Eagles Travel to Notre Dame to Cap Regular Season

Feb. 25, 2015

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BOSTON COLLEGE vs. NOTRE DAME

Boston College and Notre Dame square off in South Bend for the 38th installment of the Frozen Holy War, and the Eagles have some revenge to exact. Not only did the Fighting Irish bounce Boston College from the Hockey East Tournament, winning the best-of-three quarterfinals series at Kelley Rink from March 14-16, 2014, Notre Dame also curbed BC's 19-game unbeaten streak (17-0-2) on March 1, 2014, in a 2-1 overtime victory on Senior Day. In the deciding game 3 on March 16, Notre Dame was able to keep Johnny Gaudreau off the scoring sheet for the first time in 31 games as BC's Hobey Baker winner tied Maine's Paul Kariya for the longest point streak in Hockey East history. Before BC skated into the 2014 NCAA Tournament, BC and Notre Dame squared off four-consecutive times in Chestnut Hill and ND got the better of the Eagles, winning 3-of-4 encounters. All time at Conte Forum, Notre Dame leads Boston College, 7-6-1, and all-time in Chestnut Hill, the Irish hold a slight 10-9-1 advantage. Friday's contests marks the Eagles first-ever trip to Notre Dame's new facility, Compton Family Ice Arena. Boston College possessed a 6-3-1 mark at Notre Dame's former barn, the Joyce Center. All-time, the Eagles own a 19-16-2 mark in the series history and are even in Hockey East regular season play, 1-1. Boston College and Notre Dame kicked off the Hockey East rivalry on Jan. 4, 2014, at Fenway Park where the Eagles came away with a 4-3 triumph. Despite Notre Dame's recent success against Boston College, the Eagles defeated Notre Dame for the 2008 National Championship on April 12, 2008, at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

EYES ON THE IRISH

Despite a being a game under .500 overall (14-15-5), Notre Dame still has a chance to clinch a first-round bye and home ice for the Hockey East quarterfinals with a 9-6-5 total in conference play. Notre Dame is currently in a three-way tie for third place (23 points) with UMass Lowell and Providence and is two points behind Boston College for second place. The Irish have posted only one loss in its last seven games, mounting a 4-1-2 record over that stretch, including a tie and a win, respectively, over first-place Boston University last weekend at Agganis Arena. Sophomore Vince Hinostroza guides the Irish attack with 1.06 points per game (8-28-36), good for 32nd in college hockey. Hinostroza's 0.82 assists per game is ninth best in America. Mario Lucia is averaging over half a goal per game (.056 gpg), tied for first in Hockey East and ranked 17th, overall, in the country. Defensively, senior Robbie Russo is tied as the top-scoring blue line in Hockey East, fourth-most in the NCAA, with 30 points (12-18-30). Irish backstopper Cal Peterson, the most recent Hockey East Player of the Week with 78-of-82 saves, has posted three shutouts with a 2.46 goals against average (eighth in Hockey East) and a .918 save percentage (sixth in Hockey East). The Fighting Irish are scoring 2.94 goals per game, 20th in the NCAA, while giving up 2.74 goals on the other end (37th). Both special teams' units rank in the middle of the pack across the land as the penalty kill is 28th (83.8 percent) and the power play is slotted in 388th (15.3 percent).

AVOIDING HISTORY

Boston College's 3-2 overtime victory in the Beanpot consolation game on Feb. 23 maintained a streak Jerry York. In his 21 seasons as head coach, York has never finished last in the Beanpot.

ALL WE DO IS WIN - WIN - WIN

With an 19-10-3 mark heading into the Notre Dame series, the Eagles mathematically have locked up another winning season. In its 93 season of varsity hockey, BC had totaled 74 winning seasons for a winning percentage of 80 percent. It's the 18th-straight winning season under Jerry York. If the Eagles can collect one more win, it will mark the sixth-straight season the Eagles have posted 20 wins or more in a year. Under York's guidance, the Eagles have already posted 20 wins on 15 occassions. One more win would match York's streak of six-straight 20-win seasons starting in 2002-03 and concluding in 2007-08.

FRISKY FROSH

All three Boston College freshmen have achieved the 20-point plateau. This marks the second-straight year three rookies have hit the 20-point mark as Ryan Fitgerald (29), Austin Cangelosi (26) and Adam Gilmour (20) turned the trick last season. This year, Alex Tuch (13-14-27), Zach Sanford (5-16-21) and Noah Hanifin (4-16-20) are looking to add more before season's end.

OVERTIME OH YEAH!

Ryan Fitzgerald's overtime game-winning goal against Harvard on Feb. 23 marked the first OT victory for BC in six tries. The last time BC won a game in overtime was Adam Gilmour's walk-off goal at Northeastern on Nov. 2, 2013. The last time the Eagles won an overtime game at home was on Feb. 26, 2010, against UMass.

FITZY ON THE SPOT

Ryan Fitzgerald's overtime winner counts as his fifth game-winning marker of the season. That figure is tied with UConn's Spencer Naas for best in Hockey East and sixth most in the NCAA.

