The Boston University men's ice hockey team begins defense of its 2018 Hockey East tournament crown with a visit to Tsongas Center for a best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series against No. 18 UMass Lowell beginning on Friday (March 15).
The Terriers and River Hawks are meeting in the Hockey East playoffs for the fourth time in the past seven seasons, including the 2013 and 2015 title games. BU's last road trip in the tournament came in 2016 when it visited Lowell for the quarterfinals and was swept by the River Hawks.
BU has advanced to the Hockey East semifinals in 14 of the past 17 seasons. The Terriers have won six of their past seven Hockey East tournament games and have eight wins in the league playoffs over the past three years. Nine of BU's past 11 Hockey East tournament games have been decided by a single goal.
BU is 75-31-9 (.691) in 115 all-time meetings with the River Hawks, including a 9-5 advantage in the Hockey East tournament. Lowell, however, is 12-7-1 in the past 20 meetings and 13 of BU's 31 losses in the all-time series have occurred since the start of the 2011-12 season.
The teams have now split their regular-season series in four straight seasons. The home team won all six contests the first three years while the road teams won both meeting this season. BU and Lowell are an even 15-15-2 in the 22 meetings that have taken place at Tsongas Center.
UMass Lowell earned just one win in its final seven games of the regular season (1-3-3) but remains in the USCHO Top 20 poll at No. 18. The River Hawks are 7-6-3 at home this season.
Junior Ryan Lohin has a team-high 26 points on 12 goals and 14 assists. Five other River Hawks have at least 18 points on the year and that group is led by sophomore Connor Sodergren (5-16--21) and senior Ryan Dmowski (12-8--20). Junior Kenny Hausinger (11g, 8a) has chipped in 19 points while freshman Reid Stefanson (7g, 11a) and junior d-man Mattias Göransson (4g, 14a) have 18 apiece.
Junior Tyler Wall (2.06, .922) and senior Christoffer Hernberg (2.21, .919) have shared time in goal all season.
BU and UMass Lowell split a home-and-home series on Dec. 7-8 with the road team winning each night. After a 5-3 win by UMass Lowell at Agganis Arena in the series opener, the Terriers rebounded with a 5-2 triumph the following night. Capped by senior Bobo Carpenter's power-play goal less than five minutes into the third, the Terriers rallied to tie Friday's game after trailing 3-1. The visitors scored the decisive goal with 12:15 left in the third and added an empty netter to create the 5-3 final.
On Saturday, BU put together a three-goal first period to jump out to an insurmountable lead. Carpenter and sophomore Shane Bowers each scored a pair of goals, junior Patrick Curry had a career-high three points (1g, 2a) and junior Jake Oettinger made 40 saves. BU scored two 5-on-5 goals, a 4-on-4 tally and a power-play goal in addition to a shorthanded marker by Carpenter that was the eventual game winner.
This is the fifth time that the Terriers are the No. 5 seed in the league tournament and they are 6-6 all-time in that seed. The other four years BU was a No. 6 seed was 1989 (lost in quarters at Providence), 1999 (lost in quarters at Providence), 2003 (lost in title game vs. UNH) and 2016 (lost in quarters at UMass Lowell).
The Terriers, who are making a league-record 34th quarterfinal appearance, have qualified for all 35 of the Hockey East tournaments since the league's inception in 1984 and finished lower than the fifth seed just three times (6th - 2001, 8th - 2004, 9th - 2014). BU is in search of its 10th Hockey East title, having captured the tournament crown in 1986, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2006, 2009, 2015 and 2018.
Thirteen current skaters and one goaltender have played at least one contest in the Hockey East tournament. Carpenter has seven points (5g, 2a) in 10 Hockey East tournament games. Junior defensemen Chad Krys (2-3--5) and Dante Fabbro (1-3--4) have combined for nine points in their seven tournament contests while sophomore Shane Bowers had four assists in four games as a freshman last season. Oettinger, last year's Hockey East tournament MVP, is 6-1 in seven tournament games and boasts an impressive 2.04 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage.
BU has an overall Hockey East tournament record of 74-39-1 (.654). BU is 2-1 in the opening round, 49-23-1 (.678) in the quarterfinals, 12-12 (.500) in the semifinals, 2-0 in the consolation and 9-3 (.750) in the championship. Providence has been the Terriers' most common opponent in the tournament with 22 meetings. The Terriers have played 15 games against Maine and 14 against both Boston College and UMass Lowell.
Oettinger enters the postseason as one of the hottest goaltenders in the country, posting a .958 save percentage and a 1.27 goals-against average over the final six regular-season games, including a pair of shutouts.
Four Terriers - Bowers, Carpenter, Curry and Joel Farabee - have 10 or more goals this season. Over the course of its 14 wins, BU has had 10 different players record a game-winning goal.
BU's penalty kill has successfully killed off 54 of its opponents' past 56 power plays, including a stretch of 26 straight, which was the program's longest such streak since a string of 27 straight that ended on March 24, 2017. The Terriers' penalty kill has moved up to 11th in the nation at 85.6 percent.
