BC Beats UMass-Lowell, 4-3, For Spot In NCAA Hockey Frozen Four

Boston College (28-7-4), seeking its fourth NCAA championship in seven seasons, will faces East Regional champion Union in the national semifinals April 10 in Philadelphia.

Boston College's Johnny Gaudreau, the nation's leading scorer, set up goals by Bill Arnold and Kevin Hayes. Ryan Fitzgerald also scored for the Eagles.

Thatcher Demko stopped 29 shots for the Eagles. BC has won NCAA titles each of the three times (2008, '10 and '12) it advanced from Worcester.

Evan Campbell, Michael Kapla and John Holmstrom scored for UMass-Lowell (26-11-4), the region's second seed and Hockey East tournament champion.

McCoshen, skating in from the left point, beat Connor Hellebuyck with a wrist shot after taking a pass from defenseman Teddy Doherty. McCoshen banged his stick on the ice to get Doherty's attention.

Campbell's goal, which caromed in off BC defenseman Scott Savage, gave the River Hawks their first lead of the game, 3-2 just 43 seconds into the third period. Campbell was skating toward the side of the net and sent the puck out front.

Just 21 seconds later, Fitzgerald took the puck at center ice and split a pair of defenseman before tucking a backhander behind Hellebuyck.

Boston College, the Hockey East regular-season champion, moved ahead 2-1 when Arnold scored off the rebound of Gaudreau's shot with 2:26 left in the second period, beating Hellebuyck with a wrist shot. Gaudreau broke into the offensive zone, his shot was blocked by defeseman Zack Kamrass, but bounced directly to Arnold, who kicked it from his left skate to his stick.

The River Hawks tied it when Holmstrom banged in his own rebound with 1:16 left in the second.

The Eagles grabbed a 1-0 lead when Gaudreau set up Hayes 12:57 into the game. Gaudreau, who had three goals and three assists in BC's 6-2 semifinal win over Denver on Saturday, took a loose puck at center ice, broke in deep down the left wing and slipped a pass across the crease to Hayes, who one-timed it past Hellebuyck.

UMass-Lowell tied it on Kapla's power-play goal late in the period when he fired a wrister from the point that found its way through a group of players and slipped past Demko's glove.

Gaudreau had a unique shot on goal early in the second. Charging to the net looking for a rebound, the puck bounced into the air — too high to play with his stick or glove — so he used a soccer-like header to get it on goal from the edge of the crease.

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