No. 5 Eagles and No. 10 Huskies Meet in Top-10 Matchup

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 5 Boston College opens a Hockey East home-and-home series with No. 10 Northeastern on Thursday (Feb. 20) at 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena on NESN. The series concludes at Kelley Rink on Friday (Feb. 21) at 7 p.m. on NESN and NESNplus (beginning at 8 p.m. during Bruins coverage). Both games can be heard on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com. BC sits sixth in the Pairwise rankings for the 2020 NCAA Tournament while Northeastern ranks ninth.

PENNANT RACE
• BC (12-6-0) is tied with UMass (11-6-2) for first place in Hockey East with 24 league points
• The Eagles hold the tiebreaker on the Minutemen by virtue of a 2-1-0 head-to-head record
• Northeastern is tied with Providence for sixth place, just three points back with 21
• The Eagles and Huskies are tied for the least number of league games played (18)
• Only five points separate first from ninth place in the conference with three weekends remaining

PLENTY OF TWENTY
• A win on Thursday night would give Boston College 20 wins for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons
• It would also mark the 20th time that Jerry York has won 20 or more games during his BC tenure
• The Eagles are looking for their 16th 20-win campaign in the last 18 years under York
• Boston College's streak of nine straight 20-win seasons was snapped last year
• That streak began with the 2009-10 NCAA Championship team

MERRIMACK SWEEP
• Boston College swept Merrimack last weekend in a home-and-home series for four key Hockey East points
• Trailing 1-0 after one on Friday at Lawler Rink, seniors Luke McInnis and Ron Greco netted goals in the second to put BC ahead for good; senior Zach Walker assisted on both tallies for his second career multi-point performance
• On Saturday in Chestnut Hill, rookies Alex Newhook and Matt Boldy combined for four goals and eight points in a convincing 6-2 win to complete the weekend sweep
• Newhook (2-3-5), Boldy (2-1-3) and classmate Mike Hardman (0-2-2) combined for 10 points and a plus-11 rating as a unit
• Freshman defenseman Mitch Andres also collected his first career point with an assist
• Spencer Knight stopped 53 of the 57 shots he faced for a .930 save percentage and two victories in net

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
• Northeastern enters the series at 17-8-3 overall and 10-7-1 in the league
• NU swept UMass Lowell in a home-and-home series last weekend, winning 3-0 at Tsongas Center on Friday and 2-1 at Matthews on Saturday
• Sophomore forward Tyler Madden leads the team with 19 goals and 37 points but suffered an injury last Friday night in Lowell
• Merrimack graduate transfer Craig Pantano has started 28 games in net with a 17-8-3 record, 2.33 GAA and .918 SV%
• Pantano was named the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week on Monday
• The Huskies are clicking at 22.2% on the power play and 86.8% on the penalty kill
• Jim Madigan is in his ninth year as head coach at his alma mater and has led NU to three straight Beanpot titles

SERIES HISTORY
• Boston College has a 167-55-16 advantage against Northeastern heading into the 239th all-time meeting in series history on Thursday
• Northeastern is 5-1-0 in the last six meetings between the schools, but the Eagles are 5-1-1 in their last seven visits to Matthews Arena
• BC earned a 3-1 victory on Senior Night at Conte last season as Marc McLaughlin netted the game-winner on a rebound in the third period
• Boston College fell 4-2 on the road the following night at Matthews to split the regular season series 1-1-0
• NU edged BC 3-2 in the 2019 Hockey East Championship Game at TD Garden despite a 40-26 shot advantage for Boston College
• Earlier in the season, the Huskies held off the Eagles 4-2 (empty-netter) in the 67th Beanpot Championship Game

AWARD SEASON
• After combining for 15 points in a 3-0-0 week for Boston College, rookie first round draft picks Alex Newhook and Matt Boldy both earned Hockey East weekly awards on Monday
• Newhook was named Player of the Week, while Boldy received Rookie of the Week honors
• Spencer Knight (2), Newhook (2) and Boldy (1) have combined for five Rookie of the Week awards this season
• Newhook became the fifth different Eagle to earn Player of the Week recognition

WE'RE HOOKED
• Newhook finished the week with team-best eight points on four goals and four assists with a plus-6 rating
• He posted a five-point performance (2-3-5) on Saturday, BC's first five-point game since Johnny Gaudreau and Kevin Hayes both accomplished the feat on Jan. 18, 2014
• Newhook extended his career-high goal and point streaks to six games
• The Newfoundland native ranks second nationally among freshmen in goals (16) and points (32)
• He is also tied for the NCAA lead among rookies with 10 multi-point games; six have come in his last 11 contests

BOLD MOVE
• Boldy had seven points last week, including a pair of three-point efforts and his first career multi-goal game
• He had just one point in his first 11 NCAA games, but is averaging a point per game over his last 17
• The Millis native ranks eighth among Hockey East rookies in assists per game and is 10th in points per game
• The Minnesota Wild first rounder leads all league rookies with 91 shots on goal
• He is currently riding a career-best five-game point streak

FOREVER YOUNG
• BC has received a 34-50-84 scoring line from its six rookie skaters through 28 games, which accounts for nearly 30% of the team's total points this season
• Since being formed four games ago, the all-freshman line of Hardman-Newhook-Boldy has posted a 9-13-22 line and is coming off a 10-point showing against Merrimack
• Newhook leads all league freshmen in multi-point games (10), while Hardman is tied for third (7)
• Marshall Warren is one of only five Hockey East rookie defensemen with at least four goals

GIONTA TO THE RAFTERS
• Former All-American Brian Gionta '01 had jersey retired by the program this past Saturday vs. Merrimack
• He became the 16th former BC men's hockey player to have his jersey retired at Kelley Rink
• Gionta was a three-time Hobey Baker Award finalist (1999, 2000, 2001) and captained the Eagles to the 2001 NCAA Championship, the program's first since 1949
• He graduated as the program's all-time leader in goals (123) and ranks second all-time in points (232)
• The Rochester native was inducted into the BC Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame last October and was added to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in December

UP NEXT
• Next Thursday, Feb. 27, Boston College hosts Merrimack at 7 p.m. on the Heights
• BC then travels to face rival Boston University on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 7 p.m.

No. 5 Eagles and No. 10 Huskies Meet in Top-10 Matchup

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mitch Andres

Matt Boldy

Ron Greco

Mike Hardman

Spencer Knight

Luke McInnis

Marc McLaughlin

Alex Newhook

Zach Walker

Marshall Warren