Sunday, March 24, 2024

Terriers to head to Sioux Falls Regional and face RIT on Thursday; Crotty makes NHL debut

 


Regional brackets for the 2024 NCAA tournament were announced Sunday and the #2 Terriers will be the top seed in the Sioux Falls, S.D., regional. On Thursday, they'll face the #4 seed, Atlantic Hockey conference champion RIT in a 5:00 pm ET start with the game airing on ESPNU and live streamed on ESPN+.

The other half of the bracket pits the #3 seed--and tournament host--Nebraska-Omaha against #2 seed Minnesota. The Gophers are the team that ended BU's season last year in the Frozen Four semifinal.

Making its 39th national tournament appearance, BU will play the 27-10-2 Tigers for the first time ever. In 2010, RIT reached the Frozen Four semifinal after regional round upsets of Denver and New Hampshire. 

►College Hockey News provides an initial look at all 16 tournament teams.

Following the bracket announcements, Coach Jay Pandolfo spoke with the media, beginning with his team’s experience in the NCAA tournament:

“When you’ve been there before, it certainly helps. Guys know what to expect. It’s going to help us going into the tournament. This year's a little different, traveling a little further but nothing wrong with a good road trip”

About putting Saturday night’s loss behind them:

“Sure, it still stings but we know we’ve still got a chance to play and still have a chance to do something big. You have to have a short memory at this time of year because there’s still a lot of hockey to play.

“We understand as a group how to play and what it looks like to have success and we’ve gotta get back to that mindset."

About how big games during the regular season prepared BU for playing on the national stage:

“We’re prepared for it. We didn’t get some of the results we were hoping to get. You can learn a lot from not winning. I think our team will and will respond. Our team is mature and looking forward to the next step."

Pandolfo acknowledged that he didn’t know too much about RIT and would “start watching some video on them and prepare like we do for most teams.” 

He discounted the fact that the Tigers, on average were two years older than the Terriers, noting that BU had played many games against teams with older players this season. 

RIT won the Atlantic Hockey regular-season title as well as the post-season tournament. Now 21st in the Pairwise, the Tigers are riding a seven-game winning streak in which they didn’t allow more than two goals in any game. In out-of-conference games, they own shutout wins against Notre Dame and Clarkson and also defeated New Hampshire and Lake Superior.

● GoTerriers.com report, Comments from Jay Pandolfo, Sam Stevens and Macklin Celebrini

● USCHO.com Brackets Announcement

● College Hockey News Tournament schedule and TV times, Four-bracket grid

● Hockey East Online Four Hockey East Teams Earn NCAA Berths


Looking back
After four seasons in the AHL, Cam Crotty made his NHL debut, joining Clayton Keller in the the Arizona Coyotes lineup. A three-year BU blueliner, he had 10 minutes of time on ice with four hits in the Coyotes, while Keller scored his 30th goal in a 4-2 loss to Jake Oettinger (21 saves) and the Dallas Stars.

As a freshman, Crotty played for the Terriers 2018 Hockey East champions, along with NHLers Jordan Greenway, Brady Tkachuk, Dante Fabbro, Shane Bowers and Oettinger. He's the 93rd Terrier to suit up in the NHL.

Keller has goals in five consecutive games and is the third Coyote with consecutive 30-goal seasons, joining Keith Tkachuk.

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1 comment:

Skolzman said...

Wish they would have been placed closer to home. Was considering a road trip to Springfield. Hope the squad can shake off the BC disappointment and get to St. Paul for a rematch.

4:20 PM

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