No. 5 Eagles Travel to No. 13 UMass Lowell, Host Rival BU

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 5 Boston College travels to Tsongas Center on Friday (Jan. 17) to meet 13th-ranked UMass Lowell before returning to the Heights on Saturday (Jan. 18) for the Battle of Comm Ave against rival Boston University. BC is 11-1-0 in its last 12 games after splitting a home-and-home with No. 10 UMass last weekend. Saturday's game against BU will air live on NESNplus, and both games can be heard on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com.

HAF TIME
• New BC head football coach Jeff Hafley will be introduced to the crowd at Kelley Rink during the first intermission on Saturday night
• Hafley will be handing out pizza to early arriving students and will join the NESNplus broadcast live during the second intermission
• All fans are encouraged to arrive early for a pre-game lights show as Boston Bruins singer Todd Angilly performs the national anthem

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
• No. 13 UMass Lowell is 5-2-0 in its last seven games and enters the weekend with a record of 12-5-4 overall and 6-2-3 in Hockey East
• Lowell split a series with RIT in Rochester last weekend, winning the opener 6-4 before dropping the second game 3-2
• Three of the River Hawks' top four scorers this year are rookies
• Matt Brown has a team-high 14 assists and 19 points, while Carl Berglund leads the squad with nine goals and ranks second with 18 points
• Senior Tyler Wall is 12-3-4 in 19 starts with a 1.81 goals against average and .941 save percentage with two shutouts

SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
• Boston University enters the weekend at .500 overall (7-7-5) with a 4-3-4 mark in Hockey East play
• The Terriers hit the road to face Merrimack on Friday night prior to the Battle of Comm Ave
• David Farrance is one of the nation's top scoring defensemen with a team-high 11 goals and 25 points
• Patrick Harper recently posted his 100th career point to give him 22 on the year, while rookie Trevor Zegras owns a 6-13-19 scoring line
• Sam Tucker has started 18 games between the pipes with a 2.72 goals against average, .911 save percentage and two shutouts

UMASS WEEKEND RECAP
Friday: UMass 3, Boston College 1
• Filip Lindberg made 41 saves and Jake Gaudet broke a 1-1 tie in the final four minutes of regulation as No. 10 UMass ended No. 4 Boston College's 10-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory at Kelley Rink last Friday
• The Eagles suffered their first defeat in more than two months since a 1-0 loss at UNH on Nov. 1
• Alex Newhook scored the lone BC goal late in the first period for his seventh of the year, while classmate Spencer Knight stopped 21 of the 23 shots he faced in his first start since returning from the World Junior Championships
• Boston College out-shot Massachusetts 42-24 as Newhook closed the contest with a game-high seven shots

Saturday: Boston College 6, UMass 3
• Five Eagles posted multi-point games on Saturday at the Mullins Center as Boston College scored six goals on the top-ranked defensive unit in Hockey East for a 6-3 road victory
• Ben Finkelstein registered his second three-point performance in the last three games, while Matt Boldy and Logan Hutsko each collected multi-point games with a goal and an assist
• Julius Mattila (0-3-3) and Alex Newhook (0-2-2) combined for five primary assists
• Spencer Knight made 28 saves for his 12th win of the season, including 18 crucial stops in the first
• BC won the special teams battle convincingly by going 3-for-5 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the kill

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
• Alex Newhook was named the Pro Ambitions Hockey East Rookie of the Week on Monday following a three-point weekend against 10th-ranked UMass
• Newhook scored the Eagles' lone goal on Friday night at Kelley Rink and finished with a career-high seven shots on goal, then registered a pair of primary assists in Saturday's 6-3 victory at the Mullins Center
• The Colorado Avalanche first round pick is tied for eighth among all NCAA freshmen in scoring with 16 points in 18 games and has at least one point in 10 of his last 12 contests

POWER RESTORED
• Converting at a 40% clip over its last 12 games (18-for-45), Boston College now leads Hockey East and ranks third nationally in power play percentage at 28.6%
• The Eagles are 12-1-0 when scoring at least once on the power play this season
• BC have scored at least twice on the power play in three of their last four games
• Aapeli Räsänen and David Cotton are tied for fifth in Hockey East and 10th nationally with five power play goals apiece

KILLIN' IT LATELY
• Since the start of December, Boston College owns the best penalty kill in Hockey East
• The Eagles have killed off 18 of 19 opponent power plays during that span (94.7%)
• Boston College was a perfect 7-for-7 against No. 10 UMass last weekend
• BC's 86.5% penalty kill during conference play is second in the league behind Northeastern

HOBEY 2020
• Senior captain David Cotton and rookie netminder Spencer Knight have been nominated for the 2020 Hobey Baker Award as fan balloting officially opened on Thursday
• Hobey Baker fan voting will run from now until Sunday, March 8 at midnight at hobeybaker.com/vote
• Phase two of fan balloting will come from the Top 10 finalists beginning March 19 and closing March 29

UP NEXT
• Next weekend, BC welcomes Maine to Kelley Rink for a two-game series on Jan. 24-25

No. 5 Eagles Travel to No. 13 UMass Lowell, Host Rival BU

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Players Mentioned

Matt Boldy

David Cotton

Ben Finkelstein

Logan Hutsko

Spencer Knight

Julius Mattila

Alex Newhook

Aapeli Räsänen