SENIOR SCHWANN SONG

The senior class of Brad Barone, Brian Billett, Danny Linell, Michael Sit, Quinn Smith, Cam Spiro and Destry Straight played in their last regular season game as Eagles at Kelley Rink on Friday night. This group enters the Notre Dame series with 102 victories, including one NCAA championship (2012), two Hockey East regular season titles, one Hockey East Tournament championship and three Beanpot trophies. These Eagles have never won less than 22 games in a season.

PARSING THE PAIRWISE

Heading into the Irish series, BC is ninth in the Pairwise ranking, possessing an RPI of .6406. The only team the Eagles trail in the Pairwise rankings right now is Boston University, which is in seventh.

HOCKEY EAST IS HEATING UP

Like every time this season, the race of the Hockey East championship is a bottleneck. Heading into last weekend of the regular season, Boston University can clinch the outright regular season title with one point against Northeastern. The Eagles (25 points) are four points behind the Terriers with UMass Lowell, Providence and Notre and (23) right behind tied for third. Northeastern and Vermont are tied for sixth, only three points behind BC for sixth. Boston College has not completely locked up a first-round bye in the Hockey East playoffs just yet.

A GRAND OL' TIME

Jerry York's countdown to 1,000-career victories is officially on. York reached his 982nd-career triumph against Harvrad on Feb. 23 and now has 18 wins left to reach 1,000.

TAG, YOU'RE IT

When Boston College scores first, the Eagles have mounted a 14 -2-2 record.

WHERE THE OFFENSE STANDS

Through 30 games, Boston College is scoring at a rate of 3.03 goals per game, tying the Eagles for 17th in all of college hockey and tied for fourth in Hockey East.

CAN'T TUCH THIS

Alex Tuch earned BC's third Hockey East award of the season, earning Hockey East Rookie of the Week honors on Feb. 16. The Baldwinsville, N.Y., native scored a goal with 9.6 seconds left to force overtime against Vermont on Feb. 13 before scoring the game-winner in BC's 6-5 win on Feb. 14. Tuch leads the Eagles in points, having logged 13 goals and 14 assists. On the national landscape, Tuch is seventh amongst all rookies in college hockey with 0.87 points per game and is the fourth highest-scoring freshman in Hockey East.

FITZ-HERALDED

Not only did Ryan Fitzgerald score BC's first hat trick of the season on Jan. 24 and first since Johnny Gaudreau's on March 29, 2014, he became the second skater to log a pair of power play goals in a game (Adam Gilmour - Oct. 25). Fitzgerald scored all three goals in BC's 3-2 win over UConn and posted his fourth game-winning tally of the season. He leads the Eagles with 14 goals. He also accounted for the overtime winner over Harvard in the Beanpot on Feb. 23 after scoring his second short-handed goal of the season against NU in the Beanpot on Feb. 3. Fitzgerald notched his 50th-career point in his 70th-career outing on Feb. 14.

GAUDREAU 2.0

Sophomore Matthew Gaudreau netted the game-tying goal on Feb. 23 against Harvard in the Benapot, marking of his three tallies this season. The Carneys Point, N.J., native also scored in back-to-back games on Nov. 11 and Nov. 14, marking his first-career point streak. Gaudreau has played in 34 career games and netted his first-career goal against Army on Nov. 10. He also registered his first-career assist on Nov. 22 against Maine.

DEFENSIVE POSITIONING

BC's defense is currently tied for 22nd, surrendering 2.41 goals per game. That mark 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 97 goals on the season with 18 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). Three of BC's top seven scorers are defensemen (Teddy Doherty, Noah Hanifin and Michael Matheson).

McDOUBLE

Sophomore defensemen Ian McCoshen has been on fire as of late, accounting for five points (3-2-5) over the course of his last three games. The Faribault, Minn., native scored his first-career two-goal game against Vermont on Feb. 14 and followed that with his third power play goal of the season and game-tying tally against Lowell on Feb. 20. McCoshen also scored his second-career game-winning goal and first of the season against Michigan on Dec. 13. McCoshen has scored a goal in each game against Michigan.

HANIFIN HYPE

Newcomer Noah Hanifin tallied his fifth multi-point performance of the season on Feb. 20 (0-2-2) and secured an assist in his four-straight outings from Feb 6-20.. Hanifin scored his first-career goal 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. Hanifin has scored a point in 10 of his last 14 outings, including his fourth goal of the year on Jan. 30.

TEDDY BALLGAME

Teddy Doherty registered his 50th-career point on Feb. 14 and is currently tied for fourth on the team in scoring. Doherty is tied for fifth in scoring in the league, and tied for 18th amongst all defensemen. The Hopkinton, Mass., native 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.

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

Sophomore goaltender Thatcher Demko just started his 50th-career game on The Heights on Feb. 13, 2015. This season, Demko is 17-9-3 and currently ranks 28th in the NCAA in goals against average with a mark of 2.23. Demko's save percentage of .924 is good for 23rd in college hockey. Demko's winning percentage of .638 has him tied for 16th in the country.

Boston College Athletics

Eagles Travel to Notre Dame to Cap Regular Season

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