Boston College Athletics
BC, BU Conclude Weekend Series At BC Saturday On ESNPU
December 06, 2008 | Men's Hockey
Dec. 6, 2008
COLLEGE HOCKEY GAME PREVIEW
Game 16
Boston University at Boston College
Date: Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008
Faceoff: 7:05 p.m.
Location: Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Venue (Capacity): Conte Forum/Kelley Rink (7,884)
Television: ESPNU
Radio Broadcast: WROL 950 AM; bceagles.com
Live Stats: bceagles.com
Team Records: Boston College - 9-4-2, 5-3-2 Hockey East Association; Boston University - 9-4-1, 4-4-1 HEA
Team Rankings: Boston College - No. 2 USCHO.com, No. 3 USA Today; Boston University - No. 7 USCHO.com, No. 5 USA Today
DROP THE PUCK: BC and Boston University faceoff for the 244th time in the storied rivalry on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. The Eagles and Terriers played their first game of the 2008-09 league series - a 1-1 tie - at Boston University last night. BC is unbeaten in its last six games against BU (5-0-1).
BC IN BRIEF
• BC is 9-4-2 and 5-3-2 in Hockey East play. The team is 4-1-1 in its last six games and has scored 21 goals by 11 players.
• BC is 7-1-0 at home and 4-0-0 against league foes in Kelley Rink.
• Backstopping BC's defense is goalie John Muse, who has a 2.62 goals against average and a .906 save percentage. He has started each of the last 59 games and has 33 career victories.
• BC has killed 13 straight opponent power plays and is 23-for-24 (96 percent) in penalty-killing situations over the last five games. The team is killing penalties at an 88 percent rate.
• BC's offense is averaging 3.47 goals per game and ranks No. 7 in the country. The offense is led by captain Brock Bradford, who has 14 goals and 23 points.
• The Eagles have been outshot just twice this season (Bowling Green - Oct. 17, and at Boston University - Dec. 5).
• Defenseman Nick Petrecki leads all BC skaters with a plus-minus rating of +7.
• BC's power play ranks 14th among national leaders with a 18.4 percent scoring rate, yet is 0-for-18 in the last four games.
LAST TIME OUT: Boston College and Boston University traded first-period goals 19 seconds apart and BC sophomore goalie John Muse made 35 saves as the teams played to a 1-1 tie before 6,221 fans in Agganis Arena on Friday night. BU senior John McCarthy got the host Terriers on the scoreboard at 11:09 of the first period. BC senior captain Brock Bradford tied the game for good at 11:28, notching his 14th goal of the season. Sophomore Brian Gibbons and senior alternate captain Benn Ferriero assisted on the score. The host Terriers totaled a 36-22 shot advantage in the game, including a 14-4 edge in a second period - a period in which BU recorded three power-play chances. The visiting Eagles killed all six BU power plays in the game, while BU finished also finished perfect on the penalty kill at 3-for-3. Freshman goalie Kieran Millan recorded 21 saves in net.
THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY SERIES: Boston College and Boston University have met 243 times in the all-time series; the Terriers hold a 120-106-17 advantage. BC won the 2007-08 Hockey East season series, 2-0-1, and earned a third victory over Terriers in the first round of the Beanpot. BC is 27-29-7 against Boston University under head coach Jerry York and is unbeaten in the last six games (5-0-1) ... The two teams have met 16 times in the last four seasons; the BC senior class holds a 8-6-2 advantage. BC and BU met six times in 2005-06 (2-4-0), five times in 2006-07 (3-2-0) and four times (3-0-1) last winter.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Captain Brock Bradford, who missed 39 games during a junior season in which he suffered multiple breaks in his left arm, is off to an incredible start to his senior campaign. The Burnaby, British Columbia, resident has registered 23 points - 14 goals and nine assists - in 15 games. He enters Saturday's game against Boston University leading the nation in goals per game (0.93) and is tied for second in the country in points per game (1.53). The 5-foot-9-inch forward has scored at least one goal in nine (of 15) games and has scored multiple goals four times, including a hat trick at Merrimack (Nov. 14). He has totaled five multiple-point performances, including two four-point efforts and two three-point nights.
SUCCESS IN KELLEY: Boston College is 7-1-0 this season in games played in Kelley Rink, suffering its sole loss to Notre Dame on Nov. 7. The team is 4-0-0 against Hockey East Association opponents. BC is averaging 4.1 goals per game, scoring nearly 40 percent (13-of-33) of its goals in the third period of play, in its home venue while allowing an average of 2.6 goals against. The Eagles have played in front of a sellout home crowd of 7,884 three times: Oct. 10 against Wisconsin, Nov. 10 against Notre Dame and Nov. 28 against Harvard. The Eagles are averaging 5,967 fans at each home game. BC boasts this impressive home record following a 2007-08 season in which it went 6-7-4 at home, failing to reach the 10-win plateau for the first time since 2001-02.
PLAYER NOTES
• Defenseman Nick Petrecki enters Saturday's game against Boston University as BC's team leader with a +7 in the plus-minus category. A 6-foot-3-inch, 220-pound sophomore, Petrecki has tallied four assists, including a two-assist effort against Merrimack (Oct. 30). The hard-hitting defenseman leads BC in penalties (27) and penalty minutes (62).
• Sophomore Brian Gibbons, whose cross-ice pass to captain Brock Bradford resulted in BC's lone goal against Boston University, has been BC's most consistent representative on the final box score having recorded at least one point in 13-of-15 games this season. Gibbons ranks second on the team in overall scoring with 19 points - six goals and a team-high 13 assists. Gibbons and Bradford have each registered five multiple-point performances.
• Senior assistant captain Benn Ferriero, a 40-plus-point scorer in each of his previous two seasons, has averaged one point per game during the last 11 contests (2-9--11). The 5-foot-11-inch, 192-pound forward has tallied at least one point nine times.
• Fifteen games into his senior season, left wing Kyle Kucharski has surpassed his single-season high for goals with four, and is one goal away from tying his goal-scoring output from his first three seasons at the Heights combined. The Saugus, Mass., resident entered the 2008-09 campaign with five goals, nine assists and 14 points. The 6-foot-3-inch, 200-pound forward has six points - four goals and two assists - this year.
• Eleven games into his junior season, center Matt Lombardi has established a single-season high in assists with four (1-4--5). A resident of Milton, Mass., Lombardi recorded three assists in both his freshman and sophomore campaigns. He registered the first multiple-point performance (two assists) of his career in BC's 5-1 win over Harvard on Friday, Nov. 28. Lombardi connected with linemate Andrew Orpik on both of his even-strength scores.
THE COACH: Jerry York is in his 37th season as a head coach and his 15th season at Boston College. He is the second winningest coach in NCAA history and first among active Division I coaches. He has an 812-519-86 career record and a 345-184-52 mark as coach of the Eagles. York is a 1967 graduate of Boston College where he was a three-year letterman and earned All-America and All-New England first-team honors in 1966-67.
THE GOALIE: Boston College's goaltending duties are in the firm grasp of sophomore John Muse. Muse played in all 2,725 minutes in net during the team's 44-game 2007-08 campaign. He led all goaltenders in the nation in that category and totaled a BC single-season record 1,171 saves. Through 15 games in 2008-09, Muse owns a 2.62 goals against average and a .906 save percentage. In the last six games, the 5-foot-11-inch sophomore has registered a 2.09 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.
