Hockey East Play Begins at Merrimack

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The No. 5/7 Boston College women's hockey team will open up Hockey East play this weekend with a single game at Merrimack on Saturday, Oct. 9. The puck drop at Lawler Rink is scheduled for 2 p.m. with the game also streaming live on College SportsLive.

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 3 | No. 5/7 Boston College at Merrimack
Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021 | 2 p.m.
Lawler Rink | North Andover, Mass. | SportsLive

WHAT'S ON TAP
• No. 5/7 Boston College and Merrimack will open up Hockey East play this weekend with a single game at Lawler Rink.
• BC is coming off a season-opening two-game sweep at Penn State while Merrimack dropped a pair of home games to top-ranked Wisconsin.
• The Eagles and Warriors met twice last season, with BC taking both ends of a January home-and-home set.
• This is the third time in four years that BC opens up conference play against Merrimack.

ABOUT MERRIMACK
• Merrimack has played four games so far, hosting WCHA foes Minnesota State and No. 1 Wisconsin at Lawler Rink ... the Warriors enter Saturday's contest with a mark of 0-4-4.
• The Warriors opened up the 2021-22 season Sept. 24-25 against MSU, falling 3-0 and 9-3, before hosting the top-ranked Badgers last weekend and falling 4-0 and 5-0.
• Merrimack has received goals from three different players and has six different players with at least one point.
• Emma Gorski has seen most of the minutes in goal, going 0-3-0 with a 4.66 goals against average and .864 save percentage.
• Courtney Maud and Katie Caufman, who both posted four points on two goals and two assists a season ago, are the returning leading scorers for Merrimack.

SERIES NOTES
• BC is 18-1-0 all-time against Merrimack ... the Warriors became a D1 team and joined Hockey East in 2015-16.
• The Eagles are 10-0-0 at Kelley Rink and 8-1-0 at Lawler Rink.
•Last season, the Eagles opened up the second semester with a home-and-home sweep of the Warriors, earning a 5-3 win at home and 3-1 win at Lawler ... in BC's win at home on Jan. 8, 2021, Willow Corson tied a career-high with three points (1-2-3) ... in the road win the next day, Jillian Fey tallied a goal and an assist while Olivia Finocchiaro picked up her first career game-winning goal.
• Caroline DiFiore (2-3-5) and Hannah Bilka (0-5-5) are BC's acting leading scorers against the Warriors ... nine current Eagle have at least one point against Merrimack.
• DiFiore earned her first career point with an empty-netter against Merrimack on Sept. 27, 2019 ... Bilka earned two assists in that same game for her respective first career point (s).
• Kelly Pickreign earned her first career start against Merrimack on Dec. 8, 2019 ... the then freshman made 29 saves on 30 shots for a 1.01 goals against average and .967 save percentage in the 1-0 loss.
• Merrimack is the only Hockey East team that Kelly Browne has not scored against.
• Katie Crowley has an 18-1-0 record all-time against Merrimack

A WIN ON SATURDAY WOULD . . .
• Give BC an overall record of 19-1-0 in the all-time series with Merrimack.
• Give BC its fourth consecutive win in the Hockey East opener and a record of 8-1-1 in the last 10.
• Move BC's all-time program record to 482-356-80.
• Give head coach Katie Crowley an overall record of 338-119-51.

OPENING WEEKEND RECAP
• The Eagles opened up the 2021-22 season last week with a pair of games at Penn State and came away with a pair of 2-1 wins.
• In the season-opener on Sept. 30, Gaby Roy gave BC a 1-0 lead early in the second but Penn State forced overtime where Abby Newhook's first career goal gave the Eagles the win ... Abigail Levy made 36 saves for the win.
• On Friday, Penn State struck first before Caroline Goffredo's first career goal and Hannah Bilka's fifth career game-winner gave BC the 2-1 win ... Levy finished with 33 saves in the win.
• Ten different players registered a point for BC on the weekend.
• Alexie Guay was named Hockey East Defender of the Week after tallying an assist on Newhook's OT game-winner, four shots, a plus-2 rating and four blocked shots.
• Keri Clougherty, who led BC with five blocked shots on the weekend, picked up her first career point with an assist while Jenna Carpenter also had her first career point with a helper.

IT'S WORTH NOTING . . .
• For the second consecutive year, Gaby Roy scored the first goal of the season for BC (and both goals happened in second period of the season opener).
• The Eagles return three of the top five and seven of the top 10 scorers from last year
• Kelly Browne has led Hockey East each of the last two seasons in face-off wins, winning 451 as a sophomore and 250 as a junior.
• Of Jillian Fey's 10 career goals, six of them have gone for game-winning goals ... she recorded career-highs in points (11), goals (7), assists (4), game-winning goals (4) and shots on goal (40) in 2020-21.
• Hannah Bilka has registered at least one shot on goal in all 54 contests that she has played for BC, putting multiple shots on goal in 47 of them ... BC is 16-0-1 all-time when she scores a goal.

ABOUT BOSTON COLLEGE
• In 2020-21, the BC went 14-6-0 overall and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament ... the sixth-seeded Eagles faced third-seeded Ohio State in the quarterfinal round, falling 3-1.
• BC finished the year ranked seventh in both national polls.
• BC went 14-4-0 in Hockey East play to finish second in the standings and host a Hockey East playoff for the ninth consecutive year.
• Kelly Browne (7-14-21) returns after tying for the team lead in points last year, with her 14 assists leading the Eagles, ranking fourth in Hockey East and tying for 10th in the nation ... the two-year captain was a Hockey East First Team All-Star.
• In all, the Eagles return three of the top five and seven of the top 10 scorers from last year ... Third Team All-Star Hannah Bilka (7-9-16) and All-Rookie honoree Gaby Roy (5-3-8) return after earning league honors during the 2020-21 season.
• In goal, Abigail Levy is back after going 6-4-0 with a 1.77 goals against average, .944 save percentage and two shutouts ... Levy along with Maddy McArthur (5-1-0, 2.55, .921) and Kelly Pickreign (3-1-0, 1.76, .927) made BC one of just two teams in the country to have three goaltenders with multiple wins.

WHAT'S BACK ON THE ATTACK
• BC returns 64 percent of its goal scoring from the 2020-21 season (37/58) ... Hannah Bilka, Jillian Fey and Kelly Browne are the returning leading goal scorers after they each potted seven goals last year.
• The Eagles have 67 percent of last year's assists back on the roster (60/89), led by Browne's 14.
• Overall, 68 percent of BC's production from the 2020-21 season (100/147) returns this year ... Browne tied for the team lead in points in 2020-21 with 21.
• The Eagles return 100 percent of its wins, minutes and saves in goal as all three goaltenders are back this season in Abigail Levy, Maddy McArthur and Kelly Pickreign.

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Players Mentioned

Hannah Bilka

Kelly Browne

Jenna Carpenter

Keri Clougherty

Willow Corson

Caroline DiFiore

Jillian Fey

Olivia Finocchiaro

Caroline Goffredo

Alexie Guay

Abigail Levy

Maddy McArthur

Abby Newhook

Kelly Pickreign

Gaby Roy