After a break of only a few short days, Ohio State is back in action against the Terriers of Boston University. After a spectacular win over a fatigued and outmanned Detroit Mercy, Boston should be the last of the cupcake games before the season really ratchets up the toughness. I hate to throw around the term cupcake, but Boston is a shell of the team the Bucks handled fairly easily last year.
Superstar attackman Chris Gray left for bluer pastures in Chapel Hill, a tremendous coup for former Buckeye coach Joe Breschi. James Burr, Gray's foil, is also not on the roster anymore.
Most of Boston's offensive production walked out the door and, despite better than average recruiting, replacing said production isn't going super well for the Terriers. Boston was shut down by Providence last weekend, only scoring 5 goals on 28 shots, for a shooting % below 20%. That's REALLY not good.
Two players had a goal and an assist, but no one Boston player had more than two points. Providence has certainly made some strides, but the Terriers beat the Friars in OT last year prior to playing Ohio State at the Woody. Advantage is definitely to the Buckeyes here.
Defensively, Boston is pretty much adequate. Providence didn't set the world on fire, only converting 12 of their 42 shots. A 28.5% opponent shooting percentage is actually really good, generally. Certainly more than enough to give you a chance to win. LSM Reece Eddy (senior, #23) was certainly a force for the Terriers, causing 5 turnovers against Providence.
Freshman Collin Loughead (#28) had 6 GBs as well for the Terriers, who started 4 freshmen on the day. While young, Boston has a decent nucleus to build their defense around. The problem is that the offense is so underdeveloped at this point that opponents get plenty of opportunities to score.
It doesn't matter how good the defense is if they're gassed from playing 40 minutes in their own end. While there may be some issues early, I can't imagine the dam will hold for long.
In goal, Boston starts senior #40 Joe McSorley. McSorley is a very good goaltender, making things interesting for the Buckeye offense this week. McSorley averaged 12 saves a game last year, a number he reached against Providence in a total shellacking last weekend. Small at 5'9", McSorley still makes excellent saves.
If he can frustrate the Buckeye offense early, it could be a rough go for the offense for a while. Last year the Buckeyes would regularly toss shots at net and just sort of hope they went in. So far shot placement has been better, but the season is extremely young.
At FOGO, Boston starts junior #1 Sean Christman. Christmas went a tremendous 15-21 against Providence, and will provide a stiff test for Christian Feliziani and the rest of the Buckeye faceoff specialists at the dot. Losing Justin Inacio really hurts, but it can be ameliorated by the suddenly improved offense.
Duke won something like 85% of the faceoffs against Air Force, and still managed to lose. All is certainly not lost, but with B1G play coming up, the faceoff guys will need to really grow for the Buckeyes to hold their own.
Interestingly, special teams were not really a factor for either team last week. Man Up has long been a major weakness for the Buckeyes, but there was only 1 Man Up opportunity between the two teams.
Ohio State failed to convert, but just 1 opportunity is hardly enough to draw conclusions from. Hopefully we will see some improvement this weekend over last year's pitiful form.
Coming into tomorrow's games, Buckeye optimism has to be approaching an all-time high. The Terriers are very young, have much less talent on offense, and are coming off a brutal defeat at the hands of Providence. Things are looking good for an easy Buckeye win.
No TV, but there will be a stream on Stadium TV, link below. Game start is 12:00 p.m. in Boston.
Final prediction: Ohio State 18, Boston 6.
