Felix Brassard said he felt throughout Saturday night’s overtime that his Norwich hockey team had a goal coming. It was just a matter of who would get it.
It turned out to be him.
Brassard, a sophomore from Quebec, created a turnover behind the University of New England net and turned it into a walk-off goal, propelling Norwich back to the Frozen Four thanks to a 2-1 win over No. 12 UNE in the quarterfinals.
The goal, coming 2:46 into sudden-death OT, was his 11th of the season and biggest of his career.
“We were pretty much all over the puck all overtime,” said Brassard, a 5-foot-10 forward whose production this season (11-17-28) is more than double what he had as a freshman. “We knew we had one coming. We just didn’t know from who, from where.”
The Cadets (22-4-3) will play No. 2 Geneseo (N.Y.) in the first Frozen Four semifinal in Stevens Point, Wis., on Friday (4 p.m.). The Knights (25-1-2) took apart Manhattanville, 8-2, in their quarterfinal, and boast two of the nation’s top three scorer in forwards Andrew Romano (10-42-52) and Conlan Keenan (23-25-48).
Top-seeded Wisconsin-Stevens Point (27-0-2) will face No. 7 Hobart (21-7-2) in the second semi (8 p.m.), with the winners playing for the Division 3 championship on Saturday (8 p.m.).
The Cadets finished with a 41-28 edge in shots, but needed to overcome an early 1-0 deficit. Coby Downs squared the game at the 13:41 mark of the first period and his team had the better of the chances the rest of the way.
“This time of year, you can expect to close games, overtime games, thrilling games,” said first-year Norwich coach Cam Ellsworth. “I was extremely proud of the way our guys hung together against a really tough opponent. I’m ecstatic about the win.”
It’s the 14th straight game Norwich has won and 18th straight it has won or tied, a streak that began after a loss to New England College way back on Dec. 8, and also included three wins in the NEHC tournament.
Goalie Tom Aubrun, who has only allowed more than two goals once in eight games in February and March, finished with 27 saves.
The best season in UNE’s relatively young Division 3 history finished at 21-7-2. Brendan Donohue scored the lone goal for the Nor’easters, who were playing in the quarterfinals for the first time ever.
“I thought it was a very good, hard-fought game,” said UNE coach Kevin Swallow. “Get to overtime and it could have gone either way there.”
Norwich had UNE back on its heels during a second period that saw a 13-4 disparity in shots. But sophomore Ben Churchfield (39 saves) held the fort and the Nor’easters came back to play a stronger third period, though neither team scored.
“We told them, ‘Go out there and play to win,’” said Swallow. “We’re here to win, we’re not just happy to be there. I thought we did that in the third and had some great opportunities to win the game.”
The loss brought to an end the standout college career of senior center Brady Fleurent (Biddeford, Maine), the all-time leading scorer in Nor'easters history and a former Concannon Award winner.
Fleurent, one of just four seniors on the team, ends his season with a 13-35-48 line (tied for second-most points in Division 3) and his career with 44-86-130. The graduating group saw the program through its first four winning seasons.
Norwich, meanwhile, heads to the Frozen Four for the first time since its 2017 national championship season and 13th time all-time.
But not before leaving a raucous Kreitzberg Arena crowd one more memory of a second half of the season that’s been packed with them.
“Everybody talks about how special it is to play here, the rink being packed,” said Ellsworth. “When you actually get to experience it, it’s a whole different level. The people here love the boys, they love the hockey. It was a big draw for me and my family to come and be a part of this.”
