Boston College-Boston University Championship Preview

It ends when the two long -time opponents meet in the title game in the 72nd edition of the tournament in TD Garden. It marks the 23rd time the teams play for the title, with BU holding a 12-10 edge.

“I honestly didn’t know that,” said BU -Captain Ryan Greene. “It makes it a little more crazy, but we’re just trying to focus and take it like any other game and just be ready to go past Puck Drop.”

Both BU and BC took care of the business in the first round, with Terrier scoring seven missed goals after watching Harvard a 1-0 lead to get away with a 7-1 win. BC followed by ensuring that there would be no seventh consecutive trip to the final for Huskies, rolling to a convincing 8-2 victory that saw eight Eagles on the lamp.

BC enters the matchup 21-4-1, winners of nine in a row, including Friday night 4-2 victory in New Hampshire, with Eagles pulling 2-1 in the third before gathering for the victory. BC is at the top of paired ratings, the system used to select and seeds 16-team field for the NCAA tournament, and has outscored opponents 92-44, including 37-10 in the third period.

Sophomore Ryan Leonard’s 23 goals are tops in the country. Classmate Gabe Perreault leads Hockey East with 25 assists to a BC team that makes its first performance in the championship since 2019. Eagles last won the title in 2016.

“It’s definitely going to be a new experience,” Captain Eamon Powell said. “This is our first time playing in the second game, but this group has played in a lot of big games, obviously throughout the postal season last year, also with the same circumstance. It will be super high in a packed building, it will be a close matchup. ”

BU comes in at 15-10-1, after dropping a 2-1 decision on Merrimack on Friday night. Jack Harvey had the lonely goal and has scored in three straight matches for terrier who dipped a little to 10. In pairs.

“We have to play a certain way if we want to be successful,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo, whose team last took home the trophy in 2022. “We learned a lesson Friday. We’ve learned a lot of lessons like a team this year and I like the way our group responds. So we just have to make sure we play together, compete and play the right way. “

Cole Hutson has recorded a point in nine of his last 10 games (5-12–17 in that time), he leads all NCAA-Nybste Defense Defense in Point (27) and helps (20). Classmate Cole Eiserman leads all NCAA -rookies with 15 goals.

Mikhail Yegorov took the loss in the net in his fourth start since he came to BU for the second semester. On Sunday, Pandolfo confirmed that Yegorov will be back between the pipes. Selected by New Jersey Devils in the second round (49 overall) of the 2024 NHL draft, Yegorov has a 1.51 goal against average and a 0.940 savings percentage. He has allowed only one goal of 5-to-5 games in his four starts.

He faces Eagles for the second time, after debuting NCAA at the Conte Forum when BC finished a two-game sweep with a 2-0 win on January 25. He let a power game goals in the opening mine, but stopped 23 of 24 shots.

“Having his first college game in that atmosphere was really impressive, especially when we scored early,” said BC coach Greg Brown. “For him to get this goal go in and then play the rest of the game Rock Solid as he did, it is just a fantastic testimony to his mental strength, as well as how good a goalkeeper he is.

“We know we will have to get traffic in front of them, go down online hard and hopefully pick up some rebounds, tips because he seems to save everything he sees.”

BC counters with Sophomore Jacob Fowler, who leads Hockey East in Wins (19), Shutouts (6) and Savings Percentage (.936), and is number two in target against average (1.66).

Puck Drop is scheduled for 19.30 with the game broadcast at Nesn.

Northastern (9-13-3) takes Harvard (7-13-2) in comfort cross from a loss in Dartmouth. It marks the third straight tournament where the two teams meet.

Huskies won the previous two meetings, caught the 2023 Beanpot Championship in a shootout and gathered to defeat Crimson in overtime in last year’s first round matchup.

Follow Andrew Mahoney @Globemahoney.