Playoff Push Starts with Vermont Friday Night

March 11, 2015

GAME NOTES: PDF | ISSUU (web based)

WEBSTREAM:Hockey East

RADIO:WEEI 850 AM (P x P: Jon Rish | Color: Andy Powers)

LIVE STATS

TV TIME

Saturday's, and possibly Sunday's (if possible), telecast will be live on NESN. Alex Faust and Billy Jaffe will be on the call. Saturday's game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. while Sunday starts at 6 p.m.

BOSTON COLLEGE vs. VERMONT

Vermont returns to Kelley Rink for the Hockey East quarterfinals, marking the second time in three seasons, starting Friday, March 13. In those previous meetings, Boston College swept the Catamounts off The Heights with respective scores of 4-2 and 4-1 on March 15 and March 16, 2013. The Eagles are unblemished in their six Hockey East playoff encounters against UVM. BC knocked off Vermont four times in the quarterfinals (2013, 2006), shut out Vermont in the 2010 Hockey East semifinal (3-0) and came away with the Hockey East Tournament title in 2008 with another blanking of Vermont, 4-0. Vermont remains the only team the Eagles have faced in posteason play where Boston College remains undefeated. In this season's previous encounters on Feb. 13-14, 2015, the Catamounts tripped up BC in the series opener in overtime, 3-2. That victory curbed Boston College's 11-game unbeaten streak against UVM that had stretched back to Nov. 13, 2010. It was also Vermont's first victory at Kelley Rink since Nov. 15, 2009. It was also Vermont's second-only triumph in Chestnut Hill since joining Hockey East. All-time at Kelley Rink, Boston College is 16-2. In the overall series, the Eagles hold a 36-13-5 record with a 24-7-3 total in Hockey East play.

CATAMOUNT CALL

The Catamounts earned their spot in the Hockey East quarterfinals by ousting Maine in the first round of the playoffs at home in a best-of-three series. The Black Bears took Vermont the distance as Jonathan Turk was the Catamounts' hero by netting the game-winning overtime goal in the decisive game three on Sunday evening. Since splitting the BC series on Feb. 13-14, Vermont has posted a 3-2-2 mark, including the previous playoff series with Maine. Vermont had a very hot start to the season, skating to a 14-3-1 start and a 7-3-1 mark in conference play before running into an eight-game stretch (Dec. 29 - Jan. 31) where UVM could scrap together one victory. Much like the Eagles, Vermont is a 20-win club and touts its 20-13-4 record into Friday's game and has been recast as the No. 6 seed in the tournament as finished seventh, overall, in the league with a 10-9-3 conference mark. Senior defenseman Mike Paliotta continues to tear it up for Vermont and is the team's leading point scorer with nine tallies and 26 assists and is ranked 51st, overall, in the country with 0.95 ppg. Amongst all defensemen in college hockey, Paliotta's scoring rate ranks fifth in the nation. Sophomore forward Brady Shaw is the team's leading goal scorer with 16 thus far and is tied for 36th in the country with 0.47 gpg. Seven of those goals have come via the power play as his is tied for 10th in the country in PPGs. Vermont has employed a two-goaltender system as Brody Hoffman has pieced together the 11th-best win-loss total of 11-5-2 (.667) in the nation while Mike Santaguida has been a worthy compliment. Along with his 9-8-2 record, Santaguida's 1.93 goals against average ranks seven in the country and his .927 save percentage stands as 14th-best in college hockey. Hoffman and Santaguida buddy up to backstop the country's 12th-stingiest defense that allows only 2.22 goals per game. Offensively, the Catamounts are averaging 2.78 goals per game which is 28th best in the nation. Vermont has prided itself on being the fourth-least penalized team in college hockey, averaging only 8.9 PIMs per game. The Catamounts' power play ranks 16th (20.6 percent) while the penalty kill has been second-best in Hockey East and seventh best, overall (88.2 percent).

