BOSTON - The Boston University men's ice hockey team returns to action on Friday (Jan. 24) when it hosts No. 12 UMass Lowell in the opener of a weekend home-and-home series. Game time at Agganis Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.

Friday's game will feature a BU Winter Hat giveaway for all fans.

This is the first of four home-and-home league weekends this semester. The teams met in Lowell for their Hockey East opener back on Oct. 25 and skated to a 3-3 draw. Saturday's contest in Lowell will start at 6 p.m. and will be televised on NESN.

The past five meetings have taken place at Tsongas Center due to last season's best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series that went the distance with BU prevailing on the road to advance to TD Garden. 

BU (8-8-5, 5-4-4 Hockey East) enters the weekend three points behind the River Hawks in the Hockey East standings. All four of BU's games thus far in 2020 have been decided by a single goal.

BU is 77-32-10 (.689) in 119 all-time meetings with the River Hawks. Lowell, however, is 13-9-2 in the past 24 meetings and 14 of BU's 32 losses in the all-time series have occurred since the start of the 2011-12 season.

The teams have split their regular-season series the past four years. The home team won all six contests the first three years while the road teams won both meetings last season. The Terriers are 12-7-3 in the 22 meetings that have taken place at Agganis Arena.

UML (13-6-4, 7-3-3 HE) is coming off a 6-4 home win over Merrimack on Saturday that followed back-to-back losses. Prior to the losses, the River Hawks went on a 9-2-4 run over 15 games.

Lowell's best wins have come against two-time defending national champion Minnesota Duluth along with Providence and Penn State.

Their top three point scorers are all freshmen and are separated by a point apiece. Matt Brown leads the way with 20 points (5g, 15a) while classmates Carl Berglund (10g, 9a) and Andre Lee (7g, 11a) have added 19 and 18 points, respectively. 

Tyler Wall is having a fantastic senior season in goal with a .936 save percentage to go along with a 1.97 goals-against average through 21 starts.

The Terriers most recently split a road weekend, earning a 3-2 victory at Merrimack last Friday before being edged, 4-3, at then-No. 5 Boston College the following night.

BU has three players in the top 35 nationally in points per game. Hobey Baker nominees Patrick Harper (1.26) and David Farrance (1.24) are 10th and 12th, respectively, while freshman Trevor Zegras is 35th at 1.05, which ranks second among rookies.