Selection Sunday wasn’t very suspenseful for the Boston University hockey team. The Terriers knew they were a lock to receive an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament, they knew they would be playing in Worcester and they knew their PairWise ranking would make them the No. 2 seed in the Northeast Regional.
The only unknown for the Icedogs was just who their first-round opponent would be.
And, as it turns out, there’s little mystery there, either.
BU will face familiar cross-river rival Harvard University in the national quarterfinals on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. in what will be the teams’ third meeting of the season. The Terriers (24-13-3) have beaten the Crimson (22-9-2) in both of the previous matchups, including a 3-0 blanking at Walter Brown Arena in November and last month’s 2-1 win in the Beanpot opener.
‘There’s positives and negatives to playing Harvard,’ said sophomore defenseman Ryan Whitney. ‘We know how they play and we have beaten them twice, and so we have confidence going in. Coach [Jack] Parker had a quote about that. He said, ‘We’re not going to have to run around and look for game tapes of them.’
‘At the same time you kind of wish you were playing someone you haven’t played, from outside your region, because it’s the NCAAs.’
After losing the Hockey East championship game more than a week ago, Parker said he preferred to play one of the Western teams in the tournament. However, barring major upsets, BU’s first crack at a new opponent will not come until the national championship game.
League champ University of New Hampshire is Worcester’s top seed, and will face St. Cloud St. University in the first round with the winner to take on the Terriers or the Crimson. Whichever team emerges from the Northeast will meet the survivor from the East bracket, where Cornell University (2-0 vs. BU) and Boston College (3-2 vs. BU) are the top two seeds.
‘To get where we want to go, we’re going to have to beat good teams anyway,’ Whitney said.
And no matter what the scenarios are for the future, the Icedogs are glad to finally learn their fate.
‘It’s real nice to find out,’ Whitney said. ‘We had a whole week off where we were just practicing. It’s good to find out who you’re playing so you can get ready for them and focus on them.’
While BU was gearing up for the NCAA tourney, Harvard was marching through the ECAC Tournament, advancing all the way to the conference title game before falling to Cornell in overtime. That effort likely locked the Crimson, a bubble team for most of the season, as a tournament team and earned them a No. 3 seed.
Meanwhile, BU looked to be in good shape for a No. 1 seed until the University of Minnesota romped its way to a WCHA Tournament title and in the process slipped past BU and into the PairWise top four. The Gophers earned the No. 1 post in the Midwest, joining Colorado College, the West favorite, as top-ranked WCHA teams.
In all, the conference received five bids, one better than the four from Hockey East, which flexed its muscle by receiving four of the top eight spots. The University of Maine joined BU and BC as second seeds, while New Hampshire is a No. 1.
Providence College, which finished ahead of BU in the regular season but was swept out of the Hockey East tournament by the Terriers, did not receive an NCAA berth.
– Staff writer Nick Cardamone
contributed to this report.
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