Second Day of 2025 NCAAs in the Books

The 2025 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey championship continued on Saturday, with the Allentown and Manchester Regionals getting underway.

At the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa., Connecticut made the most of its first-ever Division I national tournament appearance to rout Quinnipiac, 4-1, getting goals from four different players and 21 saves from freshman goaltender Callum Tung. In the nightcap, host Penn State ousted top-seeded Maine by a 5-1 count thanks to two goals from Matt DiMarsico and three assists by Charlie Cerrato. UConn will now face Penn State in the regional final on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2).

At SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H., number-one overall seed Boston College survived Bentley, 3-1, on a late wraparound goal by freshman forward James Hagens. In the second game, defending national champion Denver got three points apiece from Zeev Buim and Carter King in eliminating Providence, 5-1. BC and DU will meet on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET (ESPN2) in a rematch of last year's national title game.

Two tickets to this year's NCAA Frozen Four in St. Louis will be punched today, when Cornell meets Boston University in the Toledo regional final (4 p.m. ET, ESPNU), and Massachusetts meets Western Michigan in the Fargo regional final (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU).

Nanooks Win First Game of Season

Alaska (Fairbanks) finally has its first victory of the 2024-25 NCAA campaign, and it has goaltender Nicholas Grabko to thank for that. 

A transfer from Bentley University, Grabko made 37 stops in Saturday's 1-0 win at Notre Dame, including 20 saves in the second period alone, to gain the series split. Broten Sabo scored the only goal of the penalty-filled contest for the Nanooks midway through the game. The two former CCHA rivals combined for 22 penalties and 87 penalty minutes at Compton Family Ice Arena.

UAF improved to 1-5-0 overall, while UND fell to 3-1-0. Nicholas Kempf made 22 saves for the Fighting Irish. 

Soderquist Steps Down at Bentley

Bentley University's Ryan Soderquist stepped down earlier this week as men's hockey head coach at his alma mater, after 21 seasons at the Falcons helm.

Soderquist, 46, had served as Bentley's head coach since the 2002-03 campaign, and led them to a 277-377-85 mark (.432) in that time. His best season came in 2013-14, when he guided the Falcons to a 19-14-4 overall record. Bentley also advanced to the 2006 Atlantic Hockey championship game under his watch, where it fell to Holy Cross, while the on-campus Bentley Arena opened in Waltham, Mass. in 2017-18, also during his tenure.

The Falcons finished 11-21-2 overall and 8-16-2 in Atlantic Hockey in 2002-23. The season ended with a 5-4 overtime win against Army on Feb. 25, in what turned out to be Soderquist's final game behind the bench.

A native of Stoneham, Mass., Soderquist played four seasons at forward for the Falcons from 1996 to 2000, the first three at the NCAA Division II/III level. He tallied 65 goals and 60 assists for 125 points in 71 games his first three years, before adding 19-29—48 points in 28 contests as a senior as Bentley moved up to NCAA Division I. He finished with 84-89—173 points in 99 career collegiate outings.

Princeton, Other Surprises as 2020 League Playoffs Begin

There were some surprises on Friday night, as conference postseason tournaments got underway with the openers of best-of-three series in most NCAA Division I men's hockey leagues.

In ECAC Hockey, Princeton recorded just its fifth win of the 2019-20 season in edging host Dartmouth, 4-3, in overtime. Finn Evans tied the game for the Tigers with 2:45 remaining in regulation, before Reid Yochim connected for the game-winner 3:36 into the extra session. Christian O'Neill scored twice for Princeton, which got 25 saves from Jeremie Forget.

In the Big Ten, Trevor Janicke tallied the game's only goal late in the second period as visiting Notre Dame blanked No. 19 Minnesota, 1-0. Cale Morris stopped all 12 shots he faced for the Fighting Irish.

In the WCHA, Tim Theocharidis and Frederic Letourneau scored power-play goals late in the third period as Bowling Green bested host Alaska (Fairbanks), 4-2. Eric Dop made 19 saves for the victorious Falcons.

In Atlantic Hockey, Brendan Walkom scored twice and Jonathan Desbiens set up three goals for Bentley, which routed visiting Canisius, 6-1. Aidan Pelino picked up the win for the Falcons with 18 saves.

Hockey East and the NCHC will both complete their regular seasons this weekend before starting their respective playoffs late next week.

BC Falls to Bentley, 4-2

Boston College men's hockey's non-conference woes continue.

The Eagles fell behind Bentley University, 3-0, on Friday at Conte Forum in the first-ever meeting between the two Bay State schools, en route to a 4-2 loss to the visiting Falcons. Bentley scored two goals in the second period, and added two more in the third, including an empty-net goal with 67 seconds remaining in regulation after BC (3-6-1 overall) had closed to within 3-2.

Tanner Jago and Will Garin staked Bentley to a two-goal advantage in the middle stanza, both with power-play goals, before Matt Lombardozzi scored early in the third period. David Cotton tallied the first Eagles' goal on a power play, his team-leading 10th goal overall of the campaign, with 11 minutes left in the third. Oliver Wahlstrom, the subject of much scrutiny the previous 24 hours as to whether or not he would stay at the Heights, then pulled BC within a goal with 1:31 left before Jake Kauppila hit the empty net for the Falcons, who got 23 saves from Aidan Pelino.

Bentley (4-7-1), a member of Atlantic Hockey, now has nine wins over the last 11 years against Hockey East opponents, and will play at Holy Cross on Saturday. BC, which got 17 saves from Joseph Woll on Friday, has not won a non-conference NCAA contest since defeating Arizona State at Conte Forum in Nov. 2016. The Eagles will return to Hockey East action next weekend with a home-and-home series against Green Line rival Boston University.