ST. PAUL, Minn. — After a 7-2 rout of Boston University on Saturday in the West Regional semifinals of the NCAA hockey tournament, the Denver Pioneers are one win from advancing to the Frozen Four for the first time since their national champ- ionships in 2004 and 2005.
Junior defenseman Will Butcher scored two goals, forwards Troy Terry, Quentin Shore and Danton Heinen each contributed three assists and goalie Tanner Jaillet made 19 saves for DU at the Xcel Energy Center.
The Pioneers (24-9-6) will meet No. 4 regional seed Ferris State (20-14-6) on Sunday at 3 p.m. MDT in the West championship game, with the winner going to Tampa, Fla., for the April 7-9 Frozen Four.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s Bulldogs, from Big Rapids, Mich., knocked off top-seeded St. Cloud State 5-4 in overtime in the first semifinal game Saturday.
In front of a sparse crowd for the second half of the one-ticket doubleheader — perhaps 1,500 were in the seats at the Minnesota Wild’s arena — the Pioneers took a 4-0 lead in the first 23 minutes against BU and coasted.
“I wouldn’t say that was shocking,” Butcher, a 2013 Avalanche draft choice, said of the decisiveness of the score. “I know our team’s really good and when we play like that, we can score that many goals and put that many pucks in the net. That’s just how we play with our pressure game, and our forwards were all over them tonight. When our forwards are going like that, our whole team is going.”
One of the two DU players from Minnesota — defenseman Blake Hillman, who hails from Elk River — opened the scoring at 13:49 of the first period, knocking the rebound of Evan Janssen’s shot past Terriers goalie Sean Maguire.
“The first five to 10 minutes, I thought BU was the better team,” said DU coach Jim Montgomery. “I thought we were playing nervous. . . We started managing the puck well and we started playing our game. From then on, I thought offensively it was probably one of our best nights finishing odd-man rushes and I thought the power play (2 for 4) was excellent.”
The Pioneers’ Pacific Rim Line forechecked relentlessly in producing the goal that made it 2-0, and Heinen’s pass set up Dylan Gambrell’s crafty move and backhander for his 16th score of the season at 17:40.
Butcher put DU ahead 3-0 in the first minute of the second period, moving from the left point to his right and beating Maguire with a wrist shot.
“I thought Butchy’s goal was a huge momentum swing,” Montgomery said. “It kind of put a knife in them for a little while and allowed us to keep our momentum and play fast.”
When Matt Marcinew’s shot from the slot gave the Pioneers four goals in only 12 shots, BU coach David Quinn yanked Maguire and sent out Connor LaCouvee. Janssen, Butcher and Trevor Moore added goals the rest of the way in the laugher. Jaillet lost his shutout when Danny O’Regan scored for the Terriers with 7:15 left and Mike Moran scored a consolation goal for the Terriers in the final seconds.
Because Ferris State won, that in theory made the Pioneers’ road to the Frozen Four easier. St. Cloud State was 3-0 against DU this season, winning 5-2 and 6-2 in Denver in December and 4-2 in the semifinals of the NCHC’s Frozen Faceoff in Minneapolis on March 18. The Pioneers have been a different team, though, since the start of the calendar year, and one of their early season losses was to BU, 5-4 in overtime, on Halloween. DU is 17-2-4 in 2016.
“We had puck luck tonight,” Montgomery said. “And when you get puck luck, you can beat a team that’s been ranked No. 9 in the country, like BU has. But that being said. I think a big part of what we try and do every year here is trying to be peaking at the end of the year. I think throughout the three years I’ve been here, our team has progressively gotten better each month, and it’s after the month of December this year.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei