(RED) H-O-T-T-O-LE-DO (Toledo Regional Final Preview)
The Terriers smash the Buckeyes and will face Red Hot Rival Cornell in the Toledo Regional Final
The #2 seed BU take down #3 seed Ohio State 8-3 and will face #4 seed Cornell, who beat #1 seed Michigan State 4-3.
Men’s
Ohio State (8-3 W)
It was a story of three periods in the Toledo Regional semifinal between the BU Terriers and the Ohio State Buckeyes—stout OSU defense in the first, chaotic back-and-forth goal fest in the second, and BU offensive domination in the third.
OSU opened the scoring at 9:06 in the first period, the first goal of the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes dominated in the first, with shots on goal at the end of the period 15-2 in their favor.
Midway through the 2nd, the Terriers finally got on the board when Cole Eiserman scored off of the face off. It was his 22nd goal of the season and only his 3rd outside the city of Boston. Less than five minutes later, the Buckeyes took the lead back at 12:53 in the period. Quinn Hutson tied things back up on the power play at 17:19 of the second, he has now scored in all three NCAA Tournaments he has played in—2023 vs. Western Michigan and 2024 vs. Minnesota. Exactly 30 seconds later, Ohio State again took the lead. In a flash, 12 seconds later, Matt Copponi tied things back up at 3 for the Terriers. It was joint 9th fastest in NCAA tournament history and tied for the fastest BU response goal in tournament history—Mike Sobeski vs. Cornell in the 1967 National Championship game.
In the third, it was all Terriers, who scored 5 goals on 8 shots on goal. Aiden Celebrini gave the Terriers the lead for good at 2:18 in the period. It was Celebrini’s 3rd career goal and 2nd against a Big Ten team. Jack Hughes scored a short-handed goal, the first of his career and 6th for the Terriers this season. Less than three minutes later, Cole Eiserman scored a highlight reel goal, his second goal of the game. Eiserman’s 5th multi-goal game of the season and first away from Agganis Arena. At 14:16 in the period, Jack Harvey scored his 10th of the season and has scored in three straight NCAA tournament regional games. Cole Hutson capped things off with a 3 on 6 empty net goal to give him 4 points on the night. His second 4 point game of the season. The last Terrier defenseman to record 4 points in an NCAA tournament game, Matt Gilroy vs. Ohio State in 2009.
The Terriers went 5-6 on the PK and Mikhail Yegorov was stellar, stopping 33 of 36 Buckeye shots he faced, including 14 of 15 in the first to keep BU in the game.
The Scarlet and White improve to 4-0 against the Scarlet and Gray, including back to back 8-3 NCAA tournament wins. BU moves on to their 6th regional final in their last 8 NCAA tournament appearances since 2014-15.
Other Notes
Cole Eiserman is the 3rd freshman since 2002-03 to record 5+ multi-goal games, joining Jack Eichel (2014-15, 8) and Macklin Celebrini (2023-24, 8)
Cole Hutson's shorthanded goal was the first shorthanded goal scored by a Hutson in program history
The last time BU scored 8 goals in an NCAA tournament game: 2009 vs. Ohio State in the regional semifinal
Advanced Stats
Despite not holding the edge in xG (-.7), Shots on Goal (-4), and shot attempts (-5), the Terriers did hold the advantage in Scoring Chances (+2). They also held the edge in OZone (55%-47%) and DZone (53%-45%) faceoffs only faltering in Neutral zone faceoffs 38%-62%.
In three games this season, BU has had OZone Possession under 9:30—vs. BC in the Beanpot (7:24), vs. Ohio State (8:19), and their second game vs. Maine (9:24)—they are 2-0-1 in those games.
Per Period xG: 1st (0.15-1.27, OSU), 2nd (0.86-0.37, BU), 3rd (1.23-1.29, OSU)
Jack Hughes is the Terriers’ top performer for the 2nd time in three games, this was his best performance (4.3646) in terms of Game Score as a Terrier, surpassing his previous high of 3.2626 vs. Merrimack on February 9th, 2024. Matt Copponi had his third-best Game Score performance (4.0326) as a Terrier, behind only UMass Lowell on November 9th (4.7856) and Merrimack on November 22nd (4.3066).
Ohio State held the high danger shots (1.15 xG) 4-3 with one resulting in their first period goal, 2 were saved, and the other missed the net. For BU (.61 xG), all three were saved.
Aiden Celebrini recorded the highest xG Conversion rate of the season for the Terriers at 59.
OSU held the xG edge for the entirety of the game outside the first 3 minutes, the chart illustrates how in control the Buckeyes were in first the Terriers’ firepower in the latter half of the second and the third period.
In terms of xG% most players for both teams that played significant minutes were between 40 and 60.
Red Hot Regional Final
For the 2nd time in 3 years, BU faces Cornell for a spot in the Frozen Four (March 29th, 4pm).
The Terriers will play in their third straight Regional Final under coach Jay Pandolfo, facing off against a familiar opponent, the Cornell Big Red.
#4 seed Cornell enters the final after knocking off 2nd Overall Seed, #1 Seed in the Region, and #1 ranked team in the nation Michigan State. The Spartans opened the scoring with a goal by Gavin O’Connell at 7:20 in the first, his 6th of the season. Ryan Walsh—the team’s leading goalscorer—tied things up for the Big Red at 15:02 in the period. MSU’s Daniel Russell sent the teams to the locker room with his team in the lead, scoring with 29 seconds to go in the period.
In the second, two goals in the span of 17 seconds saw Cornell’s Charlie Major tie things up at 16:30 in the period before Karsen Dorwart gave Michigan State their lead back.
After a 30-9 shot advantage for the Spartans in the first two period, the Big Red finally outshot them in the third 12-7. At 12:38 in the period Ryan Walsh scored his second of the game to tie things up and with just 10 seconds to play in the game Sullivan Mack scored the game winner to send Cornell to the Toledo Regional Final.
The Big Red are led by sophomore forward Ryan Walsh, who leads the team in goals (16) and points (30) and tied for the most assists (14) with senior Sullivan Mack; Dalton Bancroft is second on the team in goals (15) and points (26). In net, senior Ian Shane has played 33 of 35 games, with a .903 SV% and 2.20 GAA.
This will be the Terriers and Big Red’s 5th meeting in the NCAA Tournament and 3rd since 2018.
Records
3-1-0: vs. Cornell in NCAA Tournament (1-0-0 under Jay Pandolfo)
6-4-2: vs. Cornell since 2007 (2-1-0)
Stats
Doug Grimes is the only current Terrier with a goal against Cornell, while Ryan Greene, Quinn Hutson, and Shane Lachance each have 1 assist
It is the first time since the 2000 NCAA Tournament that BU will play a team who’s primary color is a shade of red in the first two rounds of the tournament—St. Cloud State and St. Lawrence.
