Ty Glover, Western Michigan get to the net, advance to first NCHC championship game

ST. PAUL — At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, Ty Glover knows where he is going to be the most effective for the Western Michigan hockey team.

He showed it on Friday, scoring two goals from in close to help Western Michigan beat North Dakota 4-2 in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff at Xcel Energy Center.

With the win, the third-seeded Broncos (25-10-1) advance to their first NCHC championship game and will face fifth-seeded Minnesota Duluth (20-15-4) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (CBS Sports Network).

The winner gets an automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Division I men's tournament, but both teams are locks to make the field. The Broncos are third in the PairWise Rankings and the Bulldogs are No. 8.

Glover, a sophomore from London, Ontario, scored the first two goals of the game for WMU on Friday and the Broncos did not trail after his second goal of the game at 13:34 of the second period. His eighth goal of the season gave the Broncos a 2-1 lead and was a tip-in of a shot from the point by Michael Joyaux.

His first goal came on a rebound from close range at 13:38 of the first period to tie the game at 1-1.

"I was just playing my game, getting behind the 'D', being hard on pucks, getting to the front of the net," he said. "That's where all of the goals seem to be scored these days. Keep it simple.

"I credit my two linemates (Max Sasson and Jason Polin) — they were making it real easy for me today."

Pat Ferschweiler, a former NHL assistant coach, was glad to see Glover get rewarded for his play. Ferschweiler said that Glover adds a lot to the Broncos lineup.

"He's a great big, exciting ball of energy," said Ferschweiler, who is in his first season as Western Michigan's head coach. "He just walks into the locker room, smiling every day. He brings a work ethic and just a presence of a love for the game about him and its really infectious.

"Ty's kind of behind the scenes in terms of our star players, but he's improved a ton and I think he's a year or two away from an NHL contract. He's hyper competitive."

Western Michigan led 2-1, but Hugh Larkin took a hooking penalty at 17:19 of the second period to put North Dakota on the power play. It also ignited the largely Fighting Hawks-based crowd to try to encourage UND to tie the game up.

"Out on the ice, to see the sea of green, it did feel like an away game," said Broncos sophomore wing Hugh Larkin, whose team was playing in its first Frozen Faceoff since 2017. "Having our fans there was awesome. They come all the way from the west side of Michigan and to see them there really got us going and we want to win for them."

The Broncos killed Larkin's penalty. When he came out of the penalty box, he joined a rush in the neutral zone and finished off a 2-on-1 when he shot in a pass from Drew Worrad with 31 seconds left in the second period to make it 3-1.

"He took a penalty that I think he'd like to not take, but he came right back out of the penalty box and made a great play to score a goal," Ferschweiler said of the third goal of the season for Larkin, a sophomore from Livonia, Mich.

North Dakota, of course, was not done. After Larkin scored, freshman wing Nick Portz made a rush up the right side and scored on a shot from the top of the faceoff circle with seven seconds left in the second period to pull the Fighting Hawks within 3-2.

"If you asked us at the start of the game if we'd be happy with a 3-2 lead going into the third period, we would have taken it," said Broncos senior center Drew Worrad, whose team improved to 18-0-0 when it leads after the second period. "It was just refocusing. Obviously, that gave them a little momentum.

"But we had a lot of good happen for us in that second period. We played really well and made it very hard on their 'D.' I think it showed that they were wearing down a little bit ... The message was just to stick with the process. We just needed to focus on that and the positives."

Jason Wachter / The Rink Live

Western Michigan outshot North Dakota 11-6 in the third period and got an empty-net goal from freshman center Max Sasson off a turnover with 1:33 left to give the Broncos a 4-2 lead.

Brandon Bussi, a junior from Sound Beach, N.Y., made 21 saves to get the win.

WMU 1-2-1—4
UND 1-1-0—2

First period scoring — 1. UND, Judd Caulfield 11 (Riese Gaber 22, Connor Ford 24) 11:45; 2. WMU, Ty Glover 7 (Max Sasson 13, Ronnie Attard 23) 13:38. Penalties — UND, Brady Ferner (hooking) 3:09; WMU, Aidan Fulp (interference) 4:13.

Second period scoring — 3. WMU Glover 8 (Michael Joyaux 24, Drew Worrad 34) 13:34 (pp); 4. WMU, Hugh Larkin 3 (Worrad 35) 19:29; 5. UND, Nick Portz 2 (Mark Senden 12) 19:53. Penalties — WMu, Chad Hillebrand (cross-checking) 5:34; WMU, Jacob Bauer (tripping) 8:25; UND, Gaber (kneeing) 12:57; WMU, Larkin (holding) 17:19.

Third period scoring — 6. WMU, Max Sasson 9 (unassisted) 18:27 (en). Penalties — UND, Griffin Ness (boarding, major) 2:24; WMU, Ethen Frank (tripping) 10:47; WMU, Frank (slashing) 19:12; UND, Portz (cross-checking) 19:12.

Goalie saves — WMU, Brandon Bussi 8-7-6—21 (2 GA). UND, Zach Driscoll 4-8-10—22 (3 GA).

Penalties-minutes — WMU 6-12; UND 4-11.

Power-play goals/opportunities (shots) — WMU 1-3 (6 shots); UND 0-5 (5 shots).

Faceoffs — UND 42-25.

Referees — Timm Walsh and Dan Dreger.

Linesemen — Jeff Schultz and Dana Penkivech.

Three stars of the game — 1. Glover (WMU), 2. Bussi (WMU), 3. Worrad (WMU).

Attendance — 10,253.