McAvoy Double OT Winner Sends BU Past North Dakota

Charlie McAvoy and the BU Terriers silenced a packed house at Scheels Arena in Fargo with a thrilling double overtime win in the opening round of the NAA West Reginal. 

Charlie McAvoy reacts after scoring the game-winning goal
in the second overtime.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

With a 3-1 lead and roughly ten minutes to play, BU was in the driver's seat, despite getting heavily outplayed by North Dakota. Then the game hinged on a single play. Along the near wall, Kieffer Bellows took a heavy hit from Mike Gornal that shattered the glass. Coming out of an extended maintenance break, North Dakota scored two goals in just over two minutes to tie things up.

First, Ludvig Hoff beat Jake Oettinger up over his shoulder for his fourth goal of the year to cut the BU lead to one. Not long after, Christian Wolanin tucked one, five-hole on Oettinger that sent the hometown crowd into a frenzy.

The real fun was just beginning, though. After surviving a furious ND attack, BU was able to force overtime thanks in large part to Jake Oettinger making stop after stop all night, not just in the third period.

Doyle Somerby celebrates after his
first period goal.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Minutes into OT, the Hawks looked to have scored the game-winning goal. It came on a scramble play at the side of the net and both benches emptied; North Dakota’s in jubilation and BU’s in depression. But it wasn’t official and after a lengthy review, the play was ruled offsides. I have still yet to actually see the replay.

“They get the goal in overtime and everybody thinks the game is over,” said Coach Quinn. “We thought that it might be offsides. You know, it seemed the longer it [the replay] took the better chance we were gonna have another chance to live another day. When the linesman buckled his helmet coming out of the box, we knew we were gonna get another chance.”

Not long after the goal reversal call, Kieffer Bellows rang the post with a turnaround swat at the puck in mid-air. He cleanly beat UND goalie Cam Johnson, but the post had other plans.

Other than that one chance, BU was barely surviving the first overtime. They registered zero shots on goal in the first extra session and had to kill a penalty in the closing minutes of the frame just to extend the game.

And extend it they did. Along the near wall, Clayton Keller patiently held the puck and created some time and space for himself. Meanwhile, Charlie McAvoy was crashing backdoor. From the bottom of the circle, Keller found him all alone in the bottom of the far dot and from there, McAvoy punched home the double overtime game winner. It was McAvoy’s fifth of the year.

“I kinda stood up at the blue line and waited for Clayton to come up that wall there,” mentioned McAvoy. “I know he’s a dynamic player so when you put it in his hands you know there's a good chance something good’s gonna happen. I kinda just watched the play and observed, you know, saw a lane going to the net and I figured he would find me open and that’s exactly what he did.”

Way back in the first period, North Dakota opened the scoring with 2:56 left in the stanza on Rhett Gardner’s eighth goal of the year.

BU then looked to one of it's most unlikely goal scorers to tie things up 2:05 into the second. Doyle Somerby scored his first goal of the year back door off an unreal feed from McAvoy to get the Terriers on the board.

28 seconds into the third, Clayton Keller made a crafty play behind the net to create a passing lane to find Bobo Carpenter for a slam dunk finish out in front. Roughly four minutes later, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson was sent in alone down broadway thanks to a marvelous saucer pass from Patrick Harper in the neutral zone. From in tight, JFK tucked home a forehand to give BU a commanding 3-1 lead that would later slip away.

The Terriers were outplayed in every sense of the word, but still came out on top. Jake Oettinger was phenomenal in net, turning aside a career-high 56 shots. In total, BU was out attempted 145-67. Brandon Hickey had a staggering 17 block shots.

“Hicks has been a horse for us on the back end all year,” added BU goalie Jake Oettinger. “It’s no shocker to me that he had that many blocks tonight because he lays his body out every night”

BU awaits the winner of Minnesota Duluth and Ohio State for a chance to play in the Frozen Four in Chicago.

This marks BU’s longest game since game three of 2001 Hockey East Quarterfinals, a 4-3 loss to Providence with 4:44 left. This was the longest NCAA tournament game for the Fighting Hawks.