No. 1 Eagles Host Black Bears for a Pair at Kelley Rink

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 1 Boston College opens a two-game weekend series against Maine at Kelley Rink on Friday (Feb. 19) at 7 p.m. on NESNplus. The series concludes on Saturday (Feb. 20) at 5 p.m. on NESN. Both games will air on SportsLive outside New England with audio on WEEI 850 and BCEagles.com.

BC (13-3-1) enters the weekend with an 8-1-1 record in its last 10 games, while the Black Bears are 2-7-1 overall through 10 contests but haven't played in nearly a month. Boston College has a slim lead over BU for first place in the league standings according to the Hockey East Power Index (HEPI), while Maine sits eighth.

SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS
• Maine hasn't played since being swept at Boston University on Jan. 22-23 at Walter Brown Arena, 3-2 in overtime and 5-1
• The Black Bears (2-7-1) have lost three straight overall but have been forced to play all their games on the road thus far this season
• Senior Eduards Tralmaks leads Maine with five goals and is tied with juniors Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup and Adam Dawe for the team-lead with nine points
• Rookie Victor Ostman (2-3-0, 3.88 GAA, .882 SV%) and sophomore Matthew Thiessen (0-4-1, 4.36, .873) have split time in net, each appearing in six games
• Maine has success rates of 22.2% on the power play (third in Hockey East) and 81.1% on the penalty kill
• The Black Bears are last in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 4.3 goals against per game, and have earned the second-most penalty minutes (16.4)

SERIES HISTORY
• The schools are meeting for the 130th time in the all-time series on Friday with Boston College holding a 69-51-9 overall advantage over Maine
• Maine has won five straight games against the Eagles and has consecutive wins at Kelley Rink for the first time in seven years
• The Black Bears won both meetings in Chestnut Hill in overtime last season by 4-3 and 3-2 finals in late January
• Each of the last three meetings between the schools has gone to overtime and the last four have been decided by a single goal
• Entering the 2018-19 season, Boston College had won seven straight games against the Black Bears dating back to Jan. 18, 2015

SCORING IN BUNCHES
• Boston College leads the country in scoring offense with 4.06 goals per game after netting 11 goals last weekend in its home-and-home sweep of UMass Lowell
• BC has eight different players with a multi-goal game this season
• The Eagles are 10-0-0 this season when they score at least four goals in a game
• Boston College has 44 goals from its underclassmen, tied for the NCAA lead

SUPER SOPHOMORES
• Boston College received six goals and six assists from its sophomore class last Friday night in a dominant 7-1 home win over UMass Lowell
• Linemates Matt Boldy (1-4-5), Alex Newhook (2-1-3) and Mike Hardman (2-1-3) combined for 11 points, while Drew Helleson scored for the second time in three games
• Sophomore Spencer Knight made 29 saves in each Lowell win, moving to 12-1-1 on the season
• BC has the fifth-highest scoring sophomore class in the country with 58 points and is tied for the national lead with five game-winning goals from sophomores

BETTER TO BE BOLD
• Matt Boldy was named the Hockey East Co-Player of the Week on Monday following his first career five-point game against UMass Lowell
• Boldy posted a goal and four assists in a 7-1 win last Friday, registering the team's first five-point game since linemate Alex Newhook against Merrimack last year on Feb. 15, 2020
• It was BC's first four-assist performance since Johnny Gaudreau at Vermont on March 9, 2013
• Boldy is tied for first in Hockey East and tied for seventh nationally in points per game with 19 points in 15 contests; he is also eighth in the nation in assists per game

BAINER BRINGS IT
• Jack McBain has set career-highs with a six-game assist streak and a six-game point streak
• McBain has at least one point in eight of his last nine games with a 3-9-12 line in that span
• The junior ranks second in Hockey East with a +18 rating behind teammate Drew Helleson
• He is tied with classmate Marc McLaughlin for sixth in the league in points per game
• McBain collected the 50th point of his NCAA career last Saturday in Lowell

HELLY CELLY
• Drew Helleson is riding a career-high four-game point streak and has scored a goal in back-to-back games for the first time in his NCAA career
• Helleson set career-highs with three points and a +4 rating last Saturday at UMass Lowell
• The sophomore leads Hockey East at +19 this season, which ranks third in the country
• Helleson scored the game-winner with just 0.1 second on the clock in overtime to beat BU in the 283rd Battle of Comm Ave on Feb. 5, earning the No. 2 play on SportsCenter

ALL I DO IS WIN
• Spencer Knight finally suffered his first loss of the season on Feb. 6 at Boston University, ending a personal unbeaten streak of 20 games (18-0-2) dating back to last season
• Following a pair of victories last weekend, Knight improved to 12-1-1 between the pipes this season and now ranks second nationally in winning percentage (.893)
• He ranks eighth nationally in SV% (.935) and 14th in GAA (2.06) this year
• In 47 career starts, Knight is 35-9-3 for a .777 winning percentage

LUCKY 13
• Nikita Nesterenko is the first Boston College player to wear the number 13 since 2014 Hobey Baker Award winner Johnny Gaudreau
• With 16 points in his first 17 collegiate games, Nesterenko leads Hockey East and ranks sixth nationally in scoring by a freshman
• Nesterenko also leads all league rookies in goals (7) and plus-minus (+14)
• The Coney Island native already has five multi-point games this season, including a key goal and assist last Saturday in a 4-3 road win at UMass Lowell

AMEN FOR EAMON
• Eamon Powell leads all Hockey East rookie defensemen in scoring with 10 assists and 12 points in his first 17 collegiate games
• Powell has a point in six of his last seven games, averaging a point-per-game in that span
• The Marcellus, New York native is +14 on the year to rank third overall in Hockey East
• He hasn't had a minus rating since the second game of the season at UMass

No. 1 Eagles Host Black Bears for a Pair at Kelley Rink

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Matt Boldy

Mike Hardman

Drew Helleson

Spencer Knight

Jack McBain

Marc McLaughlin

Nikita Nesterenko

Alex Newhook

Eamon Powell