By Chloe Wojtanik
Boston University News Service
After a disappointing loss to UConn in the Hockey East semifinals, Boston University Men’s Hockey has reset its focus on their pursuit towards back-to-back-to-back appearances in the Frozen Four.
The Terriers’ will begin the NCAA tournament in Toledo, OH on Thursday, March 26 against the home state team, the Ohio State Buckeyes. BU (21-13-2) enters the matchup as the second-seed in the Toledo region, while the Buckeyes (24-13-2) are seeded third.
It’s difficult to stack Ohio State and BU up against each other as they didn’t face each other in the regular season. In fact, Ohio State never faced any Hockey East teams in their 2024-25 campaign.
The two teams have only two opponents in common this season: the University of Michigan and Notre Dame. Ohio State’s fellow Big Ten team Michigan beat BU in both games, while Ohio State split their four-game season series, with each team winning twice. Both teams also squared off against Notre Dame, with BU picking up the 4-3 win in the Belpot Championship in Ireland and Ohio State winning both games against the Fighting Irish.
The Terriers and Buckeyes have only met head-to-head three times in program history, with the most recent matchup in the 2009 NCAA tournament regional round where BU picked up an 8-3 win. The other matchups were a 6-5 Terriers victory in 1973 at the RPI Tournament, and a 2-1 BU win in the Mariucci Classic in 1998.
Despite Ohio State being an unfamiliar opponent, there will be a familiar foe donning the scarlet, grey and white jersey. Gunnarwolfe Fontaine, who spent all four years playing for Northeastern University, took his talents to Columbus for his graduate student year. Fontaine is most known on Commonwealth Avenue for his soul-crushing overtime goal against BU in the 2024 Beanpot championship game during his time with the Huskies.
Fontaine’s dominance continued from Northeastern to Ohio State as he’s the leading scorer on the Buckeyes this season with 17 goals and 23 assists for 40 points in 39 games played this season.
Riley Thompson and Davis Burnside are tied for second on Ohio State’s roster with 33 points each, while Aiden Hansen-Bukata leads the Buckeyes in the assist column with 27. Logan Terness (12-9-1) and Kristoffer Eberly (12-4-1) have split time in the crease this season, but Terness has started each of the last five games for Ohio State, making him the likely goalie BU will see Thursday.
The key for BU to make it past Ohio State and continue in the tournament is maintaining high intensity for the full 60 minutes. In the Terriers’ 5-2 loss to UConn at TD Garden last weekend, BU lacked the want to win. The Huskies outpaced the Terriers throughout the entire game in terms of intensity, despite Cole Eiserman giving BU the first lead of the game in the first period.
“It’s definitely important to turn the page. I don’t think anybody had their best game, and it’s unfortunate for us to put that performance on a big stage. We have to know that we’re out of lessons learned. We have a one-game series the rest of the way; it’s win or go home from here on out,” said BU co-captain Shane Lachance.
“We didn’t have it for whatever reason in the semifinal game, but I think in games where our back has been against the wall, we’ve been really good this year, winning a lot of big games. We know how to win championship games and games that get hard,” said Eiserman.
There’s only one question to be asked ahead of Thursday and the answer won’t be known until the puck is dropped at center ice.
“Are we going to find a way to play the way we’re capable of playing to have success?” BU Head Coach Jay Pandolfo asked, “Knowing this group and the way they respond, I think they’ll be ready to go.”
Only time will tell if Pandolfo’s prediction is correct. The Terriers can make everyone forget about this up-and-down season by bringing a National Championship back to Comm. Ave, or this may really be a season that we want to forget about all together.
