#8 Terriers begin a quest today to reach the Frozen Four for a third straight season when they take on #9 Ohio State in the NCAA Toledo Regional. Puck drop at the 8,000-seat Huntington Center is at 2 p.m. for the game that will be broadcast on ESPNU and live streamed by ESPN+ and TSN+. It is the first of the
eight first-round tournament games to be played today and tomorrow.
In the Toledo regional, BU is the #2 seed and Ohio State is the #3 seed. The other half of the regional matches #1 seed Michigan State against #4 Cornell.
Toledo is about midway between Columbus and East Lansing, so a crowd heavy in Buckeye and Spartan fans is a given.
"We're not too concerned about it," Terrier Head Coach Jay Pandolfo
said about facing a potentially hostile crowd, despite being the higher
seed. "We played in hostile environments all season. I don't think our
guys are affected by it, they enjoy it."
The
Terriers and Buckeyes have a very short history as rivals—just three
games, all won by the Terriers and all in tournaments. The only NCAA
tournament match-up came in 2009 with BU claiming
an 8-3 win in the
Manchester, N.H., regional, en route to winning the national
championship over Miami in the D.C. Miracle comeback.
The two teams first faced off on Dec. 28, 1973, a 6-5 win in the RPI Invitational in Jack Parker’s second-ever game as head coach. In 1998, BU beat OSU, 3-2, in the opening round of the Mariucci Classic.
Ohio
State’s style has some similarities to BU’s with a heavy reliance on
speed and having defensemen jump up into plays in the offensive zone.
Graphic credit BU Hockey Stats
“They
play hard. They transition fast,” Pandolfo pointed out. "And they’re
good in the defensive zone, keeping you away from their net. In their
end, we’ve got to make sure to get inside, to get to their net. Just
can’t let them take advantage of the transition game, so we’ve got to
make sure we’re protecting the puck and being responsible with it.”
The
Buckeyes (24-13-2), who finished third in the Big Ten behind Michigan
State and Minnesota, are 8-4-0 in their last dozen games including a 4-3
double-overtime loss to the Spartans in the conference championship
game. Their offense, which is averaging 3.18 GPG, is led by a familiar
name: former Northeastern Husky Gunnarwolfe Fontaine—who scored the
overtime winner in the 2024 Beanpot Championship game—with a 17-23-40
scoring line. Junior David Burnside and freshman Riley Thompson each have 33
points while sophomore Mike Montes has 30.
OSU’s
defense is anchored by grad student Aiden Hansen-Bukata (29) who played
for RIT in last year’s NCAA Regional against the Terriers. Former UNH
Wildcat Damien Carfagna has 28 points.
Another
Hockey East transplant, ex-UConn goalie Logan Terness, has been OSU’s
main man in the net. He has a 2.27 GAA and a .925 save percentage and
turned aside 47 shots in the loss to Michigan State.
Following
the announcement of Regional match-ups, co-captain Shane Lachance spoke
about moving on from the team’s disheartening loss in the conference
tournament.
“It’s
definitely important to turn the page,” he said. “Obviously, I don’t think anybody [thought] that they had their best
game. It’s unfortunate for us to put that performance on a big stage
like that, but we got to know we are out of lessons learned… it’s win or
go home from here on out.”
Today's Terrier Lineup
Forward line tweaks have an all captain/co-captain top line. Brandon Svoboda moves up to the second line.
● Live Stream
ESPN+ , TSN+
● Boston Hockey Blog preview
Episode 23 of
Inside BU Hockey features
Bernie Corbett's interviews head coach Jay Pandolfo ahead of the NCAA Toledo Regional. Bernie also chats with junior co-captain
Ryan Greene and Terrier legend
Mike Eruzione, who played professional hockey in Toledo after graduating BU.
►A trio of Terriers made the top 10 freshman list from College Puck NXT.
Looking back
Jack Eichel netted a hat trick in Vegas’s
6-1 win over the Wild. With a career-best 90 points, the 2015 Hobey Baker Award winner is tied for fourth with Connor McDavid in overall scoring and his 64 assists are tied for third, also with McDavid.
He is the first Massachusetts-born skater to reach 90 in the NHL since Keith Tkachuk rang up 98 points in 1995-96.
Brady Tkachuk scored his 29th goal on a power play in a
3-2 loss to Ottawa.
Lane Hutson recorded his 49th assist in Montreal’s
6-1 loss to St. Louis.
Looking ahead
The Athletic's 2025 NHL draft ranking for March has Jack Murtagh at #29, Sascha Boumedienne at #38, Haoxi Simon Wang (2026 recruit) at #39, Charlie Trethewey #50 and Conrad Fondrk #51. Carter Amico, who has missed much of the season with a leg injury and surgery received honorable mention.
Women's Team
Former Terrier standout Jesse Compher returned to BU with Toronto Scepters for a 4-2 win over the Boston Fleet at a soldout Agganis Arena. Compher, shown in a throwback BU Hockey varsity jacket, recorded her eighth assists for the Scepters.
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