Boston University and Merrimack make the NCAA Hockey Field

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On Sunday evening, the NCAA Hockey selection committee announced the field of 16 for the upcoming tournament that will begin on Thursday afternoon. Two members of Hockey East were named to this group. The Boston University Terriers and the Merrimack College Warriors are on the road to Tampa, Florida with a chance to play for a national championship on April, 8. These two teams just played for the HE tournament championship last Saturday night and had been slotted into different regionals. Let’s take a look at their first-round matchups in the field of 16.

The Merrimack College Warriors (23-13-1) received an at-large bid into the field. They will play their first-round game on Friday in Bridgeport, CT. against the Quinnipiac Bobcats (30-4-3). The Warriors finished the regular season in second place to the Terriers. It was their highest finish in the program’s history. A lot of credit must go to the seven graduate transfers that are on the roster. They brought plenty of experience to the team that has paid off in a big way. They will enter their game with the Bobcats winning six of their last seven games. Their three games in the Hockey East Conference Tournament had a common theme, they were all low-scoring affairs. In the quarterfinals, they defeated Boston College by a 1-0 score at home. The win advanced them to T.D. Garden for just the third time and the first since 2011. There, they took out the UMass Lowell River Hawks in double-overtime 3-2 before losing in the championship game to the Terriers by the same 3-2 score in overtime. Hugo Ollas has been a mainstay between the pipes for the Warriors. He has made 25 appearances with 20 of them being starts. His record is 10-9-0 with six shoutouts and he has a 2.32 GAA with a .915 save percentage. He has allowed 46 goals, 15 of them on the powerplay in over one thousand minutes of game time this year. Junior Forward Alex Jefferies leads the team in scoring with 14 goals and 27 assists for 41 points in 37 games. He has been clutch for this team all season long. He has scored twice on the PP, twice on SH, and has four game-winning goals. He is tied for second on the team in plus/minus with a +11. Their powerplay converted at a 13% rate (19-for-141), and on faceoffs, they won 46.9% (1016-of-1152).

The Quinnipiac Bobcats also earned an at-large bid to the tournament. They will be the top seed in Bridgeport, CT. having been ranked #2 in both the polls and the Pairwise rankings. They won 20 of 22 league games, the first league team to do that since the 1988-89 season. They tied a league record for wins with 28 of 34 overall. They have the best-scoring defense in the country allowing only 1.59 goals in 37 games. They lead the nation in winning percentage at .851, and scoring margin at 2.32. Quinnipiac is second in faceoff win percentage at .572, third in scoring offense at 3.92, total assists at 258, and total points at 403. This will be their fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. They are looking for their first Frozen Four appearances since the 2015-16 season.

The #5 ranked Boston University Terriers are heading to Manchester, NH to face the Western Michigan Broncos (23-14-1) on Thursday afternoon. This is the 38th all-time appearance for the Terriers in the tournament. It is their first since 2021. Manchester has been a good spot for BU. Their last two Frozen Four teams (2009 and 2015) started their run in Manchester, NH. On Saturday night, the Terriers won their 10th Hockey East title as freshman Lane Husdon scored his second of the night at 1:57 of overtime to defeat Merrimack. They erased two one-goal deficits to win the game. It was also the second overtime win of the weekend for BU. For his efforts, Hudson was named the Bill Flynn Tournament MVP. It is the seventh time in program history that BU won both the regular season and conference titles in the same year. The Terriers will be the number two seed in Manchester behind Denver who will be the top seed. This will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two schools with each team having three wins. The last time they met BU won 5-2 back on December 30, 1994. Hudson, who is a Hobey Baker Finalist, leads the team in scoring with 14 goals and 33 assists for 41 points. He has two PPG and five GWG to his credit. He also leads the team in plus/minus at a +25. The Terriers goaltending has been handled by Drew Commesso who has started 31 games for BU. He has a 22-7-0 record with a 2.51 GAA. He has one shutout with a .912 save percentage.

Western Michigan also received an at-large bid after losing in the quarterfinals of the NCHC to Colorado College. The Broncos are the #3 seed in Manchester and are ranked number nine in the country. Senior forward Jason Polin is a Hobey Baker finalist and is second on the team in scoring with 29 goals and 17 assists for 46 points. He leads the team in plus/minus at a +27. Polin had six PPG which tied for the team lead, two SHGs, and four GWGs which also tied for the team lead. In goal, junior Cameron Rowe started 36 of 37 games and had a 22-13-1 record with a 2.45 GAA, one shutout, with a .907 save percentage. He allowed 88 goals in over two thousand minutes played. Their power play is good with a .239 percentage with 34 goals in 142 chances. They won .508 of faceoffs this season.

A great weekend of college hockey is on tap for the upcoming weekend.