Fontaine, OSU Advance to Big Ten Title Game

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine shot Ohio State University into the 2025 Big Ten championship game.

The Rhode Island native scored just under 15 minutes into overtime last night at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio to lift third-seeded OSU to a 4-3 victory over visiting fifth-seeded Penn State University. The Buckeyes will now face defending champion Michigan State next Saturday night for at Munn Arena for the league crown and the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. Top-seeded MSU outlasted seventh-seeded Notre Dame, 1-0, in East Lansing, Mich. yesterday,

Fontaine opened the scoring in Columbus on a first-period deflection, and the two teams then traded goals over the next 40 minutes, with Penn State's Matt DiMarsico connecting with just under six minutes remaining in regulation to force the extra session. Logan Terness made 31 saves in net for tenth-ranked OSU (24-12-2 overall), while Arsenii Sergeev finished with 38 stops for No. 11 Penn State (20-13-4), which lost for the only the second time since Feb. 1. 

Fontaine, who spent the first four years of his college career at Northeastern, now leads OSU with 16 goals and 23 assists for 39 points through 38 games. He kept OSU's season alive in the Big Ten quarterfinals by scoring the game-tying goal late in Game Two against Wisconsin, after the Badgers had won the first game, and the Buckeyes went on to win the series in three games. In 169 career NCAA outings, he now has 48-88—136 points overall, including 13 power-play goals and eight game-winners.

Even without the automatic conference bid, both OSU and Penn State are likely to qualify for the 16-team NCAAs according to the Pairwise Rankings.

Ohio State Edges Michigan State, 4-2

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine's goal just under eight minutes into the third period broke a two-all tie, and catapulted No. 11 Ohio State to a 4-2 victory last night over visiting No. 2 Michigan State in a Big Ten contest.

Riley Thompson scored two goals for OSU, and also assisted on Fontaine's game-winning wrist shot before 5,339 spectators in Columbus. Logan Terness made 35 saves in earning the win for the Buckeyes (16-7-2 overall, 9-5-1 Big Ten), who suffered a loss and a tie at Penn State last weekend. Thomas Weis scored an insurance goal for OSU late in the third period.

MSU (20-4-3, 11-3-3), which had already lost forward Red Savage to injury for the remainder of the 2024-25 NCAA season, suffered its first loss in regulation since Dec. 6 despite 25 stops on the night from Trey Augustine. David Gucciardi and Karsen Dorwart scored goals for the Spartans.

The Buckeyes and Spartans meet again tonight at Value City Arena to close out their season series. MSU swept OSU in a pair of games in East Lansing, Mich. back in November.

ADDENDUM: MSU gained the series split with a 4-1 win on Friday night, as four different Spartans scored goals and Augustine made 22 saves.

Northeastern Claims Fifth Beanpot in Six Seasons

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine scored with 27 seconds remaining in overtime to lift Northeastern to a 4-3 win over third-ranked Boston University in the men's Beanpot championship game on Monday night at TD Garden. The Huskies have now won five of the last six battles for Boston's college hockey bragging rights, in the tournament's 71st edition. Northeastern's women's team won its own Beanpot title last month, also at TD Garden.

NU battled back from three one-goal deficits last night, the last on Jack Williams' power-play tally midway through the third period, with the secondary assist going to Fontaine. Cameron Whitehead finished with 33 saves for the Huskies (13-12-2 overall), who were outshot, 36-17, in claiming their ninth men's Beanpot title all-time. BU fell to 19-8-1 on the season.

In the consolation game, top-ranked Boston College blanked Harvard, 5-0. Ryan Leonard had a goal and two assists for the Eagles (21-5-1), while Jan Korec made 19 stops for his first career NCAA win and shutout. Harvard dropped to 4-15-4.

NU, BU to Meet in 2024 Beanpot Final

It'll be an all-canine final affair again in the annual battle for Boston bragging rights.

Northeastern outlasted Harvard, 3-2, in overtime of the first semifinal of the 71st Beanpot tournament on Monday night at TD Garden, while third-ranked Boston University held on to edge No. 1 Boston College, 4-3 in the nightcap. Gunnarwolfe Fontaine scored just over a half-minute into the extra session to lift NU, while Ryan Greene's early third-period goal stood up as the game-winner for BU.

Northeastern has won four of the last five men's Beanpots, after last winning in 1988 prior to its current run. BU, which has won a record 31 Beanpots, last raised the trophy in 2022 when it defeated NU, 1-0, in the final. Monday's final will pit NU against BU for the Beanpot title for the 16th time in tournament history. The consolation game earlier that day will feature Harvard against BC for the first time since 2022.

Northeastern Claims Both 2023 Beanpot Crowns

Northeastern University is both king and queen of the Beanpot tournament for 2023.

