No. 6 Eagles and No. 15 Badgers Set for Opening Night Showdown

Friday, October 11

Chestnut Hill, Mass.

7:00 PM

Boston College

Wisconsin

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Photo by: Dave Arnold

No. 6 Eagles and No. 15 Badgers Set for Opening Night Showdown

October 10, 2019 | Men's Hockey

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By: Athletic Communications

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Sixth-ranked Boston College officially opens its 98th season of men's hockey on Friday night (Oct. 11) with a 7 p.m. faceoff against No. 15 Wisconsin at Kelley Rink. The game will air live on NESNplus (streaming on the NESN go app and collegesportslive.com) and WEEI 850 AM. The Eagles then travel to face Colgate on Sunday (Oct. 13) at 4 p.m. on ESPN+ in Hamilton, New York.

OFF AND RUNNING
• Boston College received goals from four different players and beat reigning Canadian University Cup champion New Brunswick 4-2 last Saturday in exhibition action at Kelley Rink
• 10 different Eagles registered a point in the victory, including three freshmen
• The Varsity Reds opened the scoring with six minutes left in the first period, but goals from David Cotton and Jack McBain in the final 2:07 of the frame gave BC the lead for good
• Making their debuts in the maroon and gold, forwards Matt Boldy and Mike Hardman each lit the lamp in the second period to put the Eagles up 4-1 through two
• Rookie netminder Spencer Knight saw 40 minutes of action in net and stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced, while classmate Jack Moffatt played the third period and made 15 saves
• Defensemen Mitch Andres, Drew Helleson and Marshall Warren also made their unofficial collegiate debuts

SCOUTING THE BADGERS
• The Badgers went 14-18-5 overall and 9-10-5-2 in the BIG 10 last year, falling in three games at Penn State in the BIG 10 First Round
• Sean Dhooghe led the team in scoring last year with 15 goals and 26 points
• Wisconsin brings in a talented rookie class which includes 2019 fifth overall pick Alex Turcotte (Los Angeles), 15th overall pick Cole Caufield (Montreal), and projected 2020 first round pick Dylan Holloway
• Daniel Lebedeff made 26 starts between the pipes last year as a rookie with an 11-12-2 reocrd, 3.42 GAA and .893 save percentage
• Tony Granato enters his fourth year as the head coach in Madison
• Granato led the Badgers to a 20-15-1 record in his first season at the helm after the program won just 12 of 70 games the previous two seasons
• The 2017 BIG 10 Coach of the Year served as the head coach of the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team in PyeongChang, South Korea

SERIES HISTORY
• The Eagles and Badgers are meeting for the fifth consecutive season and will face off for the 29th meeting of the all-time series on Friday
• The teams boast elite young talent with a total of six first round NHL draft picks (three on each side), including five selected in the top-16 picks of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver
• Boston College leads the all-time series 15-13-0 but has dropped three in a row to the Badgers and four of the last five
• The schools met in a pair of NCAA championship games (2006 and 2010) with each claiming a national title
• The Badgers swept the Eagles in Madison last October to open the season with 3-0 and 7-5 victories at the Kohl Center
• David Cotton (4), Graham McPhee (2), Julius Mattila (1) are the active Eagles who have scored in their careers against Wisconsin

PRESEASON FAVORITE
• BC was selected as the preseason favorite in Hockey East, according to the annual coaches' poll released at Hockey East Media Day at TD Garden
• It marks the second straight season and the third time in the last five years that the Eagles have been picked to win the league by the coaches
• The Eagles received eight of a possible 10 first-place votes (a head coach is not allowed to vote for his own team) and finished with 97 points in the poll
• Wisconsin was picked to finish third in the seven-team BIG 10 behind Penn State and Notre Dame

IT'S AN HONOR
• David Cotton was named a First Team Hockey East All-Star last season, becoming the first Eagle to garner First Team honors since Thatcher Demko and Ryan Fitzgerald were both honored in 2016
• He was later recognized as a Second Team All-American, the 71st All-American in Boston College history
• The Texas native was also selected to the New England Division I All-Star Team and won the Paul Hines Award as the most improved player in New England
• Cotton led Hockey East last year with a career-high 23 goals, ranking sixth nationally in goals per game and 20th in power play goals with a team-high eight
• The winger posted his first career hat trick in the second game of last season against Wisconsin in Madison

CLASS OF 2023
• The eight-member Class of 2023 features five 2019 NHL draft picks, the most for BC at a single draft in a decade, and a program-record three selections in the first round
• Forward Matt Boldy (12th to Minnesota), goaltender Spencer Knight (13th to Florida) and forward Alex Newhook (16th to Colorado) were all selected in the top 16 picks of the opening round
• The trio gives Boston College 21 first round picks all-time in program history
• Second rounder Drew Helleson (47th to Colorado) gave the Eagles four players among the top 50 selections, while fellow defenseman Marshall Warren went to Minnesota in the sixth round (166th overall)
• BC became the fifth program in NCAA history to have at least three players taken in the same first round

MILESTONE WATCH
• Seniors Julius Mattila (99), Luke McInnis (98), and Ron Greco (97) are inching closer to 100 career games with Mattila set to reach the century mark on opening night
• Last season, then-junior defensemen Connor Moore (March 2) and Julius' twin brother Jesper Mattila (Feb. 23) both played in their 100th career games on the BC blue line
• Captain David Cotton begins his senior campaign four assists shy of 50 and 12 points away from 100
• Classmate and assistant captain Graham McPhee is seven points away from 50 for his career