Boston College
Boston University
Hockey East Semifinal Comm Ave Clash Set for Saturday
March 07, 2019 | Women's Hockey
The Eagles and Terriers will square off in the conference tournament semifinal, the seventh meeting between the two teams in the tournament.
All games will be streamed online at FloHockey.TV. Additionally, BC-BU will be televised live on NESNPlus.
Boston College (25-10-1) and Boston University (21-7-8) meet in the tournament for the first time since the 2016 championship game, when the Eagles skated to a 5-0 win to snap BU's four-year hold on the tournament title. BU won this year's regular season series at 2-1-0 but BC maintains the overall lead at 29-19-7. This will be the 56th meeting in varsity games. BC has the edge at neutral sites at 4-3-1 while the Terriers hold a 2-4 edge in Hockey East Tournament meetings between the Comm Ave rivals. This is the first meeting between BU and BC in which both teams are ranked since March 8, 2015 when No. 7 BU upset No. 1 BC, 4-1, in the conference championship game.
BC advanced to its ninth consecutive semifinal by way of a two-game sweep of UConn in last weekend's best-of-three quarterfinal series. After falling in the quarterfinals last season, BU makes its return to the final weekend after sweeping New Hampshire.
HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL | GAME 37
No. 6/6 Boston College (25-10-1) vs. No. 8/8 Boston University (21-7-8)
Schneider Arena | Providence, R.I.
Saturday, March 9, 2019 | 4:35 p.m.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
• BC and BU have met six times before in the Hockey East Tournament, with BU holding a mark of 4-2 ... BC is 1-1 in semifinal meetings (and 0-1 in quarterfinals and 1-2 in the title game) ... BU (25-9) and BC (22-10) are the most successful teams all-time in the conference tournament.
• This is the first meeting between BU and BC in which both teams are ranked since March 8, 2015 when No. 7 BU upset No. 1 BC, 4-1, in the conference championship game.
• The Eagles enter Saturday with a mark of 7-5-0 in the semifinals ... BC is 3-3 in the semifinals as the No. 2 seed.
• BC is playing in the semifinals for the ninth consecutive season ... a win would send the program to its eighth-ever title game.
• Megan Keller was named a Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalist on Feb. 28 ... it's the first time since 2013 that a defender has been tabbed as one of the three finalists and just the eighth time in the history of the award.
• The Eagles have out-shot the opponent in 25 consecutive games entering Saturday ... Lindsay Agnew has registered at least one shot on goal in all of BC's 36 games.
• Makenna Newkirk, Delaney Belinskas and Daryl Watts each have four-game point streaks.
• Newkirk has 19 career points in the conference tournament, tied for tops in program history in points with Haley Skarupa ... Newkirk is the active career-point leader in Hockey East and the Hockey East Tournament.
ABOUT BOSTON COLLEGE
• BC advanced to the Hockey East Tournament semifinals for the ninth consecutive season by sweeping UConn in its quarterfinal series, 4-1 and 5-4.
• The Eagles are now unbeaten in the last seven games, going 4-0-1 to finish the regular season and then topping the Huskies twice ... BC is 8-1-1 in the last 10 games, tied with Colgate for the best mark over the last 10 contests for all squads in the nation.
• In the 4-1 win, Delaney Belinskas, Kali Flanagan, Megan Keller and Makenna Newkirk each scored while Maddy McArthur made 23 stops for the win.
• Saturday's 5-4 affair was an overtime thriller, with Lindsay Agnew scoring early but UConn scored three unaswered for a 3-1 lead ... Erin Connolly scored with one second left in the second and again early in the third before Newkirk gave BC a 4-3 lead ... UConn would tie it up but Ryan Little punched home the game-winner nine minutes in to overtime.
• Keller (19-23-42) and Daryl Watts (19-22-42) are tied for the team lead in points ... Newkirk (12-26-38) leads the team in assists and is third in points.
• McArthur (22-9-1, .912 save percentage, 2.02 goals against average, five shutouts) has played most of the minutes in goal ... both Molly Barrow and Kelly Pickreign have picked up wins for BC.
• In the regular season, BC had a season-long winning streak of eight games ... the Eagles had four, four-game win streaks and three, five-game unbeaten streaks.
ABOUT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
• The third-seeded Terriers advanced to the semifinals by sweeping UNH, 5-1 and 3-1 ... this marks the 11th trip to the final weekend for the BU program.
