Thursday, April 10, 2025

Game Day: BU vs. Penn State in the Frozen Four Semifinal; Wednesday Press Conference; Celebrini hat trick

     


Entering their third consecutive Frozen Four, the #8 Terriers are in St. Louis—528 miles from and 38 games removed from last year’s national semifinal in St. Paul—with unfinished business at hand.


BU faces off with #12 Penn State, winner of the Allentown Regional, at the Enterprise Center, home of the Blues, for an opportunity to play for a national championship. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. CT/8:30 p.m. ET for the game that will air on ESPN2 and be live-streamed on ESPN+.
 
Terriers will be gunning for a sixth NCAA title and their first since 2009. The Nittany Lions are in the Frozen Four for the first time.  BU is making its 40th NCAA tournament appearance, including 25 in last 35 tournaments. Only Minnesota (42 ) and Michigan (41) have more.   

It will be the third—and likely last—chance to claim the title for juniors Ryan Greene, Quinn Hutson and Devin Kaplan and senior Tristan Amonte after last year’s 2-1 OT loss to Denver and a 6-2 loss to Minnesota in the 2022-23 semifinal.
 
First, they will need to overcome a surging Penn State team that is 15-4-4 since the New Year after beginning the season at 7-9-0 with no Big 10 wins. Since March 1, the Nittany Lions are 4-2-0 including a sweep of Michigan, a blowout win over Maine in the Regional and their overtime win against UConn in the Allentown final.

After defeating a rugged, defensively-structured, grinding team in Cornell, BU will face a squad more similar to BC, UConn and even the Terriers themselves with a focus on speed and transition.

“[Penn State] has been the hottest team in the country,” Coach Jay Pandolfo said. “It’s a really tough matchup for us. They’re fast, I’ll tell you that. They are a little like UConn in that they can skate and transition really fast. I’ve seen that in Penn State watching their games. They transition with a lot of speed. Their first and second line especially. They’re going to be a handful for us.”

Penn State has the #7 scoring offense in Division 1 at 3.54 GPG, just a few slots behind #4 BU with 3.82 GPG. Their power play stands at 23.9% vs. the Terriers’ 28.4.  

While neither team finds itself in the top half of the D1 scoring defense ranking—BU is a 2.95 GPG, Penn State at 3.00—both teams are playing to much better numbers of late—led by goalies Mikhail Yegorov and his countryman, Arsenii Sergeev.

Hobey Baker Award finalist Aiden Fink leads PSU in both goals (23) and points (53). His 1.36 PPG is just a shade behind Quinn Hutson’s 1.39, which is second in D1. Fink skates on the top line with speedy Danny Dzhaniyev (31 points) and Reese Laubach (30).  The second, which was dangerous and productive in the regional, features two freshmen Charlie Cerrato (42) and J.J. Wiebusch (33) and sophomore Matt DiMarsico (32) who scored the overtime game-winner against UConn.

Senior Simon Mack, who anchors the defense, has had a productive year with a 3-26-29 scoring line. He’s supported by veteran Ds Jimmy Dowd, Jr. (10 points) and Jared Crespo (7) and freshman Cade Christenson (9). Like BU who saw Brehdan Engum go down late in the season, the Nittany Lions recently lost four-year defenseman Carter Schade to a season-ending injury. 
 
Penn State-UConn highlights 
   
 
Terriers Meet the Media

► Pandolfo, co-captains Ryan Greene and Shane Lachance and assistant captain Quinn Hutson met with the Frozen Four Media on Wednesday. (Video)    
 
Asked if after the Dec. 29 loss to Yale he thought BU would reach the Frozen Four, Pandolfo said:
 
"I think I would have said that I still have plenty of belief in this group, because of the players we have here. Sometimes its good for a team to go through the adversity we went through this year…as long as you learn from it. And I think we have, in a lot of different moments. Right after that game, if you asked me, I’d have said something different, but knowing these players, we’ll find a way.
For tonight’s Terrier lineup, check @BUHockeyStats
 
● Watch: ESPN2; Livestreams: ESPN+  and TSN+
● Inside BU Hockey (Pandolfo, Eiserman, Keith Tkachuk)
● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape;
● BU Hockey Stats preview
 
 
The Boston Globe reports on how BU’s two leading scorers, Quinn Hutson and Cole Hutson, are also competing with each other.
“It’s even more competitive right now,” said Quinn. “I’m not really a big fan of Cole right now. We were going at it on the ice.”

“To be honest, me and Quinn were going at it today on the ice,” [Cole weighs in without any prompting. “I’m kind of really not happy with him right now, so he better hope he’s on my team in practice tomorrow.”  


 

 

►College Puck NXT’s All Frosh first team features four Hockey East skaters including Cole Eiserman and Cole Hutson. The second team includes Mikhail Yegorov and new commit from the portal Sascha Boisvert.
 
Rhett The Terrier (@RhettBU) / X

►A pre-game party for Terrier fans is set for 5:30 p.m. CT at Wheelhouse, a ten-minute walk from Enterprise Arena. Click here for details and registration.

►Watch parties are set for Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York. Click here for details.
 
Looking back
 
Macklin Celebrini netted his first NHL hat trick and added two assists in the Sharks' 8-7 overtime loss to Minnesota. With a 24-38-62 scoring line, he's just two points behind Lane Hutson, the leader in the rookie scoring race.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Site Meter