Thursday, March 27
Toledo, Ohio
2 p.m.
Ohio State
vs
Boston University
Photo by: Ohio State Athletics
No. 9 Buckeyes Head to Toledo for NCAA Regional
3/25/2025 3:29:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey
Ohio State will take on BU at 2 p.m. Thursday
The Basics
Buckeyes vs. Terriers
Buckeyes in Toledo
- The No. 9 Ohio State men's hockey team is headed to the NCAA Toledo Regional this week in the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.
- The No. 3 seed Buckeyes will take on No. 2 seed Boston University at 2 p.m. Thursday in the first game of this year's NCAA Tournament.Â
- No. 1 seed Michigan State and No. 4 Cornell will face off in the second game in Toledo at 5:30 p.m. The first-round winners will meet Saturday at a time to be determined for a spot in the 2025 NCAA Frozen Four in St. Louis.
- The game between the Buckeyes and BU will be televised by ESPNU and streamed on WatchESPN and TSN+ in Canada. Ohio State Radio will carry the game (1460 AM, 97.1 HD2, Ohio State Buckeyes app and website) and live stats will be available through OhioStateBuckeyes.com.
- Ohio State is 24-13-2 this season and was 14-9-1 in Big Ten play. The squad fell in double overtime to Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship Saturday night. BU is 21-13-2 and was 14-8-2 in Hockey East action. The Terriers lost to UConn in the Hockey East semifinals last Thursday in their last time out.
- The Buckeyes and Terriers have met three times, with the most recent an 8-3 BU win in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
- Ohio State is making its 11th NCAA appearance and BU earned its 40th berth.Â
- For the third time in his career, Steve Rohlik was selected the Big Ten Coach of the Year. This season, he led the Buckeyes, who were picked to finish last in the preseason poll, to a third place finish in the B1G. The squad has compiled 24 wins so far, the second-most in his tenure.
- Five Buckeyes were Honorable Mention All-B1G selections - forwards Davis Burnside, Gunnarwolfe Fontaine and Riley Thompson, defenseman Damien Carfagna and goalie Logan Terness. Patrick Guzzo was the B1G Sportsmanship Award winner for Ohio State.
- Ohio State is making its 11th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, with two Frozen Four trips (1998, 2018).
- The squad has two stretches of three consecutive berths – 2003-05 and 2017-19 and also earned a spot in 1998, '99, '09 and '23.
- The Buckeyes have been an at-large team all but one year. The squad won the 2004 CCHA Tournament to claim the league's automatic bid that season.
- Six Buckeyes have NCAA Tournament game experience. Davis Burnside, Joe Dunlap and Patrick Guzzo all skated in both games in the Bridgeport Regional in 2023. Reilly Herbst and John Larkin were part of the Ohio State squad that year but did not see action in the game. Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (Northeastern/2022), Aiden Hansen-Bukata (RIT/2024) and Brent Johnson (North Dakota/2022) all played in the NCAA Tournament at their previous schools.Â
- The Buckeyes are one of four Big Ten teams in this year's field, joined by No. 1 seed Michigan State, No. 2 seed Minnesota and No. 4 seed Penn State.
- In their last NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023, the Buckeyes defeated Harvard, 8-1, in the Bridgeport Regional opening round but fell to eventual national champion Quinnipiac, 4-1, in the regional final.
- The squad's first trip was in 1998, when it defeated Yale and Michigan State (in 2OT) in the West Regional in Ann Arbor, Mich., to reach the NCAA Frozen Four, where it lost to Boston College in Boston.
- The Buckeyes returned in 1999, suffering a first-round loss in the East Regional to Maine, 4-2, in Worcester, Mass.
- In the three consecutive trips from 2003-05, Ohio State lost in the first round each time. The 2003 squad fell to Boston College 1-0 in Providence, R.I., and in 2004 the Buckeyes lost in overtime to Wisconsin by the same score in Albany, N.Y. The 2005 team suffered a 3-2 loss to Cornell in Minneapolis.
- In 2009 the Buckeyes traveled to Manchester, N.H., falling to Boston University, 8-3.
- In 2017, Ohio State rallied to force overtime against eventual runner-up Minnesota Duluth in Fargo. The Bulldogs prevailed, 3-2, in the extra period.
- The 2018 squad topped Princeton (4-2) and Denver (5-1) in Allentown, Pa., to advance to the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn. That squad lost to the eventual champion UMD Bulldogs, 2-1.
- In 2019, the Buckeyes lost to Denver, 2-0, in Fargo, N.D., in the first round.
- Buckeye head coach Steve Rohlik was the captain on Wisconsin's 1990 NCAA Championship team.
- Buckeye assistant coach JB Bittner was on three Ohio State NCAA Tournament teams (2003-05). Assistant coach Paul Kirtland was on the Buckeyes' 2009 tournament squad.Â
Buckeyes vs. Terriers
- Ohio State and BU have met three times, with the Terriers winning all three matchups.Â
- The squads faced off in the 2009 NCAA Tournament in Manchester, N.H., an 8-3 BU win.
- The other matchups were a 6-5 BU victory Dec. 28, 1973 in the RPI Tournament in Troy, N.Y., and a 2-1 Terrier win in the Mariucci Classic in Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 27, 1998.
- Ohio State has not faced a Hockey East school this year.
- The Terriers are fourth in the NCAA in scoring offense with 3.72 goals per game, and are allowing 2.97 goals per night. The power play ranks fourth nationally (.279) and the penalty kill is at 77.8 percent.Â
- In the 2009 NCAA game, the Buckeyes fell behind 3-0 after the first period to the No. 1 overall seed Terriers and trailed 6-2 after the second. Ohio State scored the first goal of the third (a run of three straight goals) to cut the score to 6-3 with less than nine minutes remaining, but two empty net goals for BU sealed the win.
Buckeyes in Toledo
- The Buckeyes competed in the 2019 Ice Breaker Tournament at the Huntington Center in Toledo, site of this year's regional.Â
- In the tourney, Ohio State posted a 2-2 overtime tie (shootout win) vs. Western Michigan in the first round and a 3-1 victory over RIT in the final to capture the tournament title.
- The Huntington Center is also the home of the ECHL Toledo Walleye. Ohio State alum Dalton Messina is a forward for the squad and Buckeye alum Grant Gabriele is a defenseman for the Walleye but is currently on loan to AHL Cleveland.
- The Buckeyes played against Toledo five times between 1966-68. Four of the games were in Columbus, with the fifth in a tournament at Oberlin.
Players Mentioned
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