BOSTON COLLEGE IN THE HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT

Boston College owns an overall record of 62-6-2 (.700) in the Hockey East tournament with a record 11 Lamoriello Trophies (1987, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012) and the same number of tournament MVPs. As it stands both Boston College and Boston University possess the same number of Hockey East Tournament victories, each posting 62 wins. BU has more games played (62-36-1), but the Eagles own the best winning percentage (.700) in the Hockey East playoffs.

BOSTON COLLEGE IN THE HOCKEY EAST QUARTERFINALS

The Eagles look to avenge last year's early exit from the Hockey East quarterfinals after Notre Dame ousted BC in three games and handed Boston College its first loss in the quarterfinals in 18-straight games dating back to 2004. Boston College will take part in its 26th Hockey East quarterfinals series and has posted an overall record of 35-15-1 in that round of play.

Jerry York IN THE HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT

Jerry York's nine Hockey East tournament titles (1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012) are the gold standard. BU's Jack Parker is second with seven. York is 52-15-1 (.772) in 65 conference postseason contests. Boston College has advanced to the semifinal round of the league tournament in 10-of-15 seasons overall under York. The Eagles also own the most Hockey East championship appearances in league history with 16.

POSTSEASON SEEDING

Boston College will be the No. 3 seed in the Hockey East Tournament for the fourth time and first time since 2006 when the Eagles played Vermont in the quarterfinals for the first time. As a No. 3 seed, the Eagles have amassed a 10-2 record and made it to the Hockey East Championship on three occasions in the slot, winning the title in 1999 in a 5-4 win against New Hampshire in overtime.

ALL WE DO IS WIN - WIN - WIN

With a 20-11-3 mark heading into the playoffs, BC has locked up another winning season. In its 93 seasons 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. With the Feb. 27th victory at Notre Dame, the Eagles have won 20 games in six-consecutive seasons, tying Jerry York's streak of six-straight 20-win seasons starting in 2002-03 and concluding in 2007-08. Under York's guidance, the Eagles have already posted 20 wins on 15 occassions.

SHOOTING GALLERY

In the regular season finale at Notre Dame on Feb. 28, the Eagles logged 56 shots on net. That total marked the highest Eagle shot aggregate in almost seven years. Boston College has not posted that many shots on net since the 2008 Hockey East semifinals on March 21, 2008, when BC clipped New Hampshire, 5-4, in triple overtime. The Eagles posted 67 shots that game.

PARSING THE PAIRWISE

Heading into the Irish series, BC is 10th in the Pairwise ranking, possessing an RPI of .6324. The only teams the Eagles trail in the Pairwise rankings right now are Boston University, and Providence, which are in sixth and ninth, respectively.

WHERE THE OFFENSE STANDS

Through 34 games, Boston College is scoring at a rate of 2.94 goals per game, tying the Eagles for 23rd in all of college hockey and tied for sixth 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 14 goals and 14 assists. On the national landscape, Tuch is seventh amongst all rookies in college hockey with 0.85 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. He is tied with Tuch for the team lead in goals (14). 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. He is tied for second in Hockey East for the most game-winners this year (5).

DEFENSIVE POSITIONING

BC's defense is currently tied for 19th, surrendering 2.35 goals per game. That mark ranks fourth in Hockey East.

McDOUBLE

Sophomore defensemen Ian McCoshen has been on fire as of late, accounting for six points (4-2-6) over the course of his last five 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 third-career game-winning goal in BC's 2-0 shutout of Notre Dame on Feb. 27.

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 11 of his last 16 outings, including his fourth goal of the year on Jan. 30.

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 18-10-3 and currently ranks 25th in the NCAA in goals against average with a mark of 2.18. Demko's save percentage of .926 is good for 18th in college hockey. Demko's winning percentage of .629 has him tied for 17th in the country. Following his freshman campaign, Demko was drafted by Vancouver, 36th overall, in last summer's NHL Entry Draft. As a freshman, Demko turned in in college hockey's sixth-best winning percentage (.729 - 16-5-3) with a 2.24 goals against average and a .919 save percentage.

Boston College Athletics

Playoff Push Starts with Vermont Friday Night

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