Battle of Comm Ave. Wages on at BU on NESN

Jan. 14, 2015

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LIVE STATS

#BATTLEOFCOMMAVE

The focus of college hockey’s attention will be directed on Agganis Arena Friday night as Boston College and Boston University lock horns for the 267th time in history. This meeting has rather larger implications than normal as the Eagles and Terriers are currently two of the nation’s hottest teams heading into the Jan. 16th affair. Since around Thanksgiving, neither club has lost a game. The Eagles are 5-0-2 since losing at Providence on Nov. 29 while the Terriers are 3-0-3 since getting shutout at Dartmouth on Nov. 30. Since BC lost at home to Boston University, the Eagles have gone 8-3-2 and currently sit four points behind first-place BU while the Terriers have a league game in hand. Following last season, Boston College usurped the Terriers as the winningest team of all time in the Hockey East Association’s 30-year history. Last season, the Eagles swept the three-game series over BU, including the first round of the Beanpot Tournament. The last time Boston College won every meeting against BU in the regular season occurred in the 2010-11 season when BC went 4-0 over BU. In recent history, Boston College has dominated its foe from Comm. Ave, winning 12 of the last 17 meetings dating back to the 2010 Beanpot title game on Feb. 8. Head coach Jerry York is 3-1 against his new adversary from Allston, David Quinn. Prior to Quinn’s arrival, the Eagles faced off against famed coach Jack Parker 155 times dating back to 1973, including 82 meetings against York. In all, York is 40-39-7 against Boston University as head coach of the Eagles. Friday also marks the 122nd encounter in Hockey East play. Whoever wins Friday’s game will have the edge in league play as BC and BU are split, 55-55-11, at this point. In all, BU leads the overall series, 130-119-17.

RHETT REPORT

As mentioned before, Boston University is one of the hottest teams heading into Friday as only three other teams (Bowling Green (9), Bemidji State (7) and Boston College (7)) have longer unbeaten streaks. The Terriers are in the midst of one of their biggest turnarounds, already surpassing last season’s win totals both overall (10) and in Hockey East play (5), thanks to an 8-1-1 start. BU has not started 8-1-1 since the 2001-02 ledger. BU is fresh off a two-game stint in Madison where it tied and defeated Wisconsin on Jan. 9-10, respectively. The Terriers sport highly-touted rookie, Jack Eichel, who currently leads all of college hockey with 1.72 points per game. Eichel is one of two skaters in the NCAA with 30 points (Mike Vecchione – Union) and just returned from Team USA and the World Junior Championship as team captain. Senior Evan Rodrigues is also in the middle of a strong campaign, ranked 21st in scoring, averaging 1.11 points per game. Danny O’Regan is also tied for second amidst all goal scorers, netting 0.74 goals per trip. With such prolific scoring, the Terriers offense ranks sixth in college hockey and second in the league with 3.47 goals per game. On the flip side, BU’s defense is even stingier, ranked fourth in the nation and is just one of seven teams surrendering less than two goals per game (1.89). Junior Matt O’Connor has played a large role, posting the sixth-best save percentage (.936) in college hockey along with the 10th-best goals against average (1.83). BU’s penalty kill is one notch above the Eagles and the two teams are ranked sixth (88.8 percent) and seventh (88.3 percent), in that order.

BEAK STREAK

After a bit of an uneasy start (4-5-0), Boston College has rattled off an 8-2-2 record. Boston College is currently tied with Bemidji State for the second-longest unbeaten streak in the country, having gone unbeaten in the last seven games with five victories and a pair of draws. Bowling Green has not lost in nine games, posting a 6-0-3 mark. The Eagles’ unbeaten string started on Dec. 5 with a 2-2 draw at New Hampshire.

PARSING THE PAIRWISE

Boston College is currently 20th i the Pairwise rankings with an RPI of .5397. The  Eagles are currently sixth amongst Hockey East teams as BU (eighth), UMass Lowell (ninth), Vermont (10th), Providence (16th) and Merrimack (18th) all rank ahead of the  Eagles to this point.

TAG, YOU’RE IT

When Boston College scores first, the Eagles have mounted an 8-2-1 record.

COMEBACK KIDS

In two recent contests in which Boston College was trailing heading into the third period, the Eagles have either rallied back to tie or win. At New Hampshire on Dec. 5, Austin Cangelosi netted the game-tying goal with 4:45 left in regulation in Durham while Chris Calnan and Teddy Doherty teamed up in the third period at Dartmouth on Jan. 2 to overcome a one-goal deficit and take down the Big Green, 3-2, after trailing heading into the final period.

POWER PLAY IS PARAMOUNT

Scoring on the power play has proved to be key to the Eagles’ success in the early goings of the 2014-15 schedule. Boston College is an unblemished 8-0-0 when scoring at least one power play goal. When denied a power play goal, the Eagles are 4-7-2.