The Northeastern men defeated Harvard University, 3-2, in a shootout on Monday night at a sold-out TD Garden in Boston, the first shootout in Beanpot history, although for NCAA tournament purposes the game is officially a tie contest. The Huskies still secured their fourth Beanpot title in the last five years following a 30-season drought. It was also the first time the Huskies and Crimson had met in the final in the tournament's 70-year history.

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine scored the opening and tying goals in regulation for 16th-ranked NU, sandwiching his scores around a pair by Harvard's Matthew Coronato. Aidan McDonough notched the decisive goal in the shootout for NU. Devon Levi, who stopped the two shots he faced in the shootout, made 32 saves for Northeastern (14-10-5 overall), and earned the Beanpot MVP award plus the Eberly Trophy as the tournament's top goaltender. Mitchell Gibson finished with 27 stops for the No. 9 Crimson (17-6-2).

The Northeastern women followed suit a day later with a 2-1 win over host Boston College in the 44th women's final, held at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill. A second-period goal by tournament MVP Maureen Murphy stood up as the game-winner, after Mia Brown had staked the No. 5 Huskies to a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza. BC's Hannah Bilka made it a one-goal game late in the third period with an extra-attacker tally.

Gwyneth Philips stopped 27 shots for NU (28-2-1), earning her the the Bertagna Award as the tournament's most outstanding goaltender, while Abigail Levy made 34 saves for the Eagles (18-13-1).

2022 NCAA Women's Frozen Four This Weekend

The 2022 NCAA Women's Frozen Four for Division I ice hockey is set. Minnesota-Duluth, defending national runner-up Northeastern, Ohio State, and first-time national semifinalist Yale make up the field that will skate this weekend in State College, Pa., at Penn State's Pegula Ice Arena.

Third-ranked Northeastern will take on eighth-ranked UMD at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday, while OSU, the top-ranked team in the nation, will face sixth-ranked Yale at 7 p.m. ET, with both of those games to be televised by ESPN+. The winners will advance to Sunday's championship game at 4 p.m. ET (ESPNU).

Out of the four schools, only UMD has previously won an NCAA title, having done so on five previous occasions (2001-2003, 2008, 2010). The Bulldogs (26-11-1 overall) advanced to this year's semifinals by winning two games, 4-0 over Harvard and 2-1 against Minnesota.

The other three schools all earned first-round byes and had to win once apiece in this year's tournament, which was expanded to 11 teams from the previous eight. Yale (26-8-1) edged host Colgate, 2-1, while Ohio State (30-6-0) clipped visiting Quinnipiac, 4-3, and Northeastern (31-4-2) avenged last year's title game loss with a 4-2 victory over visiting Wisconsin. In the first round, besides UMD's triumph over Harvard, Quinnipiac blanked Syracuse, 4-0, while Wisconsin ousted Clarkson, 3-1.

UMD's Elizabeth Giguère, a graduate transfer from Clarkson, is the second-leading scorer in the nation with 21 goals and 39 assists for 60 points through 38 games. OSU senior defender Sophie Jaques is the NCAA's third-leading scorer, and tops among all blueliners, with 21-38—59 points in 36 contests.

Graduate defender Skylar Fontaine of Northeastern leads all NCAA skaters with 41 assists in 37 outings, while graduate teammate Maureen Murphy is pacing the nation with 13 power-play goals, and graduate goaltender Aerin Frankel has posted a 25-3-2 record with an NCAA-best 11 shutouts in 31 appearances this season to date. Yale graduate forward Tess Dettling is tied for second in the nation with three shorthanded goals.

As a team, OSU leads the nation with 4.72 goals scored per game, and a power play that has a 37 percent success rate, while Northeastern ranks first in the nation with just 1.03 goals allowed per game. Yale has the top penalty-killing unit in the NCAA, clicking at almost 95 percent, and is also tied for the national lead with eight shorthanded scores, while UMD ranks in the top 10 in goals scored per game (3.50) and power-play efficiency (26.6 percent).

BC Bows Out of 2022 Hockey East Tournament

Boston College's 100th men's ice hockey season has come to a close.

The Eagles fell at Northeastern, 3-2, in a Hockey East quarterfinal elimination game at Matthews Arena in Boston on Saturday, after spotting the Huskies a three-goal lead in the second period. BC responded with third-period scores from defensemen Drew Helleson (power play) and Marshall Warren, but could get no closer despite outshooting NU, 48-36, on the night, and 25-9 in the final frame.

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine tallied a goal and an assist for the 11th-ranked Huskies, who got 46 saves from goaltender Devon Levi. Eric Dop made 33 saves for BC in his final appearance for the Eagles, who went 1-for-2 on the power play.

BC finishes the 2021-22 campaign at 15-18-5 overall, while top-seeded NU improved to 25-11-1 and will face Connecticut in the conference semifinals at TD Garden in Boston.