• Jesse Compher, a Patty Kazmaier Top 10 Finalist, leads the Terriers - and the league - with 60 points on a team-high 43 assists and 17 goals ... 16 of her points have come on the power play, with BU's power play unit sitting fourth in the nation (23.9%).
• Sammy Davis boasts 52 points on 25 goals and 27 assists and a team-best five game-winning goals.
• BU is 7-1-2 in its last 10 games, with the lone loss coming in 2-1 affair against Providence in the regular season finale ... BU is 20-4-5 since Nov. 9.
• As the third seed in the conference tournament, BU is 14-5 overall and 3-2 in the semifinals.
• The Terriers were tabbed fifth in the Hockey East preseason coaches poll.
BC IN THE HOCKEY EAST TOURNAMENT
• Boston College is playing in its 14th Hockey East Tournament this season ... that ties with UConn for the third-most appearances in league history behind Providence (17) and New Hampshire (15).
• The Eagles have won three titles (2011, 2016, 2017) and advanced to four out of the last five championship games ... BC's seven championship game appearances are most in league history.
• BC is 22-10 all-time in the Hockey East Tournament, second only to Boston University's 25-9 mark.
• The Eagles are 7-5 in the semifinal round.
• This marks the ninth consecutive trip to the semifinal round for BC ... the 2010 season was the lone year in which the Eagles failed to advance to at least the semifinals.
• BC has a mark of 7-5 in the tournament as the No. 2 seed, winning the 2011 title as the second seed ... BC is 3-3 in the semifinals as the No. 2 seed.
TRYING TO FIND THE FOURTH
• Boston College is in search of its fourth Hockey East Tournament title.
• The Eagles broke a five-year drought in 2016 with a 5-0 win over Boston University and repeated in 2017 with a 2-1 win over Northeastern before falling in last year's semifinal round to UConn (4-2).
• BC won its first championship in 2011, topping fifth-seeded Northeastern, 3-1, while seeded second.
IT'S WORTH NOTING
• The Eagles surrender 23.03 shots on goal per game, fourth fewest in the country.
• BC has four players with at least 30 points, which ties with Clarkson, Colgate, Northeastern and Wisconsin for tops in the country..
• Kelly Browne is second among conference rookies and sixth overall in face-off wins with 326.
• BC earned its 20th win of the season on Feb. 8 against UNH, making it one of five teams in the country to be at the mark at that one of the season and one of eight to close out the regular season.
• As a team, BC is one of seven teams in the country to have at least 300 points ... the Eagles have combined for 337 points (124-213-337).
• Megan Keller has registered at least one point in 27 of her 35 games played this season and has 11 multi-point outings.
• Caitrin Lonergan's .612 face-off winning percentage is third in the league while Makenna Newkirk's .571 is 10th.
• Daryl Watts is fourth in Hockey East with an average of 4.64 shots on goal per game while Lonergan is sixth with an average of 4.56.
• Among forwards, Newkirk's 53 blocks leads all of Hockey East and is tied for ninth in the country.
• BC started Hockey East play 5-0-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
#KELLER4KAZ
• Megan Keller leads all defensemen nationally in scoring with 42 points on 19 goals and 23 assists.
• The senior leads all defenders in goals, points, goals per game (0.54), points per game (1.20), game-winning goals (5) and power-play goals (7).
• Colgate's Skylar Fontaine with 34 points and Cornell's Jaime Bourbonnais with 1.04 points per game sit second to Keller in those categories.
• Among all skaters in the country, Keller ranks in the top 20 in points (t-13th), goals (t-16th), assists (t-18th), power-play points (t-11th), power-play goals (t-2nd) game-winning goals (t-7th), points per game (t-17th) and plus/minus (t-9th).
• The last defender to average at least 1.25 points per game for a season was Keller when she finished her sophomore 2015-16 season at 1.27 per game.
• Keller has 118 shots on goal and is averaging 3.37 shots on goal per game, with both of those numbers ranking tied for third and tied for fourth, respectively, among defenders.
• She has registered at least one point in 27 of her 35 games played and has 11 multi-point outings on the year.
• The Farmington Hills, Mich. native set a new Hockey East single-season points record for a defender on Jan. 25 against Providence and set the single-season goals record on Feb. 8 versus UNH.
• With the goal against the Wildcats, she became the sixth player in program history to hit 150 career points.
• She had a 16-21-37 scoring line in conference play, good for a tie for third overall.
• Overall, Keller has been on the ice for 55 percent of BC's even-strength goals this year.
• She was named the Hockey East Player of the Month for January ... it was the first time a defenseman has been named Player of the Month since she took home the honor for February 2017.
