ALBANY, N.Y. – Thirty-two seconds after Boston University had tied the score in the second period, Easton Brodzinski put St. Cloud State ahead to stay in the Huskies' 6-2 victory over the Terriers on Saturday afternoon at the Times Union Center in the first semifinal in the Northeast Regional.
St. Cloud State will play Boston College, the No. 1 seed in the regional, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday (ESPN2) for a berth in the Frozen Four from April 8-10 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. BC did not play a semifinal game because Notre Dame pulled out of the NCAA tournament because of COVID-19 issues.
Brodzinski's 12th goal of the season made it 3-2 St. Cloud State (18-10) with four minutes left in the middle period. The Huskies added three more unanswered goals in the third. Jami Kannila scored unassisted at 4:17, Brodzinski, a forward from Blaine, got his second goal of the game at 10:04 and Veeti Miettinen capped the scoring at 15:02.
Despite how it finished, the game began a bit shakily for the Huskies. Wilmer Skoog scored for BU at eight seconds. Micah Miller of St. Cloud State tied it at 12:14 and, 1:15 later, teammate Nick Perbix gave the Huskies their first lead at 2-1.
Two minutes after that, Jake Wise of Boston University (10-5-1) scored on a power-play.
SCSU goalie David Hrenak, of Povazska Bystrica, Slovakia, had 31 saves, BU's Drew Commesso 32.
This was only the second meeting ever between these teams. The Terriers won the first 5-3 when they met in thee 2000 NCAA tournament, also in Albany.
The Huskies were the No. 2 seed in the regional this time, the Terriers the No. 3. Both received at-large tournament bids.
