BOSTON - The Boston University men's ice hockey hosts archrival Boston College on Friday (Nov. 30) at 7:30 p.m. in the opener of a home-and-home weekend series. The game will be televised on NESN and TSN2.
The teams last met in the 2018 Hockey East semifinals with the Terriers earning a 4-3 overtime win en route to the league title. This is the first time since Nov. 30, 2007, that the Terriers and Eagles are meeting with both teams sporting sub-.500 records. Before that, the most recent occurrence was Feb. 27, 1988.
In addition to the Terriers' freshman class, this is the first BU/BC game for graduate student Max Willman and associate head coach Paul Pearl.
BU is 4-2-1 in November and is returning to Hockey East play after a one-game hiatus.
The Comm. Ave. rivals have met 277 times and the Terriers lead the series, 135-124-18 (.520). No other opponent has appeared on BU's schedule more often. Northeastern is the next closest, having faced the Terriers 236 times since the 1930-31 season.
BU is 5-2-0 against BC over the past two seasons but is just 4-12-2 (.278) in the 18 meetings at Agganis Arena.
When the teams met back in March in the Hockey East semifinals, each squad needed to win to keep its season alive. Patrick Curry scored with 4:20 left in overtime to push BU to a 4-3 victory and a spot in the league championship game. Drew Melanson sent the game to overtime and Ty Amonte and David Farrance both scored to wipe away a 2-0 deficit. Jake Oettinger turned in a 36-save performance in goal to help BU end the Eagles' season.
BC closed out a five-game homestand last Friday with a 4-2 loss to Bentley. The Eagles' three wins this season have all come in Hockey East play, including a weekend sweep of Vermont and a victory over Merrimack.
Junior David Cotton has a team-high 14 points and leads all Hockey East players in goals with 10. Sophomore Logan Hutsko has added nine points on the strength of a team-best eight assists while junior Julius Mattila has tallied seven points (3g, 4a).
BC has suffered from a shooting percentage of 6.8 and its scoring average of 2.10 ranks tied for 50th in the nation.
Junior Joseph Wall has started nine of BC's 10 games this season and sports a 2.59 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.
The Terriers are coming off the first overseas games in program history as they split two games at the 2018 Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After a 3-2 win over UConn in the opener, BU dropped a hard-fought 2-1 contest to then-No. 11/12 Union in the championship game. Amonte scored in each game, including the game-winner against the Huskies.
Junior co-captain Dante Fabbro has a team-best 12 points on three goals and nine assists and has 10 points (2g, 8a) over the past seven games. Fellow co-captain Bobo Carpenter has nine points on the strength of six goals.
Oettinger has been strong as of late, posting a .939 save percentage in November after an .868 mark in October. He was named the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week on Monday after stopping 75 of the 77 shots he faced in the Friendship Four.
