No. 1 Boston College Squares Off With UMass Lowell in Home-and-Home

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Top-ranked Boston College opens a home-and-home series against unranked UMass Lowell on Friday (Feb. 12) at Kelley Rink on NESN+ with faceoff at 7 p.m. The series concludes on Saturday (Feb. 13) at 6 p.m. in Lowell at the Tsongas Center on SportsLive. Both games will also air on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com.

BC had the nation's longest unbeaten streak (7) snapped by BU last Saturday night. UMass Lowell ended a four-game losing skid with a 3-2 overtime win over UConn on Tuesday at home. Friday night marks the 122nd all-time meeting between the schools, who split last year's regular season series with 3-2 victories on the other's home ice.

TOURNAMENT FORMAT ANNOUNCED
• Hockey East announced on Wednesday that the 2021 league tournament will use a single-elimination format with each game hosted at the home arena of the higher seed
• Seeding will be determined by a newly-developed mathematical formula dubbed the Hockey East Power Index (HEPI), similar to the formula used to determine the NCAA Tournament
• The Hockey East Tournament begins with three opening round games between seeds 6-11 on Wednesday, March 10 (seeds 1-5 automatically qualify for the quarterfinals)
• Following a reseeding, the quarterfinals take place on Sunday, March 14
• The semifinals are set for Wednesday, March 17 with the Lamoriello Trophy to be handed out in the championship game on Saturday, March 20

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
• UMass Lowell enters the weekend at 4-5-0 overall but beat UConn 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday night at Tsongas Center to snap a four-game skid
• Andre Lee netted the game-winner for his fifth of the year at 3:57 of OT
• Sophomore Carl Berglund leads the team with eight assists and 11 points
• Rookie Henry Welsch has started five of the team's nine games in net with a 3-2-0 record, 2.28 goals against average and .914 save percentage
• UML is clicking at 21.2% on the power play but just 69.7% on the penalty kill, which is tied for the third-lowest mark in the nation
• Norm Bazin is in his 10th year as the head coach at his alma mater
• Last year, Lowell finished at 18-10-6 overall and 12-7-5 in Hockey East

SERIES HISTORY
• Boston College has a 67-44-10 advantage over UMass Lowell in the all-time series heading into the 122nd meeting between the schools
• In 25 meetings since Norm Bazin arrived as head coach in Lowell, he is one game above .500 at 11-10-4 head-to-head with Jerry York
• The Eagles are just 3-7-1 in their last 11 games overall against the River Hawks and 3-3-1 in the last seven meetings in Chestnut Hill
• BC's 3-2 comeback win in Lowell on Jan. 17, 2020 of last season was its first at Tsongas Center since a 1-0 shutout victory on Oct. 26, 2012

HELLY'S HEROICS
• Last Friday, Drew Helleson slipped the puck around Ashton Abel's left pad in the dying seconds of overtime as BC defeated BU 4-3 in the 283rd Battle of Comm Ave at Kelley Rink
• Helleson scored the game-winner with just 0.1 second on the clock and appeared in the Top-10 Plays on SportsCenter that night with the No. 2 play
• Boston College improved to 3-1-1 in overtime this season

THANKS LOGAN
• It was announced on Wednesday that senior assistant captain Logan Hutsko will miss the rest of the season due to injury
• With a primary assist on the game's opening goal on Jan. 16 against Merrimack, Hutsko became the 83rd member of the program's 100-point club
• The Tampa native had 11 points in 11 games this season and finishes his BC career with 41 goals and 60 assists for 101 points in 114 games played

ALL I DO IS WIN
• Spencer Knight finally suffered his first loss of the season last Saturday at BU
• He fell to 10-1-1 this season but still ranks second nationally in winning percentage (.875)
• Knight had a personal unbeaten streak of 20 games (18-0-2) dating back to last season
• He ranks seventh nationally in SV% (.935) and 14th in GAA (2.06) this year
• In 45 career starts, Knight is 33-9-3 for a .767 winning percentage

BAINER BRINGIN' IT
• Jack McBain has tied his career-high with assists in four straight games and is one game away from tying his career-high point streak (5)
• McBain has at least one point in six of his last seven games with a 2-6-8 line in that span
• The junior leads Hockey East with a +15 rating and sits tied for 11th in scoring

CAPTAIN CLUTCH
• With an early flare for the dramatic this season, captain Marc McLaughlin leads the entire country in both game-winning goals (5) and shorthanded goals (3)
• The junior has surpassed his previous career-high in goals (5) with a team-leading eight as well as his career-high in points (12) with a team-high 16
• McLaughlin is sixth in Hockey East in goals per game and seventh in points per game
• He already has five multi-point games after entering the year with just two

No. 1 Boston College Squares Off With UMass Lowell in Home-and-Home

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Players Mentioned

Drew Helleson

Logan Hutsko

Spencer Knight

Jack McBain

Marc McLaughlin