SIOUX FALLS S.D. — Boston University has used its speed and skill as a defining feature all season, and on Saturday night, it sent the Terriers into the national semifinals.

Macklin Celebrini notched a game-high three points on three assists, and the No. 2 overall seed Terriers punched their ticket to the Frozen Four with a 6-3 victory over Minnesota in the championship game of the Sioux Falls Regional at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

The win wraps up the Gophers’ season at 23-11-5, while Bryce Brodzinski led the way with a goal and an assist.

Celebrini was one of three BU players to finish with multiple points, with Jack Harvey and Shane Lachance each tallying a goal and an assist for the Terriers.

The Gophers took a 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Jaxon Nelson and Bryce Brodzinski.

At 7:19, Nelson got the scoring started when he fired a shot from the right circle into the upper-right corner of the net, as Brodzinski and Sam Rinzel were each credited with an assist. Then, with 2:13 remaining in the first, Brodzinski retrieved a pass from Rhett Pitlick and used his defender as a screen, beating BU goalie Mathieu Caron’s glove to give the Gophers a two-goal lead.

However, it only took the Terriers 14 seconds to respond.

Quinn Hutson got Boston on the board with 1:59 to go in the period when he stole the puck along the boards and powered his way to the net, sliding it past Minnesota goaltender Justen Close to cut the Terriers’ deficit to 2-1.

In the opening minutes of the second period, BU added two more tallies, both of which were set up by Celebrini.

Lachance provided the equalizer at the 1:17 mark of the period on an assist from Celebrini and Harvey, and then at 5:25, Harvey scored from the right circle, giving BU a 3-2 lead. Lachance was credited with a secondary helper on the goal.

Minnesota tied the game at 3-3 midway through the period. Luke Mittelstadt centered a puck from along the boards to a knifing Brody Lamb, whose point-blank shot was stopped by Caron. However, the rebound stayed in the crease, where Aaron Huglen buried it into the open net.

A goal by Lane Hutson, assisted by Dylan Peterson and Nick Zabaneh, moved Boston back ahead 4-3 with just 4:24 remaining in the second.
With 1:45 remaining, Boston captain Case McCarthy ricocheted the puck off the boards and sent it 200 feet down the ice for an empty-net goal before alternate captain Sam Stevens added one more for good measure, sealing the final score with 32 seconds to go in the game.

Brodzinski missed the net on a two-on-one breakaway late in the third, and the Terriers recorded eight of their 18 blocked shots in the final period alone. Cade Webber led BU with six blocks.

Caron stopped 25 shots to earn his 28th victory of the season between the pipes. Meanwhile, Close made 32 saves in a losing effort.
The Terriers finished the game with a 38-28 advantage in shots on goal, including 15-9 in the third period.

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The Saints opened the season under sunny skies on Saturday before an announced crowd of 4,052 at CHS Field, but an 8-1 win over the Columbus Clippers was clouded by the absence of a handful of regulars due to injury.

Four players began the season on the seven-day injured list, including No. 1 prospect Brooks Lee. The 23-year-old shortstop is sidelined due to lower back pain.

Outfielder Trevor Larnach (turf toe), right-handed reliever Austin Schulfer (forearm strain) and  right-handed pitcher Matt Canterino (rotator cuff strain) also will miss at least the first week of the season.

Right-handed reliever Jovani Moran recently underwent Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire season.

“Coming out of spring training there were a lot of guys in the last week or so who went down,” Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said. “It’s just something you deal with.”

In some instances, the amount of time out of the lineup will be longer than seven days.

“They said a couple weeks for Brooks,” Gardenhire said. “We’re not sure on Larnach yet; we have to wait for a diagnosis. It’s definitely going to take a little time.”

Meanwhile, infielder Jose Miranda, on the rebound from injury, had a big game, collecting a double and a home run. Miranda, who was limited to 40 games with the Twins last season due to a right shoulder injury that eventually led to surgery, hit .320 in spring training (8 for 28).

“It feels pretty good,” Miranda said, “especially to be back on the field doing the things I love the most — playing baseball and hitting. So it’s fun to be back.”

