One characteristic of a great team is being able to put teams away when they have opportunities to do so. They slip through the slightest crack; expose every opening. That was the case for the Boston University Terriers in the first 20 minutes of Thursday’s second NCAA semifinal game, and in the final seven.

The Terriers built a two-goal lead in the first period and scored twice late in the third to earn a 5-4 victory over the Vermont Catamounts at the Frozen Four at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Boston University will face Miami in Saturday’s national championship game at 7 p.m. ET (ESPN HD).

A pair of first-period Terrier goals came just seconds after key plays that went in Vermont’s favor. The game’s first great save, a shoulder stop by Vermont freshman goalie Rob Madore denied an open wrister by Boston University’s Chris Higgins to keep the game scoreless. On the next shift, BU’s Colin Wilson scored the game’s first goal on a deflection of a pass by Kevin Shattenkirk to give the Terriers the lead at 11:19.

Vermont nearly tied it moments later when a shot from the low slot beat BU goaltender Kieran Millan, and flipped toward the gaping net only to be swiped away in midair by the shaft of the stick of Terrier defenseman Colby Cohen. Again, the Terriers punctuated that moment by adding another goal to the scoreboard. This one came on a sweet give-and-go that saw Higgins feed Jason Lawrence for a classy finish into the top of the net at 16:27.

The 2-0 lead held up through the end of the first period, but Vermont rallied back in the second period. Wahsontiio Stacey scored at 3:50 and Justin Milo buried a power-play goal at 9:04 to tie it up. The Catamounts went ahead just 45 seconds later on a long shot from Josh Burrows that eluded the catching glove of Millan.

Once again, BU would not be denied. A late power-play goal with 1:21 remaining in the second period from Vinny Saponari on a slick pass from Nick Bonino made it 3-3.

“I thought it was the biggest goal of the game, no question about it,” BU head coach Jack Parker said. “And the fact that it was a power-play goal, too. I think that was huge. It was the biggest goal of the game because we don’t want to go into the dressing room losing. We don’t want to have blown the lead that we did and have the bad second period that we did.”

Those swings set up an exciting third period. Vermont fired first, when defenseman Drew MacKenzie got the go-ahead goal with a shot from the high slot through traffic. The power-play tally was the first goal of MacKenzie’s collegiate career.

Unfortunately for the UVM freshman, he also factored prominently in BU’s game-tying goal with 6:54 remaining. BU’s Higgins beat MacKenzie on a move in the slot and tried to send a pass back across to the other side of the crease. MacKenzie recovered to get back into the play and dove to break up the pass, but it hit his stick and went into the net. A 4-4 game had the teams on level terms.

“Definitely disappointing,” MacKenzie said. “We were battling hard and thought we had them at the end. But they’re a good team. They kept coming. We tried our hardest.”

BU’s dominant first line of Lawrence, Higgins and Wilson factored in three of the Terriers’ first four goals. They seemingly created a great scoring chance every time they were on the ice, and it was no surprise that they came through with the winning tally. Immediately following a faceoff win, defenseman Brian Strait fed Colin Wilson at the left post and he roofed the winner with 5:41 to play.

The Terriers held on in the closing minutes as Vermont pulled Madore in favor for an extra attacker. Great defensive work in the neutral zone bottled up line rushes by the Catamounts and a final clearing effort sent the puck to the neutral zone and the Terriers to the national championship game - another of the smallest opportunities, reward for just two teams, but another one that the Terriers can take advantage of on Saturday night.