Despite a HUGE win against the Fighting Irish last weekend, time waits for no one, and the Scarlet Knights come to town looking to spoil the Buckeyes' season.

This is a game that could go any number of ways, but should still result in a Buckeye victory. Let's get into it.

Offensively, Rutgers is, um, struggling, to put it mildly. The Scarlet Knights have two main scorers, but as a team are shooting the ball poorly, with a shot percentage of .280.

They're only getting 58.3% of their shots on goal, and have taken 17 fewer total shots than their opponents. Rutgers relies heavily on junior attackman Kieran Mullins (#4) and redshirt-sophomore attackman Adam Charalambides (#8). Mullins has only played 7 games this year, but leads the team in assists (20) and points (37).

Charalambides leads Rutgers with 27 goals, and is second in points with 35. No other player has more than 18 points. Much like Boston, the Scarlet Knights are a two-horse machine on offense, and those two horses are scary.

Similarly to the Terriers, Rutgers likes to keep Charalambides and Mullins separate, so one can feed the other for a stepdown shot is space. It's a thorn in the side of the defense, who often has to worry about a quick approach on the backside of the play if Charalambides or Mullins can get a pass off quickly.

Something I saw the Buckeyes do against Notre Dame that may come into play is a quick double team on picks that sparks a quick rotation for the defense, with the on-ball defender recovering inside to the crease. Since Rutgers loves a two-man game, we could see a lot of that.

Defensively, Rutgers has not been at the level of past years, despite their fairly good statistics. Games against Lafayette, Fairfield, and Hofstra have really padded their statistical outcomes.

The team is only allowing a shot percentage of .257, but has really struggled of late against some teams, allowing 15 goals in a win over St. John's and 18 in a loss to the Syracuse Orange.

I really think that the Buckeyes should be able to find shots, as slides tend to be late from the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers also hasn't been great against wing dodges, which have steadily increased in the Buckeye offense.

Watching the Notre Dame game, I was floored at how often the team went to the wings. It was fantastic to see, and will only help in this game, and heading into the tournament.

In goal, Rutgers has redshirt senior Max Edelmann (#10) who has had an interesting season. Edelmann currently allows 10.43 goals per game, but has a save percentage over 60%.

He was 2nd-team All-B1G in 2017, showing he has some pedigree, but didn't garner any honors last year. Edelmann also has not had less than 11 saves in any contest this year.

The Scarlet Knights don't necessarily do a great job keeping Edelmann out of the line of fire, so he can have 19 saves in a loss. Ohio State will have to have great shot placement to get the score to where it should be.

At the faceoff X, Rutgers is just flat bad. The team as a whole is winning just 43.5% of its faceoffs, an abysmal figure. Part of the reason for that is Rutgers has 4 players with at least 22 draws this year, and only one is winning more than 50% of his faceoffs.

Who is going to start is anyone's guess, and I can't float an idea of what to expect from Rutgers. Justin Inacio should tear through them from the jump, even after a subpar game last week. This will be the area Ohio State SHOULD have its biggest advantage on the day.

Finally, Rutgers is a mixed bag when it comes to special teams. The Scarlet Knights really struggle converting their Man Up opportunities, only scoring 5 goals in 21 chances.

Good news for the Buckeyes is that Rutgers doesn't draw that many penalties. The bad news for Ohio State is that Rutgers keeps teams under 20% on Man Down. It will be very interesting to see how the battle on special teams plays out, as the teams have diametrically opposed strengths and weaknesses.

Should make for an interesting chess match tomorrow.

The game tomorrow has letdown potential after an immense win over the Fighting Irish last week, though I think the Buckeyes match up very well.

If Ohio State is able to avoid the letdown trap, I think this could be a fairly straightforward win. The Buckeyes should get more out of Jack Myers this week (0-7 shooting, 0 pts vs Notre Dame), and hopefully Johnny Wiseman gets back from whatever kept him out of the Notre Dame game.

Regardless, I am looking for a fairly relaxing game tomorrow.

Final prediction: 17-12, Buckeyes win.

Go Bucks!