Boston University
UConn
Men's Ice Hockey Meets UConn in Opening Round of 2018 Friendship Four
November 22, 2018 | Men's Ice Hockey
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Playing overseas for the first time ever, the Boston University men's ice hockey team takes on UConn in the opening round of the 2018 Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Friday at SSE Arena. The game, which will be televised on NESN and streamed on ESPN+, will begin at 2 p.m. ET.
BU (3-5-1, 3-3-1 Hockey East) is 3-1-1 in November and is closing out a stretch of eight straight Hockey East contests. This is the first time the Terriers have played in a November tournament since the Great Western Bank Freeze-Out at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Nov. 25 & 27, 1994.
Friday's first semifinal features No. 11/12 Union and Yale. The two winners will meet for the "Belpot" title on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET while the consolation game will take place at 10 a.m. ET.
The Terriers and Huskies have had 12 prior meetings and BU is 7-3-2 in them. The teams met in the Hockey East quarterfinals in March with BU posting a sweep with narrow 5-4 (ot) and 2-1 victories. This is the first meeting that hasn't taken place in Boston or Hartford.
UConn dropped both ends of a home-and-home series with UMass Lowell last weekend and enters the tournament with a 5-6-1 overall record and 2-5-1 Hockey East mark. The Huskies wins this season have come against Army West Point, Rensselaer, Maine, Vermont and Brown.
Freshman Jáchym Kondelík has 11 assists, which ranks tied for fifth in the nation, to hold the team in points. Junior sophomore Alexander Payusov is right behind with 10 points on the strength of a team-best eight goals. Senior Karl El-Mir (6g, 2a) and junior Benjamin Freeman (2g, 4a) have added eight and six points, respectively.
Junior goaltender Adam Huska has started eight of UConn's 12 games and has a 2.60 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. Freshman Tomáš Vomácka has started the other four and has the edge in both categories with at .922 and 1.96.
BU graduate student Max Willman will become the first player to appear in two Friendship Four tournaments after playing in the inaugural event in 2015 as a sophomore at Brown. Willman picked up an assist in each game as the Bears blacked Colgate, 5-0, before losing in a shootout to UMass Lowell in the championship following a 5-5 draw.
Co-captains Dante Fabbro and Bobo Carpenter both bring five-game point streaks into the Friendship Four. Fabbro has nine points (2g, 7a) during the stretch while Carpenter has six (4g, 2a). Fabbro ranks fifth nationally among defensemen in points per game at 1.22.
After going pointless against UConn in his first two seasons, Carpenter put up nine points on seven goals and two assists over the five tilts with the Huskies last season. Fabbro (6a) and classmate Chad Krys (2g, 3a) have combined for 11 points in their seven games against the Huskies.
BU is coming off a split in a weekend home series with Maine, earning a 3-2 win in the opener before falling 3-1 on Saturday.
