No. 6 Eagles Travel to Face Top-Ranked Denver in Weekend Series

DENVER – No. 6 Boston College travels to Magness Arena for a two-game series against top-ranked Denver this weekend with faceoff set for 9 p.m. (ET) on Friday (Oct. 18) and Saturday (Oct. 19). Both games will have pay-per-view video via NCHC.TV and the Saturday game will be televised live on NESNplus and the NESN app. Pre-game radio coverage on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.TV begins at 8:45 p.m. (ET) each night with Alastair Ingram and Kevin Collins on the call.

SETTING THE SCENE
• Two of college hockey's most successful programs, the Eagles and Pioneers are a combined 6-0-0 to begin the season as the schools meet for the eighth time in the last seven years
• BC and Denver have combined for 13 NCAA titles and 42 Frozen Four appearances
• Boston College is 2-0 for the first time since 2011 when it beat Michigan State (5-2) and North Dakota (6-2) at the Ice Breaker Tournament in Grand Forks, before falling to Denver 4-2 at home in game 3
• That 2011-12 season ended with the school's fifth NCAA Championship in Tampa Bay

OPENING NIGHT VICTORY
• Behind three-point nights from senior linemates David Cotton and Julius Mattila, BC skated past No. 15 Wisconsin for a 5-3 opening night victory at Kelley Rink last Friday to begin its 98th season of hockey
• Mattila scored twice in the first period, won 15 of his 26 faceoffs, and finished with nine shots on goal and a plus-3 rating in his 100th career game
• Cotton was plus-4 in the opener while collecting two assists and a key insurance goal 35 seconds into the third • Rookies and former USNTDP teammates Marshall Warren and Matt Boldy each scored his first collegiate goal in the second period, extending the Eagles' lead to 4-1
• Wisconsin responded with back-to-back goals, including Cole Caufield's second of the night, but Cotton's snipe on a no-look pass from Logan Hutsko restored the lead to two in the first minute of the third period
• Freshman netminder Spencer Knight made 23 saves for his first NCAA win in net

SHUTOUT IN HAMILTON
• Making its first trip to Hamilton, New York in nearly 35 years, Boston College shut out Colgate 3-0 last Sunday afternoon at Class of 1965 Arena as Spencer Knight stopped all 39 shots faced for his first NCAA shutout
• For the second straight game, BC's top line of David Cotton (1-2-3), Julius Mattila (0-3-3) and Logan Hutsko (1-0-1) combined for seven points to pace the offense
• Skating in his 100th career game, senior defenseman Luke McInnis also lit the lamp in the opening period for his first goal since his freshman season in the 2017 Hockey East Quarterfinals
• Knight made 21 of his 39 saves in the second period as Colgate put together its best pressure of the contest, but the rookie and the BC penalty kill (7-for-7) were perfect on the night to keep the Raiders at bay
• The Eagles also killed off nearly 40 seconds of 5-on-3 power play time in the third period

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
• Denver is the new No. 1 ranked team in the country in both national polls this week following a perfect 4-0-0 start to its season
• The Pioneers earned road sweeps over Alaska Fairbanks and Lake Superior State, winning two of those four games in the final 90 seconds of regulation
• Senior forward Liam Finlay leads the team with five points (all assists) and is the program's active career leader with 70 points
• Rookie Magnus Chrona has started all four games in net with a 4-0-0 record, .935 save percentage and 1.75 goals against average
• Denver shut out Ohio State and AIC in last year's NCAA Tournament to reach its 17th Frozen Four in program history and third in the last four seasons
• Second-year coach David Carle, the youngest head coach in Division I, guided the Pioneers to their 18th consecutive 20-win season last year (24-12-5)

SERIES HISTORY
• The Eagles and Pioneers will meet for the 33rd and 34th times this weekend
• Denver owns a slim 17-15-0 edge in the all-time series, which began at the 1968 NCAA Tournament
• The schools have met twice in the NCAA Tournament in the last six years
• Denver handed Boston College a first-round exit in the 2015 NCAA Tournament, defeating the Eagles 5-2 in Providence
• The year prior at the DCU Center in Worcester, the Eagles beat the Pioneers 6-2 behind a hat trick from Johnny Gaudreau
• Two seasons ago, Denver came to Chestnut Hill in late October as the No. 1 team in the nation and took down the Eagles 6-1 at Kelley Rink
• BC downed DU 3-1 in the consolation game of the 2016 Ice Breaker Tournament in its last trip to Magness Arena

WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS
• Senior David Cotton and freshman Spencer Knight both won Hockey East weekly awards on Monday following an undefeated opening weekend for the sixth-ranked Eagles
• Cotton was named the league's Player of the Week, while Knight earned Rookie of the Week honors
• Cotton began his senior campaign with a goal and two assists in each of his first two games, collecting six total points for BC in a pair of wins over No. 15 Wisconsin and Colgate
• Knight earned his first two NCAA wins along with his first career shutout on Sunday, stopping all 39 shots he faced at Colgate, and closed the weekend with a .954 save percentage

TREMENDOUS TRIO
• Boston College's top line of David Cotton, Julius Mattila and Logan Hutsko has combined for 14 points over the first two games of the season, collecting seven in each win last weekend
• The trio is a plus-14 this season with five of the team's eight goals and 14 of its 20 points
• In November and December last season, the line produced 40 points and a plus-21 rating in 11 contests
• Overall, the trio accounted for nearly 35% of the Eagles' offense with 85 points in 2018-19

UP NEXT
• Boston College returns home to Kelley Rink next Friday night for its Hockey East opener against No. 12 Providence
• The rematch of last year's Hockey East Quarterfinal will be televised live on NESNplus

No. 6 Eagles Travel to Face Top-Ranked Denver in Weekend Series

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Players Mentioned

Matt Boldy

David Cotton

Logan Hutsko

Spencer Knight

Julius Mattila

Luke McInnis

Marshall Warren