Eagles Host No. 2 St. Cloud State Thursday for Home Opener

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Boston College returns to Kelley Rink for its home opener on Thursday night (Oct. 25) when it welcomes second-ranked St. Cloud State from the NCHC to Boston for the very first time. Faceoff between the Eagles and Huskies is scheduled for 7 p.m and the game will air live on ESPN3 and WEEI 850 AM.

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
• St. Cloud State, the No. 2 team in Monday's USCHO.com poll, is a perfect 4-0-0 after a road sweep of Alaska and a home sweep of Northern Michigan
• Senior Patrick Newell leads the team with four goals and seven points in the team's first four games, while junior Jack Achan has chipped in seven assists
• In net, Jeff Smith and LA Kings draft pick Dávid Hrenák have each started a pair of games with a combined 1.25 goals against average and .930 save percentage
• SCSU is clicking at 22% on the power play and 95% on the kill
• Brett Larson (Minnesota Duluth '04) is in his first season as head coach after two stints as an assistant caoch at his alma mater Minnesota Duluth, winning two NCAA titles in 2011 and 2018 with the Bulldogs
• Last year, the Huskies went 25-9-6 (16-4-4 NCHC) and earned a No. 1 seed but lost to Air Force 4-1 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D.
• 2017 Montreal Canadiens first round pick Ryan Poehling is coming off a 31-point campaign last season

SERIES HISTORY
• The Eagles and Huskies are meeting for just the fourth time in series history and the first time ever with Boston College as the home team
• Last October, St. Cloud State swept the Eagles in Minnesota with 5-2 and 3-1 wins at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center
• Logan Hutsko and Christopher Brown scored in the first game to give BC a 2-0 lead, but the Huskies responded with five unanswered from five different players
• St. Cloud took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission on night two before JD Dudek grabbed one back for the Eagles in the third period
• The first meeting in series history came just before New Year's in 2004 in Estero, Florida, which was a 2-1 Boston College victory in double overtime
• Chris Collins scored the game-winner for BC 59 seconds into the second overtime in the Florida College Classic Championship Game; Ryan Shannon also lit the lamp in that inaugural series matchup

QUINNIPIAC RECAP
• Keith Petruzzelli stopped all 21 Boston College shots he faced as Quinnipiac frustrated the 18th-ranked Eagles in a 1-0 victory at Frank Perrotti, Jr. Arena last Friday night in BC's first-ever trip to Hamden
• Bobcat captain Chase Priskie's 5-on-3 one-timer late in the first period was the only tally of the night
• The Eagles finished the non-league matchup 0-for-2 on the power play with both chances coming in the first
• Late in the second period, Logan Hutsko made a spinning move to his forehand at the top of the crease but was denied by Petruzzelli at the right post
• Marc McLaughlin then had a look at an empty net in the closing seconds of the frame
• With under six minutes left in the third, the Eagles put together their best offensive shift of the night, but Oliver Wahlstrom was robbed at the right post as Petruzzelli kept his pad along the ice to preserve the lead
• Hutsko was called for hooking with just 2:26 remaining, and Quinnipiac possessed the puck in the final 30 seconds following the penalty kill to seal the win

AT THE DOT
• Boston College has won 57.1% of its faceoffs this season and leads Hockey East through three games
• That mark is also good for seventh in the nation at this early stage of the season
• McLaughlin (17-for-25) and Julius Mattila (40-for-63) are both top-10 in the league individually
• Last year as a team, the Eagles won 52% of their faceoffs to rank second in Hockey East and 15th nationally

PLENTY OF TWENTY
• Boston College has won 20 games in a season nine years in a row, which marks the second-longest active streak in college hockey behind Denver (17)
• BC was third last year before North Dakota's streak of 16 straight 20-win campaigns came to an end
• The current streak is the longest in Eagles history and includes a pair of 30-win seasons (2010-12)

WHO'S NEXT
• The Eagles open Hockey East play next weekend with a home-and-home series against Merrimack, beginning on the road at Lawler Arena on Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.

Eagles Host No. 2 St. Cloud State Thursday for Home Opener

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Players Mentioned

Christopher Brown

JD Dudek

Logan Hutsko

Julius Mattila

Marc McLaughlin

Oliver Wahlstrom