No. 4 BC Takes Aim at Regular Season Crown in Battle of Comm Ave

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – With a chance to clinch its 17th Hockey East Regular Season Championship in program history, No. 4 Boston College takes the short trip down Comm Ave to face rival Boston University on Saturday (Feb. 29) at 7 p.m. on NESN. Radio coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com.

Already the No. 1 seed for the Hockey East Tournament, Boston College can secure the outright regular season crown with a win or tie at BU. The Eagles have a four-point lead on UMass and UConn for first place and own the tiebreaker on both teams. BC is tied for fourth in the Pairwise rankings with Minnesota Duluth and Denver.

STREAKY EAGS
• Boston College's six-game winning streak is the second-longest in the nation behind Cornell (7)
• BC has out-scored its opponents 35-10 during the streak, averaging nearly six goals per game of offense
• The Eagles have a +44 shot margin in that span for an average of +7.3 per contest
• Linemates Alex Newhook (6-9-15) and Matt Boldy (7-6-13) have combined for 28 points and a +27 rating
• In his personal six-game winning streak, Spencer Knight owns a 1.73 GAA and a .935 SV%

TROPHY SEASON
• BC is looking to secure its fourth Hockey East regular season trophy in the last five years
• The Eagles' last outright title came in 2018, which was clinched in the second to last game of the season
• Boston College earned a share of the crown in both 2016 and 2017
• BC has won a league-record 16 regular season championships

SCOUTING THE TERRIERS
• Boston University enters the weekend at 12-11-8 with a 9-7-5 mark in Hockey East
• The Terriers are sixth in the league standings with 23 points
• BU was swept in a home-and-home by UConn last weekend, falling 6-1 at Agganis
• Defenseman David Farrance leads the team with 25 assists and 39 points, and he is tied for fifth in the nation with nine power play goals
• Senior captain Patrick Curry has scored a team-leading 17 goals
• Senior Patrick Harper (13-23-36) and rookie Trevor Zegras (11-22-33) are second and third on the team in scoring
• Graduate transfer Sam Tucker has made 22 starts between the pipes with a 9-6-6 record, 2.61 GAA, .913 SV% and two shutouts

SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday will mark the 282nd edition of the Battle of Comm Ave
• The Eagles edged the Terriers 4-3 on Jan. 18 at Conte Forum as Julius Mattila netted the game-winner with 5:40 left in the third period
• BU stormed back from 3-1 down in the third period of the Beanpot Semifinal on Feb. 3 and beat the Eagles in double overtime to advance
• BC is 4-1-1 in its last six road matchups with BU and has won each of its last two trips to Agganis Arena by 4-1 final scores
• Last season, Logan Hutsko scored twice in the road victory on Nov. 30, 2018

GOALS GALORE
• Boston College leads the nation in scoring offense at 4.10 goals per game with 16 goals in its last two games
• The Eagles are third nationally in scoring margin with a +61 goal differential
• BC has produced at least five goals 12 different times this season and is a perfect 12-0-0 in those games

PLUS SIGN
• Seniors Ben Finkelstein (+30) and Jesper Mattila (+29) have the top two plus-minus ratings in the country
• Finkelstein is +10 over his last three games and was +5 on Thursday against Merrimack
• Alex Newhook is tied for fourth in the nation with a +26 rating
• Marshall Warren leads all Hockey East defensemen and ranks fifth overall at +18

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
• Alex Newhook extended his career-high point streak to nine games on Thursday night vs. Merrimack
• He has put together a 9-11-20 scoring line during the streak
• The Newfoundland native ranks second among all NCAA rookies in goals (18) and points (39)
• With his next point, he'll become the first BC freshman with 40 points since Colin White's 43 in 2015-16
• He leads all NCAA rookies with 12 multi-point games with eight in his last 14 contests

BOLD MOVE
• Matt Boldy posted the third multi-goal performance in his last four games on Thursday
• During that four-game span, Boldy is +13 with nine points
• Boldy had just one point in his first 11 NCAA games but has 21 in 16 contests since the turn of the calendar
• The Millis native has four three-point performances in his last six games
• He is now tied for third in scoring among league freshmen with 24 points

CAPTAIN CONSISTENCY
• David Cotton ranks 13th in the nation in points per game with a 14-24-38 scoring line in 31 contests
• Cotton has established a new career-high in points, which was 36 last year as a junior
• The senior captain has 13 multi-point games this season, which is tied for third in Hockey East
• Cotton needs only three more games played to hit 150 as an Eagle

HUNDRED FOR HUTSKO
• Logan Hutsko skated in his 100th collegiate game on Thursday night
• Hutsko is tied for fifth in the nation in goals per game with 18 tallies in 27 contests
• He is also tied for sixth nationally with four game-winning goals
• The junior has at least one point in all but three games this season

UP NEXT
• BC hosts UNH next Friday, March 6 for Senior Night at Kelley Rink with faceoff at 7 p.m.
• The program will honor its 10 seniors in the Class of 2020 before the game

No. 4 BC Takes Aim at Regular Season Crown in Battle of Comm Ave

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Players Mentioned

Matt Boldy

David Cotton

Ben Finkelstein

Logan Hutsko

Spencer Knight

Jesper Mattila

Julius Mattila

Alex Newhook

Marshall Warren

Colin White