HEATing Up (Hockey East Tournament QF Preview)
The #3 Seed Terriers host #6 Seed Minutemen, with a trip to the Garden on the line.
#3 BU (20-12-2, HEA (3rd): 14-8-2) will host #6 UMass-Amherst on Saturday (March 15th, 4:30 pm) in a rubber match of the season series.
UMass-Amherst
(20-12-5, HEA (6th): 10-9-5)
The Terriers take on the Minutemen in the 2025 Hockey East Tournament Quarterfinal. The 3 seeded Terriers earned a bye to the quarterfinal, while the 6 seeded Minutemen had to win an opening round game vs #11 Vermont. The teams split the season series, with each team taking the road game (0-5, 4-2). Last time out, Cole Hutson recorded a point on every BU goal.
UMass-Amherst enter the game on a 7 game unbeaten streak (4-0-3), including a 2-1 win over #11 seed Vermont in the Hockey East tournament opening round game. Lucas Mercuri and Ryan Lautenbach both had goals in the game. Junior forward Cole O’Hara leads Hockey East with 50 points and is 2nd nationally. O’Hara has recorded a point in 14 of UMA’s last 15 games.
BU come in off a bye as the #3 seed, and a 4 game unbeaten streak (3-0-1). In the final weekend of the regular season, the Scarlet and White put up 13 goals on Providence and Vermont (8-2, 6-1). The Hutsons, Quinn and Cole combined for 13 points on the weekend, with Quinn recording 7 (2-5—7) and Cole recording 6 (2-4—6). The other Cole, Cole Eiserman recorded his 2nd hat trick of the season against the Friars.
This will be the 5th Hockey East Tournament between the teams and first since the 2016 opening round. In the second game of that series, Danny O’Regan and Charlie McAvoy each recorded 4 points in a 5-4 win. In the first playoff matchup between the teams in 1996, Jay Pandolfo scored the game winning goal in the game one of the quarterfinal series.
Records
53-26-1: in Hockey East Tournament Quarterfinal (2-0-0 under Jay Pandolfo)
45-16-1: in Hockey East Tournament Quarterfinal at Home (2-0-0 under Jay Pandolfo)
8-0-0: vs. UMass Amherst in the Hockey East Tournament
6-0-0: vs. UMass Amherst in the Quarterfinal of the Hockey East Tournament
Stats
The game will be the 5th time the teams have faced off in the Hockey East Tournament and just the 2nd time they've done so in a year that doesn't end with 6 (prev. matchups: 1996 QF, 2000 QF, 2006 QF, 2016 OR)
Cole Hutson before getting a game misconduct vs. UMA on December 7th: 2-8—10, Cole Hutson since then 10-19—29
