Boston College and UConn Tangle to Close First Half

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Boston College closes the first half of the season with a home-and-home Hockey East series against the UConn Huskies, beginning on Thursday (Dec. 6) at the XL Center in Hartford. The schools close the series on Friday (Dec. 7) on the Heights at 7 p.m. The Eagles took three out of four points from archrival Boston University last weekend in a home-and-home set, allowing just one goal to the Terriers all weekend in the Battle of Comm Ave. BC is now 4-1-2 in its last seven games since starting the season with five straight losses, while UConn is trying to snap a five-game losing streak and has lost seven of its last eight.

BATTLE OF COMM AVE
Friday Recap:
• Logan Hutsko scored the first two of four unanswered goals in a 4-1 victory over Boston University in the 278th Battle of Comm Ave to open the series on Friday at Agganis Arena
• Joseph Woll made a season-high 38 saves for the Eagles
• Christopher Brown provided an insurance goal five minutes into the third period, and rookie Marc McLaughlin scored his first career goal on an empty-netter in the closing minutes
• BC played almost the entire game without freshman Jack McBain, who was handed a five-minute major and game misconduct 1:19 into the first period
• The Eagles improved to 13-4-2 all-time at Agganis Arena and 4-1-1 in their last six trips down Comm Ave

Saturday Recap:
• The back-end of the weekend was the first-ever scoreless tie between the archrivals in over 100 years
• Jake Oettinger (42 saves) and Joseph Woll (26 saves) combined to stop all 68 shots they faced as Woll secured his fourth career shutout and first of the season
• Within the first two minutes of overtime, Casey Fitzgerald nearly picked out Patrick Giles on a shot-pass through the low slot but the puck whistled wide right
• Julius Mattila then found David Cotton in the low slot for a one-timer with 1:05 left that Oettinger handled
• As a team, Boston College won the shot (42-26) and faceoff (39-22) battles convincingly
• Senior defenseman Michael Kim led all players with nine shots on goal

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
• UConn enters the matchup at 5-9-1 overall and 2-7-1 in Hockey East, currently tied with Boston University for the most league games played
• Connecticut has lost five games in a row and seven of its last eight overall, most recently dropping a 7-4 final at then-No. 3 UMass last Saturday
• Czech rookie Jáchym Kondelík leads the Huskies with 12 assists and 13 points, while junior Alexander Payusov has scored a team-best nine goals
• Junior netminder Adam Huska has started 10 of 15 games in net and carries a 3-6-1 record, 2.99 goals against average and .911 save percentage with one shutout
• UConn is clicking at 15.4% on the power play thus far and 80.6% on the penalty kill
• Former BC assistant Mike Cavanaugh is in his sixth season as the head coach in Storrs with 71 wins during his tenure
• Last year, the Huskies finished 15-19-2 (11-12-1 HEA) and fell at Boston University in a pair of one goal games (5-4 OT and 2-1) in the Hockey East Quarterfinals

SERIES HISTORY
• Thursday marks the 10th meeting in the all-time series, which Boston College leads 6-2-1 since UConn joined Hockey East in 2014
• The Eagles are undefeated against UConn in Chestnut Hill (4-0-1) but just 2-2-0 at the XL Center
• In their last four wins, the Eagles have held the Huskies to a total of four goals

LAST YEAR'S SERIES
• BC won the 2018-19 regular season series 2-1-0 with both wins coming at home
• The Eagles collected 2-1 and 2-0 victories on Nov. 7 and Dec. 30 with Ryan Edquist earning the win in both contests at Kelley Rink by stopping 50 of 51 shots
• UConn responded at the XL Center in early February with a 5-3 victory
• Corey Ronan scored shorthanded in the first period and added the game-winner early in the third period, while Julius Mattila netted a pair of goals for BC

COTTON DOMINATES NOVEMBER
• David Cotton was named the Hockey East Player of the Month for November after leading the league in goals (7) and points (11) last month with a pair of game-winners and a +7 rating
• He was one point shy of matching his career-high point streak (7) before being held scoreless by BU on Saturday
• Cotton put together a career-high goal scoring streak of five games last month from Nov. 3-23
• With 10 goals in 12 games this season, Cotton is the national leader in goals per game
• The winger leads Hockey East in shots on goal per game (3.92) and sits fourth in points per game (1.25)

WOLL STREET
• Joseph Woll was named the Hockey East Co-Defensive Player of the Week on Monday with Jeremy Swayman of Maine
• Woll allowed one goal all weekend against rival Boston University in the Battle of Comm Ave, stopping 64 of the 65 shots he faced for a .985 save percentage
• The junior made a season-high 38 saves on Friday in a 4-1 win at Agganis Arena, followed by a 26-save shutout on Saturday during the first scoreless tie in series history
• Woll leads Hockey East during conference play with a 1.14 goals against average and a .963 save percentage, pacing Boston College to a 4-1-2 league record
• Since the start of November, he ranks seventh in the nation turning aside 95.2% of opposing shots

WE'RE THE THREE BEST FRIENDS
• The Eagles' top line of Cotton-Mattila-Hutsko has combined for 12 goals and 17 assists in the last seven games
• All three forwards have registered a +7 rating during the seven-game stretch, during which BC is 4-1-2
• The trio has accounted for 12 of the team's 19 goals over the last seven contests and nearly 50% of the team's offense this season (35 of 72 total points)
• Cotton had a career-high five-game goal streak snapped at BU on Friday and Hutsko's career-best seven-game point streak ended on Saturday in the scoreless tie
• The three forwards have combined for 11 multi-point games

HUTSKO'S HELPING HANDS
• Logan Hutsko was tied with his linemate Cotton for the Hockey East lead in November with 11 points and led the league in assists per game (1.14)
• He currently ranks 14th in the league in assists per game after going without a point in October
• Since then, Hutsko has gone 3-8-11 with a +7 rating
• The sophomore from Tampa has factored into 11 of BC's last 20 goals and registered a career-high seven-game point streak from Nov. 2-30

UP NEXT
• The Eagles begin the second half on New Year's Eve at 5 p.m. against Notre Dame in South Bend, followed by a two-game series out west against Arizona State on Jan. 4-5

Boston College and UConn Tangle to Close First Half

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Players Mentioned

Christopher Brown

David Cotton

Ryan Edquist

Casey Fitzgerald

Patrick Giles

Logan Hutsko

Michael Kim

Julius Mattila

Jack McBain

Marc McLaughlin

Joseph Woll