By: JOHN DOYLE (Citizen.com) —
DOVER — The Boston University men’s hockey team entered the postseason all but certain it would receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Although the Terriers dispatched three desperate opponents en route to the Hockey East tournament title, BU coach Jack Parker thinks that although his team’s bid to the big dance was secure, playing against squads fighting for their playoff lives helped prepare the Terriers for what is now a lose-and-go-home situation.

“Everybody has great expectations now,” Parker said. “We were playing teams that were desperate for wins to stay in the playoffs. We eliminated Maine — they had to win to continue their season. We eliminated (Boston College and UMass-Lowell). Those games were brutal. Those games were like pulling teeth, it was so difficult. Those teams gave us their best games.

“Now everybody in this tournament is desperate,” he continued.

The Terriers — who beat Lowell 1-0 in the Hockey East championship game last week — enter this weekend’s Northeast Regional at Manchester’s Verizon Wireless Arena as the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament, and will play regional No. 4 seed Ohio State (23-14-4 overall) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

“Sometimes in the middle of the season, you have a big target on your back if you come into somebody’s barn ranked No. 1 in the nation,” Parker said. “Now (opponents will think) we have a chance to be the No. 1 team. And that’s more everybody’s focus than to grab a little bit of headlines one day in the middle of January.”

Ohio State was ousted from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament quarterfinals at Alaska-Fairbanks two weeks ago (2 games to 1). Coach John Markell, now in his 14th season coaching the Buckeyes, knows the task facing his team is a daunting one.

“When you’re the 4 seed (in the region) playing against the 1 seed, obviously you have a hill to climb,” Markell said. “One thing they can’t control is how hard we’re going to work. If we want to be physical, we’ll be physical. They can’t control that.”

The Buckeyes finished fifth in the CCHA with a 13-11-4 record (with three shootout wins). This will be the first time in Markell’s tenure that Ohio State has entered the national tournament having not played the previous week in the CCHA semifinals.

BU, on the other hand, has been consistently ranked all season long as one of the top teams in the nation. The Terriers (31-6-4 overall, 18-5-4 HE) also won the Hockey East regular-season title and captured their 26th Beanpot last month (most all-time). Colin Wilson leads BU in points with 50 (15 goals, 35 assists) and Jason Lawrence is the Terriers’ goals leader with 21. Brandon Yip, who scored the game online prescription medications winner against Lowell Saturday night, has 19 goals.

“Obviously, BU’s a very good hockey team,” Markell said. “But we’ve played some good hockey teams. (One) of the greatest things about hockey is (that) the equalizer is the guys between the pipes.”

For the Buckeyes, their “equalizer” is goaltender Dustin Carlson, who sports a .920 save percentage and a 2.40 GAA in 35 starts this season. Carlson was stuck with the loss in the third game of the Buckeyes’ quarterfinal against Alaska. Ron Meyers scored with 50 seconds to play in regulation to lift the Nanooks to a 1-0 win.

“Dusty’s coming off a fluke goal that he’d like to have back,” Markell said. “He has the opportunity now to bounce back off that and lead the way he’s been leading (us) all year.”

BU’s starting goalie is Kieran Millan, who brings a .923 save percentage and a 1.80 GAA into Saturday’s game.

The winners of the four regional tournaments (the other three are in Minneapolis, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Bridgeport, Conn.) will advance to the Frozen Four April 10 and 12 in Washington, D.C.

This will be BU’s 31st tournament appearance, its first since 2007, when it was knocked out in the first round with a 5-1 loss to Michigan State. For the Buckeyes, this is their sixth time to the dance but first since 2005, when they lost to Cornell 3-2 in the Frozen Four semifinals. The Terriers have won the national championship four times under Parker, the last in 1995.

“There are 16 teams in this tournament and 15 are going to go home unhappy,” Parker said. “The only team that wins its last game is the team that really is No. 1. We may be rated No. 1 by some mathematical process, but the No. 1 team will be decided in April.”

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