BC and BU Meet Friday in 285th Battle of Comm Ave

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Boston College plays its final game of the first semester on Friday night when it travels to Agganis Arena to face rival Boston University in the 285th Battle of Comm Ave at 7:30 p.m. on NESN. Radio coverage begins at 7:15 p.m. on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com.

SETTING THE SCENE
• The Eagles (8-5-2, 5-3-1 HEA) came off an 18-day layoff on Tuesday night and defeated Brown 5-2 at Kelley Rink for their eighth win of the season
• The Terriers swept New Hampshire 3-1 and 2-1 (OT) last weekend, improving to 6-9-2 (5-5-2 HEA)
• The schools will meet two more times during the Hockey East regular season in late February
• The programs have claimed 22 of the 37 Hockey East Tournament titles

SERIES HISTORY
• Friday night marks the 285th edition of the Battle of Comm Ave
• The Battle of Comm Ave began on Feb. 6, 1918 as part of BC's first varsity season of men's hockey
• Boston College is 4-1-1 in the last six regular season meetings between the schools and 5-3-2 in the last 10 matchups overall
• BC's last trip to Agganis Arena was a 4-1 victory on Feb. 29, 2020 to clinch its 17th Hockey East Regular Season Championship
• Boston College improved to 5-1-1 in its last seven road trips to Agganis
• Jerry York is 48-45-10 against Boston University as head coach at BC and will face Albie O'Connell for the seventh time on Friday with a 3-1-2 mark

LAST YEAR'S MEETINGS
• BC and BU met in early February of last season in a home-and-home series
• Drew Helleson slipped the puck around Ashton Abel's left pad in the dying seconds of overtime as the Eagles defeated their rivals 4-3 at Kelley Rink to open the series on Feb. 5
• Helleson added an assist and registered a team-high five shots on goal
• The line of Jack McBain (1-1-2), Colby Ambrosio (1-1-2) and Nikita Nesterenko (0-1-1) combined for five points and a plus-6 rating in the victory
• The following night, BC played its first game at Walter Brown Arena since December of 2004
• The Terriers split the series with a 3-1 victory behind a pair of goals from Luke Tuch
• Vinny Duplessis made 40 saves in his NCAA debut, dealing the Eagles a loss which snapped BC's nation-best unbeaten streak at seven games
• Eamon Powell scored the lone Boston College goal late in a power play during the first period

BROWN RECAP
• Playing its first game after an 18-day layoff, Boston College received goals from four different players and cruised past visiting Brown 5-2 in non-league play on Tuesday
• Seniors Marc McLaughlin and Patrick Giles combined for five points (2-3-5), while sophomores Colby Ambrosio and Nikita Nesterenko provided insurance tallies in the third period
• McLaughlin established a new career-high in goals (11) with his fourth multi-goal game
• Eric Dop stopped 16 of the 18 Brown shots he faced to improve to 7-4-2 on the year

SENIOR CLASS
• Boston College's five-member senior class has combined for 61 points through 15 games
• Marc McLaughlin (1st), Jack McBain (5th) and Patrick Giles (9th) all rank top-10 in Hockey East in goals per game, having combined for 27 goals this season
• McLaughlin and McBain have also combined for eight of BC's nine power play goals
• Jack St. Ivany is second overall among Hockey East defensemen in points (13) while ranking second among all skaters with a +12 rating
• Forward Casey Carreau has collected his first two points of the season in the last three games

SCORING IN BUNCHES
• The Eagles currently lead Hockey East and rank 11th nationally with 3.53 goals per game
• Boston College has five players who rank among the top-25 in Hockey East in points per game
• The Eagles have six players with at least four goals and 11 with at least two
• 30 of the team's 53 goals this season have been scored by seniors (57%)
• Over the last three seasons, BC is 22-1-0 when scoring at least five goals (5-0-0 this year)

UP NEXT
• Boston College travels to Dartmouth for the Ledyard Classic just before New Year's, beginning with a matchup against Mercyhurst on Dec. 30 at 4 p.m.

BC and BU Meet Friday in 285th Battle of Comm Ave

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Players Mentioned

Colby Ambrosio

Casey Carreau

Eric Dop

Patrick Giles

Drew Helleson

Jack McBain

Marc McLaughlin

Nikita Nesterenko

Eamon Powell

Jack St. Ivany