A GRAND OL’ TIME

Jerry York’s countdown to 1,000-career victories is officially on. York reached his 975th-career triumph against Northeastern on Jan. 10 and now has only 25 wins left to reach 1,000.

GILMOUR ARENA

Adam Gilmour’s two-career goals at Northeastern’s Matthews Arena have proved to be timely. The Hanover, Mass., native’s first goal at Matthews Arena took place in the form of the overtime winner on Nov. 2, 2013. In his trip to Huntington Ave. on Jan. 9, 2015, Gilmour scored the game-tying goal with 2:15 remaining in regulation to force a draw.

USA TODAY TABS BOSTON COLLEGE NO. 1
On Jan. 12, 2015, USA Today put out a piece on the top 10 colleges for men’s ice hockey. College Factual studied over 100 of the top U.S hockey colleges and ranked them according to athletic strength, leadership, career preparation and value to come up with this list of the top 10. Some factors include: athletic competitiveness, overall college quality, academic progress rate, atheltic aid per student, financial resources (revenue & expenses), coaching resources and Learfield Sports Directors Cup Standings.  Boston College was ranked number one.

WHERE THE OFFENSE STANDS

Through 21 games, Boston College is one of 19 clubs averaging over three goals per game. The Eagles are scoring at a rate of 3.05 goals per game, ranking them 17th in all of college hockey and fourth in Hockey East.

HAPPY GILMOUR

Adam Gilmour leads Boston College with five power goals on the season and is currently tied for fifth in the nation in that category and tied for first in Hockey East. Only four other skaters in college hockey have scored more power play goals than Gilmour. The Hanover, Mass., native scored a power play goal in consecutive games from  Jan. 2-3, marking the first time an Eagle has scored power play markers in consecutive games. Gilmour followed that up with another power play tally on Jan. 10 to give him three in four games. Gilmour is on a four-game goal scoring streak (Jan. 2-10), standing as the longest career goal-scoring spell of any current Eagle.

CAL ON ME

Chris Calnan has accounted for seven points in his last six outings (5-2-7), including his third two-goal performance in 11 games. His most recent two-goal performance took place on Jan. 10 against NU where he scored the game-winning goal in short-handed fashion. In every two-goal performance this season, Calnan has secured the game-winning goal. The Norwell, Mass., native is tied for ninth in the country in game-winning goals (3) and tied for 26th in goals per game (0.50). Calnan also posted his first-career three-game point streak (11/21-28). 

DEFENSIVE POSITIONING

BC’s defense is ranked 23rd, surrendering 2.33 goals per game. That mark currently ranks fifth in Hockey East.

BLUE-LINE BOPPERS

The Eagles’ defensive corps is not having a problem lighting the lamp itself. Boston College has scored 64 goals on the season with 12 coming from the twigs of the blue liners.  In BC’s first victory of the season against RIT, four of Boston College’s six goals game from defensemen (Matheson, Doherty, Santini, McCoshen). Heading into the weekend of Jan. 16, Teddy Doherty (5-11-16) and Michael Matheson (2-12-134 rank second and fifth in team scoring.

THE SHERIFF RETURNS

Steve Santini missed most of the first half of the season following scheduled wrist surgery Oct. 28, 2014.  Santini returned to the lineup following his 17-game hiatus and logged his first assist of the season in his return on Jan. 10.

RED-HOT TED

Junior Teddy Doherty just capped a career-best four-game point streak (Dec. 6 - Jan. 3) and has most recently helped the Eagles clinch the Ledyard Classic trophy with the game-winning goal against Dartmouth on Jan. 3. For his three-point weekend at Dartmouth, Doherty was awarded the Tournament MVP. Doherty is not only second on the team in scoring, he is tied for 14th amongst all defensemen and tied for third in Hockey East.

HANDS UP FOR HANIFIN

Newcomer Noah Hanifin tallied his third multi-point performance of the season (0-2-2) on Jan. 10. Hanifin scored his first-career goal as an Eagle against Colorado College and followed that with his first-career mutli-point game with both assists on Adam Gilmour’s 5-on-3 tallies against UMass. At UMass on Nov. 21, Hanifin registered his first-career three-point performance.

MATHESON HITS 50

Captain Michael Matheson turned in his third-career playmaker (three assists) in the win against UMass on Oct. 25 with his last one taking place against Providence on Jan. 10, 2014. Matheson notched his 60th-career point with his second goal of the season in his 95th-career game. Matheson leads BC with 12 assists thus far.

COLD-BLOODED (PENALTY) KILLERS

Boston College has the seventh-ranked penalty killing unit in the country and fourth best in all of Hockey East. The Eagles have denied 83-of-94 chances with a stoppage rate of 88.23 percent. Last season, the Eagles’ penalty-killing unit eked out Quinnipiac by one-tenth of a percentage point for college hockey’s top penalty-killing corps.

Boston College Athletics

Battle of Comm Ave. Wages on at BU on NESN

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