Miranda, who played first base on Saturday, declared himself 100 percent physically, and said he’s ready to play third base without his shoulder being an issue. With Twins third baseman Royce Lewis sidelined for at least a month, Miranda could be back in a Twins uniform sooner than later, especially if his bat stays hot.

“We know what Jose can do,” Gardenhire said. “We’ve seen it. We’ve just got to keep him rolling like that, and he should be back up there helping the big-league team soon. That was a great swing he had up there tonight.

“And he just missed a couple of other ones. I thought he was on the ball all night, just like he was all spring.”

The Saints got three-run home runs from a pair of outfielders making their Saints debut, Alex Isola in the second inning and Yoyner Fajardo in the fourth.

The 25-year-old Isola, a 29th-round pick in the 2019 draft out of TCU, hit 29 home runs with 58 runs batted in last season for Wichita. Fajardo, 24, hit nine home runs and drove in 53 for Wichita in 2023.

“Fajardo had a great year last year,” Gardenhire said. “He put up good numbers in Double-A, and Isola did the same thing. You never know what they’re going to do once they get out there, but they both had great games,

“It’s always fun when the new guys contribute like that.”

Right-hander David Festa got the start for the Saints and pitched three shutout innings, allowing one hit, before giving way to Randy Dobnak, who pitched four innings to earn the win.

The 24-year-old Festa, the No. 5 prospect in the Twins organization, according to MLB Pipeline, spent the majority of last season at Double-A Wichita, where he went 3-3 in 19 starts, with an earned-run average of 4.39. He was 1-1 in three starts for the Saints last season.

Briefly

Left-hander Brent Headrick will start for the Saints on Sunday in the final game of the abbreviated series with Columbus. The Saints begin a six-game series in Nashville on Tuesday.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The first time he was presented with an opportunity to break open Saturday’s game, Christian Vázquez was unable to come through.

Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa (4) catches a fly ball for the out on Kansas City Royals’ Salvador Perez during the second inning of a baseball game Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

But he more than made up for it in the later innings of Saturday’s game, both offensively and defensively, helping lift the Twins to a 5-1 win against the Kansas City Royals.

Vázquez, who bounced into a double play with the bases loaded to end the Twins’ seventh-inning threat, got some redemption an inning later. Locked in a 1-1 game, he received a pitch from Griffin Jax and threw a dart down to shortstop Carlos Correa. The throw led Correa into Royals star Bobby Witt Jr., allowing the shortstop to lay down a tag and neutralize the threat.

Correa, on his back, then repeatedly pounded his glove, applauding his teammate. It was a big moment, only upstaged by yet another one the next inning.

Up again with runners on base, Vázquez this time delivered, singling home Ryan Jeffers to give the Twins the lead for good.

The Twins followed that up by tacking on three more runs to help push the game out of reach, the first on an Alex Kirilloff sacrifice fly and the second two on Byron Buxton’s second double of the day.

The first double, a ball Buxton chopped over third baseman Maikel Garcia’s head, brought home Edouard Julien, to tie the game up in the eighth inning. Buxton then turned on the jets, getting an extra base on what looked like a routine single to left.

The late offense came in a game that the Twins were held quiet for much of. Royals starter Seth Lugo threw six scoreless frames against the Twins, limiting them to just two hits.

He was matched for much of the day by Twins starter Joe Ryan, who gave his team everything it could have asked for in his first start of the season.

Ryan breezed through three perfect innings to start the game, successfully extricating himself from a two-on, one-out situation an inning later and allowed just three hits in his 5 1/3-inning effort.

But the last one, which came after a pitch clock violation was called against him to move the count to 2-0, was the one that came around to score. Witt Jr. doubled on the very next pitch. He was the last batter Ryan faced in his start as the Twins then turned it over to lefty Steven Okert.

Okert retired the first batter he faced before the Twins opted to intentionally walk catcher Salvador Perez. The very next batter, MJ Melendez, gave the Royals a lead in the sixth inning that they held until the Twins broke through two innings later.

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