3 midway through the third and took all the life out of the Terriers.
Minnesota would tack on two empty net goals to salt the game away.

So, BUs season ends with a 23-15-1 record in the West Regional.