No. 6 Eagles Begin 100th Season at Icebreaker in Worcester

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 7/8 Boston College opens its 100th season of men's hockey on Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. in the opening game of the 2021 Icebreaker Tournament against No. 9 Quinnipiac on NESNplus at the DCU Center in Worcester. BC then faces the host Holy Cross on Saturday night to close the event at 7:30 p.m. on NESN. Both games will also air live on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com.

YEAR IN REVIEW
• The Eagles are coming off a 17-6-1 season and their 36th NCAA Tournament appearance
• BC finished with the best record (16-4-1) in Hockey East last season to earn the No. 1 seed
• In games decided in regulation last season, Boston College was 14-3-0
• The Eagles had only two regulation losses since the beginning of January, one of which came to St. Cloud State in the NCAA East Regional Final in Albany

TUNE UP
• Boston College posted a 4-1 victory over reigning Atlantic Hockey champion and 20th-ranked AIC in exhibition action last Saturday afternoon at Kelley Rink
• Senior Jack McBain led the Eagles with three points on a goal and two assists
• Sophomore forwards Colby Ambrosio and Nikita Nesterenko along with rookie defenseman Aidan Hreschuk also lit the lamp in the victory
• Graduate transfer Eric Dop (7 saves), sophomore Henry Wilder (14) and junior Jack Moffatt (7) each played a period in net and allowed just one goal on 29 shots
• BC out-shot AIC 33-29 on the day and the teams combined to go 0-for-8 on the power play

SCOUTING QUINNIPIAC
• The Bobcats faced Maine in an exhibition last Saturday in Exeter, New Hampshire and beat the Black Bears 7-0
• Last year, Quinnipiac posted a 17-8-4 overall record with a 10-4-4 mark in the ECAC
• The Bobcats fell in overtime to St. Lawrence in the ECAC Championship Game, then lost in OT to Minnesota State in the NCAA West Regional
• QU has added five graduate transfers: Dylan St. Cyr (Notre Dame), Griffin Mendel (Denver), Oliver Chau (UMass), Brendan Less (Dartmouth), and Tony Stillwell (Brown)
• Quinnipiac was picked to win the ECAC in the coaches poll and Ethan De Jong and Zach Metsa both earned Preseason All-ECAC Hockey honors
• Boston College is winless (0-3-1) in four previous meetings against Quinnipiac, including a 1-0 defeat in Hamden, Connecticut in the third game of the 2018-19 campaign

SCOUTING HOLY CROSS
• Former Quinnipiac assistant coach Bill Riga begins his first season as the new head coach of the Crusaders
• Holy Cross lost 5-1 at Boston University last weekend in its lone exhibition game
• The Crusaders open up the Icebreaker on Friday night against No. 18 Northeastern
• Last year, Holy Cross went 4-12-0 overall with a 3-9-2 record in Atlantic Hockey
• The Eagles are 16-2-0 all-time against Holy Cross in 18 previous meetings
• The last meeting between the schools was a 6-1 BC victory at the DCU Center on Oct. 22, 2016

PRESEASON POLL
• Boston College was picked to finish third in Hockey East during its 100th anniversary season, according to the annual Preseason Coaches' Poll
• The Eagles received two first place votes and finished with 89 points in the poll, trailing only reigning national champion Massachusetts (107) and Boston University (95)
• UMass earned eight out of a possible 10 first place votes, while BU collected the remaining vote
• Northeastern was three points behind BC in fourth with 86, followed by Providence (75), UConn (66) and UMass Lowell (58)
• New Hampshire (46), Merrimack (37), Maine (32) and Vermont (24) rounded out the 11-team poll

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
• Nikita Nesterenko became the fourth Eagle in the last six years to be named Hockey East Rookie of the Year, sharing the honor with Josh Lopina of UMass
• The Coney Island native ranked 10th nationally in scoring among freshmen and led all league rookies in goals (7), assists (11) and points (18) during the regular season
• He joined recent BC winners Alex Newhook (2020), Logan Hutsko (2018) and Colin White (2016)

DON'T GET DEFENSIVE
• Marc McLaughlin (Best Defensive Forward) and Drew Helleson (Best Defensive Defenseman) were honored with Hockey East's annual defensive awards in 2021
• McLaughlin became the sixth Eagle to win Best Defensive Forward and the first since 2017
• He was also the runner up for the Len Ceglarski Individual Sportsmanship Award and was one of three recipients of the Three Stars Award
• Helleson became the ninth Boston College player and fifth in the last decade to receive the Best Defensive Defenseman Award, leading the league with a +21 rating

LOCK IT DOWN
• Boston College's penalty kill was 27-for-29 over the final nine games of last season
• The kill ranked second in Hockey East and seventh in the country at 86%
• After leading the nation with 11 shorthanded goals in 2019-20, the Eagles once again led the country with eight shorthanded goals last year in 24 games
• Marc McLaughlin and Matt Boldy shared the NCAA lead with three shorties apiece

No. 6 Eagles Begin 100th Season at Icebreaker in Worcester

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Players Mentioned

Colby Ambrosio

Matt Boldy

Eric Dop

Drew Helleson

Aidan Hreschuk

Logan Hutsko

Jack McBain

Marc McLaughlin

Jack Moffatt

Nikita Nesterenko

Alex Newhook

Henry Wilder