Weighart: Terriers with Metro NYC Ties Look to Ripen in Big Apple
USCHO Game of the Week: Red Hot Hockey
BU Today: Big Game, Biggest Stage for BU Men's Hockey
The seventh installment of Red Hot Hockey returns to Madison Square Garden on Saturday (Nov. 30) as Boston University (4-5-5) faces undefeated and second-ranked Cornell (8-0-0)
The biennial battle for the Kelley-Harkness Cup will be streamed live on Stadium and will begin at 8 p.m.
BU is 3-1-2 at Red Hot Hockey with the only loss coming in the most recent one in 2017. The historic rivals last met in the 2018 NCAA first round in Worcester, where the Terriers pulled off a 3-1 upset of the Big Red.
Saturday marks the 48th time BU and Cornell have faced off, with the Big Red holding a 24-20-3 advantage. BU is 8-4-2 in the past 14 meetings but Cornell is 11-9-2 in the past 22.
The teams first met on Jan. 10, 1925, on Beebe Lake in Ithaca, with the Terriers posting a 7-2 win. They played again at the same location a little over a year later (a 1-0 BU win) and did not play again until March 11, 1966, in the ECAC Tournament, where the Big Red earned a convincing 8-1 victory. They have faced off in the NCAA tournament on three occasions with the first two being the 1967 and 1972 national title games, won by the Big Red (4-1) and Terriers (4-0), respectively.
As members of the ECAC, the teams met at least once a year for the next 19 years - through the 1983-84 season, after which BU joined the Hockey East Association. The Terriers are 8-5-2 in the 15 meetings that have taken place since they moved to Hockey East.
BU and Cornell both have the same next opponent in Harvard. The Crimson enter Friday's game at Boston College as the only other undefeated team in the country at 6-0-0.
Cornell is off to its best start in 48 years as it heads to New York City with a perfect 8-0-0 record. The Big Red opened its season with a weekend sweep at Michigan State before reeling off six straight ECAC wins, most recently sweeping a home weekend with victories over Princeton (5-1) and Quinnipiac (2-1).
The Big Red, which was the preseason favorite in the ECAC, has allowed only 12 goals this season and just five have come at even strength. Its offense ranks third in the nation at 4.50 goals per game while the defense ranks second at 1.50 gpg.
Junior Morgan Barron - a N.Y. Rangers draft pick - leads the offense with 12 points (6g, 6a) while classmates Alex Green (3g, 6a) and Brendan Locke (3g, 6a) and freshman d-man Sam Malinski (2g, 7a) have nine points apiece.
Junior Matthew Galadja is in third season as the Big Red's primary netminder and currently ranks third nationally in goals-against average (1.50) and 10th in save percentage (.935).
The Terriers are 4-1-2 over their past seven games against the Big Red and have scored exactly three goals in each of the past four meetings. BU's freshman class accounted for all three goals, including David Farrance's game-winner with 15:21 left in regulation, to lift the Terriers to their win over in the 2018 NCAA Northeast Regional.
While at Yale, graduate student Sam Tucker faced Cornell four times, including three starts, and went 1-0-2 against the Big Red with a 2.38 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.
BU will be looking to move on from Tuesday's 4-0 setback against Sacred Heart, which closed out a three-game homestand. It was the first time all season that the Terriers were shut out.
Farrance is tied for first nationally in power-play tallies with eight, which would have been the most on eight of the previous 10 Terrier squads, dating back to the 2009-10 season. Amongst defensemen, Farrance leads the nation in goals (10) and is second in points (19). He had a career-best seven-game point streak come to an end on Tuesday with 12 points (7g, 5a) during the run.
Four Terriers are currently averaging a least a point per game. Farrance ranks 14th nationally at 1.36 while senior Patrick Harper is right behind at 1.33, which ties him for 17th. Senior Patrick Curry (1.07) and freshman Trevor Zegras (1.00) round out the group.
BU has an even goal differential thus far, scoring 43 goals while also allowing 43 and has yet to have either back-to-back wins or back-to-back losses this season.
