BC Set to Begin Season Against New Hampshire

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Boston College women's hockey team will begin the 2020-21 season this weekend with a home-and-home series against New Hampshire. The Eagles will travel to the Whittemore Center on Friday and then return home to host the Wildcats on Saturday.

The puck drop of both games is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., with both also airing on NESN. All games this season will be made available across the U.S. and internationally on SportsLive, while all games televised on NESN and NESN+ and other select matchups will also be made available on CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports app outside of New England.

GAME 1 | Boston College at New Hampshire
Friday, Nov, 20, 2020 | 4:30 P.M.
Whittemore Center | Durham, N.H. | NESN

GAME 2 | New Hampshire at Boston College
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020 | 4:30 P.M.
Kelley Rink | Chestnut Hill, Mass. | NESN

WHAT'S ON TAP
• Boston College and New Hampshire will open up the 2020-21 season with a home-and-home series this weekend ... UNH will host BC on Friday before the teams reconvene at Kelley Rink on Saturday.
• Each Hockey East squad is set to play a 20-game conference-only slate ... this marks the only time that BC is scheduled to see UNH.
• The game on Friday will be the first of a host of televised Hockey East games on NESN this year … all games will be available for streaming on CBSSportsLive.com or the CBS Sports App.

ABOUT BOSTON COLLEGE
• In 2019-20, The Eagles went 17-16-3 overall and 14-11-2 in Hockey East play to finish fourth in the standings and host a Hockey East playoff series for the eighth consecutive year.
• Four of the BC's top five scorers and eight of the top 10 from a season ago are back, including returning leading scorer and 2019-20 National Rookie of the Year Hannah Bilka, who put up a team-leading 37 points on 14 goals and 23 assists as a freshman.
• Additionally, Kelly Browne (13-23-36) and Cayla Barnes (6-17-23) return after putting up career-highs as sophomores.
• Barnes and Bilka were named Hockey East Second Team All-Stars last year while Browne earned a spot on the Hockey East Third Team ... Bilka and Alexie Guay earned spots on the conference all-rookie team.
• Head coach Katie Crowley enters her 14th season behind the bench for the Eagles.

ABOUT NEW HAMPSHIRE
• UNH is coming off a 2019-20 season in which it went 18-15-4 overall ... the Wildcats recorded 12 wins in Hockey East play, won a Hockey East Tournament quarterfinal series at Providence and advanced to the tournament semifinals for the first time in 10 years before falling to UConn.
• UNH graduated its top four scorers from a season ago .... Tamara Thierus, a member of the 2019-20 All-Rookie Team, is the top returning point-getter after recording 20 points on six goals and 14 assists ... classmate Jada Christian is the top returning goal scorer after putting up nine as a rookie.
• Hockey East Third Team All-Star Ava Boutilier is back between the pipes for UNH after going 13-10-2 with a 1.80 goals against average and .940 save percentage a season ago ... the redshirt junior also had six shutouts last season, second most among league goaltenders.
• Hilary Witt is in her seventh season as head coach of the Wildcats ... UNH was tabbed sixth in the Hockey East Preseason Coaches' Poll.

EAGLES IN THE OPENER
• Boston College is 14-11-1 all-time in season openers and 8-4-1 under head coach Katie Crowley.
• The Eagles are 3-1-1 in the last five season openers and 6-3-1 in the last 10.
• This marks the first time that BC and New Hampshire will meet in the Eagles' season opener ... the teams played the final regular season game against each other the last two seasons.

A WIN WOULD . . .
• Bump BC's record in season-openers to 15-11-1 all-time and 9-4-1 under head coach Katie Crowley.
• Put BC's overall record in the series with UNH at 25-43-6.
• Move BC's all-time record to 466-350-80.
• Give head coach Katie Crowley an overall record of 322-113-51 and 206-62-29 in Hockey East play.

COOKIN' AT KELLEY RINK
• Boston College is 17-8-1 all-time in the home opener with a record of 11-1-1 under head coach Katie Crowley.
• The Eagles have not dropped a home opener since the 2012-13 season in a 4-2 loss to a No. 6 Boston University squad on Oct. 5, 2012.
• BC is the only team in the country that is unbeaten in its first five home games in each of the last six seasons.

MEET THE CAPTAINS
• Cayla Barnes, Maegan Beres and Kelly Browne will serve as tri-captains of the 2020-21 Eagles.
• All three Eagles are first-time captains for BC ... Browne and Barnes become the ninth and 10th junior captains in program history.
• Beres enters her senior season having suited up for all 113 games that BC has played over the last three years ... last season, she finished second on the team with 47 blocked shots - a number that also ranked first in Hockey East and ninth in the nation among forwards ... she also set career-highs in goals (4) and shots on goal (50) in 2019-20.
• Barnes, a redshirt junior, is coming off a year in which she was named a Hockey East Second Team All-Star and was one of three finalists for Hockey East Player of the Year ... she recorded a career-high six goals and 17 assists for 23 points and finished third in the nation with a Hockey East-leading 103 blocked shots.
• Barnes is a two-time captain of the U.S. Under-22 Team and also captained the U.S. Under-18 squad that won gold at the 2017 IIHF Under-18 Women's World Championships.
• Browne set career-highs in points (36), goals (13) and assists (23) during the 2019-20 season ... the Hockey East Third Team All-Star finished fourth in the country and first in the conference with 451 face-off wins, becoming the first Eagle to record more than 450 wins at the dot since the 2015-16 season.

BC Set to Begin Season Against New Hampshire

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Players Mentioned

Cayla Barnes

Maegan Beres

Hannah Bilka

Kelly Browne

Alexie Guay