Eagles Kick Off Second Half at New Hampshire Saturday

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The No. 10 Boston College women's hockey team opens up its second-semester schedule Saturday afternoon with a game against New Hampshire. The Eagles will face the Wildcats at 2 p.m. the Whittemore Center in Durham, N.H.

Boston College (13-7-0, 10-5-0 Hockey East) and New Hampshire (6-9-4, 4-8-1 Hockey East) will be meeting for the first time this season in the first of three regular season conference contests. BC, who took the series last season with a 2-1-0 record, will be looking to start 2019 strong after going 1-4-0 in the last five games before the break. UNH brings a five-game unbeaten streak into the game.

Following Saturday's game, the Eagles will play a home-and-home series with No. 3 Northeastern, traveling to Matthews Arena on Friday, Jan. 11 and then returning to Conte Forum on Saturday, Jan. 12.

BOSTON COLLEGE IN BRIEF
• BC went 1-4-0 in its last five games before the semester break, including going 1-1-0 in a home-and-home series with Merrimack to close out the semester.
• The Eagles stopped a three-game skid with a 4-3 overtime win against Merrimack at Kelley Rink on Nov. 30 but had the 1-0 loss the next day, the first time this year that BC has been shutout.
• Megan Keller (9-13-22) leads the Eagles in points while Makenna Newkirk (7-14-21) is second ... Keller leads all defensemen nationally in scoring.
• Daryl Watts (11-9-20) has a team-high 11 goals and is third in points.
• BC started Hockey East play 5-0-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season.

ABOUT NEW HAMPSHIRE
• After starting the season 1-1-1, UNH went winless in nine consecutive games before topping Holy Cross, 4-1 on Nov. 17.
• That win set off a seven game unbeaten streak that the 'Cats bring into Saturday's contest ... the fourth best active unbeaten streak in the country includes a two-game sweep of Merrimack.
• Kyra Smith is 5-3-2 in her last 10 games with a 1.78 goals against average, .939 save percentage and one shutout ... the senior has played 57.1% of UNH's minutes in goal.
• Taylor Wenczkowski has a team-high 11 points (7-4-11) while Nicole Dunbar (5-5-10) and Carlee Turner (4-6-10) are tied for second.
• UNH's penalty kill unit (91.9%) is tied for third in the nation while its power play (21.1%) is ninth.
• The Wildcats were seventh in the Hockey East preseason coaches poll after a fifth-place finish in the 2017-18 regular season.

BALANCED ATTACK
• BC has eight players in double-digit points, the most of any team in Hockey East and third nationally behind Minnesota (11) and Wisconsin (9).
• Eight different players have scored game-winning goals for BC, which is third in Hockey East behind Northeastern (9) and Merrimack (9).
• The Eagles have 18 players with at least one point and 15 players have scored at least one goal.
• Six players have scored at least four goals for the Eagles.

DEFENSE CHIPPIN' IN
• In addition to help Boston College sit tied for seventh in the country in goals against per game (1.52), the Eagles' defensive corps is first in the nation in points (59), points per game (2.95), goals (15) and second in assists (44).
• The Eagles have three players in Megan Keller, Cayla Barnes and Grace Bizal that sit in the top 15 in the country in defensemen scoring, the most of any team.
• Keller (9-13-22) leads all blue liners in points while Barnes (3-11-14) is ninth and Bizal (2-10-12) is tied for 12th.
• Barnes is the only rookie blue liner to crack the top 10.
• BC defensemen have scored eight goals on the power play and notched five game-winning goals, with both marks leading the nation.
• Blue liners have scored five game-winning goals for BC, tops in the country.
• The BC defense has chipped in on 25% of the squad's goals (15/60), 42% of the assists (44/105) and 36% of the overall points (59/165).

IT'S WORTH NOTING
• Freshman Kelly Browne is first among conference rookies in faceoff wins with 179 (sixth overall) ... she led all freshman in the country in face-off wins in the month of November with 75.
• Caitrin Lonergan's .619 face-off winning percentage is fifth in the league.
• Daryl Watts is fourth in Hockey East with an average of 5.20 shots on goal per game while Lonergan is fifth with an average of 4.33.
• Among forwards, Makenna Newkirk's 29 blocks leads all of Hockey East and is tied for sixth in the country.
• With her assist against Merrimack on Dec. 7, Lindsay Agnew tied her career high in points (13) and assists (8).

MILESTONE CHECK
• Makenna Newkirk and Megan Keller both reached 100 career assists at Holy Cross on Nov. 24, becoming the fourth and fifth players in program history to do so.
• In a three-point outing against Syracuse on Oct. 6, Newkirk became the fifth player in program history to reach 150 career points.
• Keller registered her 125th career point with her second assist at Maine on Oct. 28.
• Daryl Watts recorded her 50th career goal in her 49th career game at Providence on Nov. 3 ... at BU on Dec. 1, she earned her 100th career point in her 56th career game.
• Watts needs two more assists to hit 50 for her career.
• Grace Bizal reached the 50-point plateau at Holy Cross on Nov. 24 ... she needs five more helpers to reach 50 for her career.
• Delaney Belinskas recorded her 50th career point with an assist against UConn on Nov. 1.

Eagles Kick Off Second Half at New Hampshire Saturday

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Lindsay Agnew

Cayla Barnes

Delaney Belinskas

Grace Bizal

Kelly Browne

Megan Keller

Caitrin Lonergan

Makenna Newkirk

Daryl Watts