#BattleofCommAve Concludes with Home-and-Home Series

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The No. 2 Boston College women's hockey team is set to face Boston University for two games this weekend to wrap up the annual #BattleOfCommAve series. Friday's game will be the 50th varsity meeting between the two teams and is set for the Eagles' Kelley Rink, with faceoff scheduled for 2 p.m. That game will be streamed live on ESPN3, which is available on WatchESPN or the ESPN app. Saturday's game at the Terriers' Walter Brown Arena will face off at 3 p.m.

The weekend series will feature the nation's top four scorers: Boston College's Daryl Watts and Caitrin Lonergan, and BU's Victoria Bach and Rebecca Leslie. Watts (40 pts.) and Lonergan (38 pts.) rank first and second nationally in scoring, while Bach (31 pts.) is third and Leslie (27 pts.) is tied for fourth. Lonergan is also the nation's leading goal scorer, while Watts and Bach are among three players tied for second with 17 goals apiece.

Both teams come into the weekend on short rest following Tuesday night games.

Boston College (12-1-2, 6-0-2 HEA) posted a 7-3 win over Northeastern on Tuesday night in Chestnut Hill. Lonergan had a career night, recording a career-high five points from her second hat trick of the season and two assists. Watts added a pair of goals and an assist as BC jumped back on top of the Hockey East standings with the win. In that game, BC scored two goals in the first and second periods and three in the third while holding the Huskies to a single goal each period.

Boston University (6-7-2, 3-5-2 HEA) earned a 6-4 win at home over Brown as Bach (2 goals, 3 assists) and Leslie (2 goals, 2 assists) led the way. The Bears held a 4-3 lead early in the third after a pair of goals early in the period, but Jesse Compher tied it up with a power-play goal at 8:57 and Bach put the Terriers ahead for good at 13:29 with a power-play strike before Leslie sealed it at 15:30.

This weekend wraps up the teams' three-game Hockey East regular-season series. The teams met earlier this fall on Babcock St., where the Eagles claimed a 4-3 road win on Oct. 28. In that game, Katie Burt made a career-high 43 saves and set the Hockey East career wins record with her 53rd league win. BC took a 3-0 lead behind a pair of goals from Watts and one from Willow Corson, but Leslie cut into the lead midway through the second. Erin Connolly then put BC back up by three with under four minutes to play, but BU's Mary Grace Kelley scored with 2:22 left and Leslie tallied a 6v4 goal with under a minute left to test the Eagles down the final seconds.

Overall, BC is 26-17-6 all-time against Boston University, including a 10-7-3 mark at Kelley Rink, a 12-7-2 record at Walter Brown Arena and a 4-3-1 record in neutral games.

Since 2013-14, BC is 10-1-2 in regular-season conference games against the Terriers, plus 3-0-0 in Beanpot meetings. However in that same time frame, BU is 2-1-0 against BC in Hockey East Tournament championship games.

The Terriers' lone regular-season win in that time frame came last year when the Terriers took a 5-3 win at Walter Brown Arena after the Eagles posted leads of 2-0 and 3-1. BU's five goals in the third period proved to be the difference.

In addition to Bach and Leslie, two other Terriers have reached double-digits in scoring. Abby Cook has 12 points (1 goal, 11 assists), while Compher has added 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists).

Freshman Corinne Schroeder has assumed the starting goaltender job after senior Erin O'Neill started the year in goal. In her last 10 appearances – all starts – Schroeder has allowed two or fewer goals in eight games. Only in her last two starts – against No. 1 Wisconsin last Saturday and Tuesday against Brown – has she allowed more than two, letting in four goals in both games. She is 6-2-2 on the season with a 2.06 goals against average and a .928 save percentage. O'Neill has a 3.40 GAA with a .892 save percentage to go with her 0-5-0 record.

For BC, Makenna Newkirk will look to extend her season-opening point streak to 16 games, which would tie Haley Skarupa's 16-game stretch in 2016 for the fourth-longest point streak in program history. She ranks third on the team in scoring with 24 points (8 goals, 16 assists), while Toni Ann Miano (6-11-17) and Corson (4-11-15) also have reached double digits in points.

After the weekend, Boston College has just one more weekend series before the annual December break. Next weekend, the Eagles will play a home-and-home set with Merrimack to close out first semester. The first game will be played on Friday, Dec. 8, at Kelley Rink with faceoff set for 7 p.m. Saturday's game is scheduled for 4 p.m., at the Warriors' Lawler Rink in North Andover, Mass. In a unique scheduling twist, the same two teams will also open the second-semester schedule – playing their third-straight game – on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 2, in North Andover.

#BattleofCommAve Concludes with Home-and-Home Series

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Players Mentioned

Katie Burt

Erin Connolly

Willow Corson

Caitrin Lonergan

Toni Ann Miano

Makenna Newkirk

Daryl Watts