BOSTON - The Boston University men's ice hockey team closes out a five-game homestand on Friday (Feb. 1) when it hosts second-ranked and league-leading Massachusetts. Game time at Agganis Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.
Fans are encouraged to wear scarlet to "Red the Rink" and the first 3,000 fans will received a BU Beanpot button, the fifth in a six-button series this season.
BU is currently tied for fourth in the Hockey East standings with 18 points, four points behind the first-place Minutemen. The Terriers are 10-0-2 in their past 12 meetings with UMass.
Since they first met on Jan. 16, 1920, the Terriers and Minutemen have played 80 times. BU holds an impressive 62-11-7 (.819) record in the series. BU's last loss to the Minutemen was during Jack Parker's final season as head coach (2012-13).
The Terriers' had a nine-game win streak versus UMass come to an end when the teams skated to a 3-3 draw in their most recent meeting last Feb. 9. BU is 17-2-3 (.841) at Agganis Arena against UMass.
In last season's series, the Terriers took three of four points from the Minutemen. After a 3-2 win in Amherst on Feb. 2, BU settled for a 3-3 draw at Agganis Arena one week later. Shane Bowers, then a freshman, tallied three goals, incuding the game-winner in the opener, and added an assist over the two games.
UMass is coming off a split in a road weekend at Maine, opening with a 4-2 win before dropping a 4-3 contest, and has been in the top two of the national rankings since the first week of December, including its first No. 1-ranking in school history.
The Minutemen rank second in the country in both scoring offense (3.79) and power play (31.2%).
Senior Jacob Pritchard leads all Hockey East players in points with 31 (12g, 19a) and sophomore defenseman Cale Makar is second with 29 (9g, 20a). Sophomore Mitchell Chaffee has 28 points, tying him for third in Hockey East, and is tied with Boston College's David Cotton in goals with 15. Fellow sophomore John Leonard has eight points and 17 assists to give the Minutemen four players with 25 or more points.
Sophomore Matt Murray has started in 75 percent of the Minutemen's games this season and ranks fifth nationally in both save percentage (.930) and goals-against average (1.80).
BU most recently earned a weekend split with then-No. 17/15 Arizona State. Freshman Joel Farabee scored two goals, including the game-winner, to help the Terriers post a 4-2 victory over Arizona State in the opener. ASU's Joey Daccord posted his nation-leading seventh shutout of the season in a 3-0 win by the Sun Devils in the finale.
On Monday, Farabee was named Hockey East Rookie of the Week for the second time in three weeks. He has 10 points (5g, 5a) over the past eight games.
Bowers (4g, 3a) and junior Dante Fabbro (2g, 6a) had five-game point streaks come to an end on Saturday. Senior Ryan Cloonan has a point in five of the past seven games and junior Patrick Harper has five points (1g, 4a) over the past four contests.
Since Nov. 3, junior goaltender Jake Oettinger has a .938 save percentage, which ranks fourth nationally during the span. The junior is currently tied with Jack Ferreira for eighth all-time at BU in career wins at 52.
