BOSTON - The Boston University men's ice hockey team opens up December with a short trip down Commonwealth Ave. on Friday (Dec. 1) for the 275th meeting with archrival Boston College. This season marks the 100th anniversary of the rivalry, as the schools first met on Feb. 6, 1918.
The Terriers have alternated wins and losses over their past five games and are coming off a 4-3 loss to then-No. 7 Cornell at Red Hot Hockey on Saturday. The rivals will wrap up their home-and-home series on Saturday at Agganis Arena in their only other scheduled meeting this season.
BU has allowed just seven goals over the past six meetings with BC and is attempting to earn back-to-back wins in Conte Forum for the first time since the 2011-12 season. Last season, the Terriers posted their first regular-season sweep of the Eagles since the 1994-95 campaign, taking both ends of a home-and-home series in January before downing BC in the Beanpot semifinals. BC topped BU, 3-2, in last year's Hockey East semifinals, but it was the Eagles' final win of the season.
Sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger went 3-1-0 against BC as a freshman with a 1.27 goals-against average and .960 save percentage and all four meetings came against his former USNTDP goaltending partner, Joseph Woll.
The Terriers lead the all-time series, 133-123-18 (.518) and are 18-21-4 (.452) in 43 meetings at Conte Forum. No other opponent has appeared on BU's schedule more often. Northeastern is the next closest, having faced the Terriers 233 times since the 1930-31 season.
Boston College, ranked 15th in the USCHO.com poll, enters the weekend on a eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1). Only Notre Dame, with nine straight wins, has a longer current unbeaten streak. The Eagles are coming off a 4-4 draw with Harvard exactly a week ago and have won their past seven Hockey East contests to move into first place in the league standings with 16 points (8-1-0), five points ahead of second-place Providence.
Sophomore Julius Mattila (4g, 7a) and freshman Logan Hutsko (3g, 8a) are tied for the team lead in points with 11 each. Freshman Christopher Grando has added 10 points (5g, 5g) while seven others have at least eight points to create a balanced offensive attack. Woll has earned 80 percent of the starts in goal this season for BC but classmate Ryan Edquist holds the edge in both save percentage (.939-.905) and goals-against average (2.02-2.56).
Following the loss at Red Hot Hockey, BU posted a sub-.500 record in the month of November for just the second time in the past 14 seasons (2009-10). The Terriers had appeared in 108 straight USCHO.com polls, which was the longest current streak in the nation, until they dropped out on Monday.
Freshman Brady Tkachuk is tied for the Hockey East lead in plus-minus (+9) and has a team-high 54 shots. Amongst NCAA freshmen, his shot total ranks first and the plus-9 is tied for first. Fellow rookie Shane Bowers is second in the nation in shots among freshmen with 44 and the freshman duo has combined for 19 points (7g, 12a)
Sophomore Patrick Harper has seven points (2g, 5a) over his past seven games and continues to lead BU in points with 15 (6g, 9a). Classmate Chad Krys led all Hockey East defensemen in scoring during November with eight points on three goals and five assists.
Junior Bobo Carpenter is second on the squad in points with 14 on the strength of a team-best eight goals. His seven goals in Hockey East play lead the league.
