The good ol' 4 pm local time on a Thursday puck drop. Great way to get casuals interested.
It's tough, I attended in 2022 and it was 5pm/8:30pm EST for Boston as well. I ended up leaving the second game after the second period since I was exhausted and didn't have a particular rooting interest between Minnesota/Minnesota State.
Definitely was a weird vibe in the arena. The fans for the second game were late for the first game. And then most of the Michigan/DU fans didn't stick around for the second game.
Probably no way around it unless you had each semifinal on its own day. Or if they moved the semifinal to Saturday with the championship in prime time on the Monday.
I wish it wasn't the case but I don't think the game time would matter as my casual friends would be watching MLB/NHL/NBA over BU/DU. Maybe it's by design but this Thursday is a light day for baseball.