For the only time over a stretch of eight games, Boston University men's ice hockey fans have an opportunity to see their team skate on home ice as the Terriers take to Agganis Arena at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night to face Massachusetts.
The fall of 2007 marked the last time that BU played eight consecutive games during the regular season with just one of them coming on Comm. Ave. Wrapped between a 2,300-mile trip to Arizona State, a pair of Beanpot games at TD Garden, and Hockey East contests at UMass, UConn and Merrimack, the Terriers and their fans will savor the chance to play at home on Friday.
BU enters the contest as the hottest team in America. The Terriers are unbeaten in their last eight games (7-0-1), including victories in each of their last six contests - both the longest such active streaks in the country. Denver and Mercyhurst are on seven-game unbeaten runs at 5-0-2.
Both the unbeaten and winning streaks are the longest for BU since an eight-game winning run from Dec. 10, 2016, to Jan. 21, 2017. The Terriers have not had an unbeaten run of longer than eight games since the 2008-09 national championship squad went 14-0-3 from Jan. 16-March 13, including a nine-game winning streak from Jan. 16-Feb. 13.
This string includes a 3-2 victory last Friday night at UMass. Brandon Hickey, Jordan Greenway and Shane Bowers each scored for BU. Jake Oettinger made 20 saves on the night, 16 of them in a first period UMass dominated territorially but the Terriers topped on the scoreboard. UMass held a 16-9 shot advantage after the first period but BU outshot UMass, 30-6, for the rest of the night en route to the victory.
UMass enters Friday's game at 12-16-1 overall and 6-12-1 in Hockey East action, putting the Minutemen in 10th-place, just one point shy of position to host a first round series. The Minutemen downed Merrimack, 5-2, on Tuesday night at the Mullins Center in their last action Freshmen dominate the UMass scoring leaders as each of the team's top five point-getters are in their first year for the Minutemen. All freshmen, Oliver Chau tops UMass with 21 points, Mitchell Chaffee leads the team with 11 goals and Mario Ferraro's 15 assists makes him the Minutemen's top setup man.
BU is undefeated in the past 11 meetings (10-0-1) with wins in each of the past nine. The Terriers are 17-2-3 against the Minutemen since the beginning of 2010. BU's current nine-game winning streak against UMass is its longest since winning 11 straight from 1999-2002. The Terriers are 17-2-2 at Agganis Arena against UMass. BU has won seven straight in the series at Agganis since dropping a 3-2 decision to UMass on Feb. 10, 2012. Comm. Ave. has been good to BU which was also 20-1-0 against the Minutemen in the Walter Brown Arena era.
One thing which will be noticeably missing from BU against the Minutemen is the presence of Greenway. Friday's game is the first of six the top line center will miss while representing the United States in the Olympic Games.
Tickets remain available for the contest which can also be viewed live on ESPN3. It is BU's annual Skating Strides game geared towards fundraising and awareness for breast cancer. Love Your Melon will be represented during the pregame ceremonial faceoff while Skating Strides will also figure prominently in the second intermission Chuck-A-Puck which will see assistance from the Beanpot-finalist Terrier women's ice hockey squad.
The Lamoriello Trophy will also be in attendance as a part of Hockey East's Road to the Garden tour with a raffle for free tickets to the league championship, March 16-17, at TD Garden. Fourteen Terrier players will also be available for postgame autographs.
