Hats off to Joey Muldowney. And a double stick tap to the Black Bears.
It will be a UConn-Maine Hockey East championship showdown Friday (7:30 p.m.) at the TD Garden, the first time two non-Massachusetts teams will vie for the title since 2002.
Maine punched its ticket in the nightcap with a grueling 4-3 win over Cinderella Northeastern which stretched in a second overtime. On the winning play, Charlie Russell wristed a shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle which deflected in off teammate Nolan Renwick, who was crouched at the far left post.
Northeastern goalie Cameron Whitehead, who was otherworldly in making made 57 saves, could not stop the deflection. Ninth-seeded Northeastern (14-20-3) saw its season end after becoming the lowest seed to ever reach the semifinals.
In the opening game, Muldowney, a 5-9, 160-pound sophomore forward, lifted UConn to an impressive 5-2 victory over Boston University in the other semifinal.
The Maine-Northeastern battle was a classic.
Maine (23-7-6) took a 2-0 lead on two goals from Tewksbury native Owen Fowler only to have Northeastern tally the next three. When Andy Moore scored his first collegiate goal, backhanding in the rebound of a Nick Rheaume shot, the Huskies led 3-2 at 4:29 of the third.
Luke Antonacci tied it for Maine when his wrist shot deflected in off a NU defenseman and past Whitehead at 12:44, forcing overtime.
In the opener, Muldowney didn’t let the 4 p.m. start time slow him down. He netted three straight goals to fuel the fourth-seeded Huskies (22-10-4) to the championship game.
Muldowney’s 25th, 26th and 27th goals of the season propelled UConn, which joined Hockey East in 2014, to its second championship game. UConn has yet to hoist the trophy.
Also enjoying three-point games for UConn in the first semifinal were Ryan Tattle (goal, two assists) and Jake Richard (three assists).
Third-seeded BU (21-13-2) won’t add to its 10 championship titles, but the Terriers are still headed to the NCAA Tournament.
Callum Tung stopped 25 shots, but the story of the game was UConn’s dominant second period when a 1-0 deficit turned into a 3-1 lead.
The Huskies were playing without their second-leading scorer, Hudson Schandor, who was injured in a quarterfinal win over Providence.
But Huskies brought their skating game in the second, scoring three goals and at times looking like they had an extra player on the ice.
Tristan Fraser made it 1-1 just 59 seconds into the middle frame when he sent a high shot past Mikhail Yegerov, a 6-foot-5 Russian goaltender who joined BU after Christmas.
The Huskies were just getting warmed up. Richard sprung Tattle for a breakaway – the nearest BU player was in a different area code – and Tattle slid the puck between the pads of Yegerov at 2:56.
With UConn forwards buzzing all over the ice, Muldowney netted his 25th goal of the campaign to make it 3-1. Yegerov made a fantastic save to rob Muldowney, but Muldowney retrieved the puck and backhanded in the rebound despite a poor angle at the 8:42 mark.
Muldowney put the game out of reach when a terrific Richard dish left him a tap-in at the right post in the third and he added an empty-net goal to make it 5-1. BU’s Kamil Bednarik scored with 10 seconds left to account for the final.
BU’s Quinn Hutson scored the lone goal of the first period.
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