Eagles Clash with St. Cloud State in NCAA Regional Final

ALBANY, N.Y. – Top-seed Boston College goes up against No. 2 seed St. Cloud State on Sunday (March 28) in the NCAA Northeast Regional Final at 5:30 p.m. at the Times Union Center in Albany. The winner advances to the 2021 Frozen Four, which will be held at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on April 8-10.

NCAA REGIONAL COVERAGE
• Sunday's game against St. Cloud State will be televised live on ESPN2 and the ESPN app
• Radio coverage on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com begins at 5:15 p.m.
• Canadian viewers can also watch live on TSN.ca and the TSN App

STATE OF THE EAGLES
• Boston College enters the Regional Final at 17-5-1 overall for the fifth-highest winning percentage in the nation (.761)
• In games decided in regulation, BC is 14-2-0 for the best win percentage in the NCAA (.875)
• The Eagles have only one regulation loss since the beginning of January
• Boston College ranks third in NCAA history with its 36 NCAA Tournament appearances

BACK IN ALBANY
• Boston College returns to Albany for the first time since the 2001 NCAA Championship Game, a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory over North Dakota
• BC captured its first national title since 1949 and second of five in school history
• Sophomore forward Krys Kolanos scored the winner just 4:43 into the extra session
• Current assistant coach Brooks Orpik was a junior defenseman on the 2001 squad

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
• St. Cloud State is ranked seventh in both national polls
• The Huskies are 18-10-0 overall this season following a 6-2 victory over BU on Saturday afternoon in the Northeast Regional Semifinal
• SCSU had a 2-1 lead on top-ranked North Dakota in the NCHC Championship Game on March 16 but fell 5-3 to the Fighting Hawks
• Freshman Veeti Miettinen has a team-high 24 points and five of his 11 goals have come on the power play
• Senior forward Easton Brodzinski leads the team with 13 goals, including a pair against Boston University on Saturday
• Senior netminder Dávid Hrenák has started 24 games with a 15-9-0 record
• The LA Kings draft pick owns a 2.57 GAA and .908 SV% with two shutouts
• St. Cloud is clicking at 22% on the power play and 84.5% on the penalty kill
• Brett Larson is in his third season as the head coach of SCSU

SERIES HISTORY
• Sunday will mark the fifth all-time meeting in series history and the second matchup to be played on neutral ice
• The Huskies, then ranked No. 2 in the country, shut out the Eagles 7-0 at Conte Forum on Oct. 25, 2018
• Captain Marc McLaughlin and alternate captains Patrick Giles, Jack McBain and Michael Karow are the only current Eagles to play in that game
• St. Cloud State swept Boston College in Minnesota in October of 2017 with 5-2 and 3-1 wins at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center
• The first meeting in series history came just before New Year's in 2004 in Estero, Florida, which was a 2-1 Boston College victory in double overtime

SEMIFINAL HEARTBREAKER
• Matt Brown batted a puck out of mid-air with 8:00 left in double overtime on March 17, lifting 7-seed UMass Lowell past 1-seed BC by a 6-5 final in the Hockey East Semifinal at Kelley Rink
• The Eagles thought they had won the game in the first OT when Patrick Giles deflected a point shot from Jack St. Ivany, but the game-winner was overturned after video review due to offside
• BC was led by its sophomore class with 12 points on the night; the top line of Alex Newhook (2-3-5), Matt Boldy (0-4-4) and Mike Hardman (1-1-2) all had multi-point performances
• The River Hawks stormed back from 4-1 down in the third period, but captain Marc McLaughlin restored the lead at 5-4 on the power play with 2:07 remaining in regulation
• Lowell answered 40 seconds later on a deflected point shot while pulling its goaltender

CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL
• Of the last 10 national champions, only four won its conference tournament title
• Two of those teams were the Eagles in 2010 and 2012, meaning that only two of the last seven national champions went into the NCAA tournament as conference champs
• Union (2014) and Minnesota Duluth (2019) are the only schools since 2012 to win both

YORK IN THE TOURNEY
• Jerry York has the most wins all-time in the history of the NCAA Tournament with 41
• York has led BC to four NCAA titles during his 27-year tenure (2001, 2008, 2010, 2012)
• He was named the 2021 Hockey East Coach of the Year, winning the award for the fifth time
• With a 4-2 win at UConn on Jan. 23, he reached 1,100 career victories in his Division I career

RICHTER FINALIST
• Spencer Knight was named a top-3 finalist for the Mike Richter Award on Friday, looking to become the second Eagle to earn the honor along with Thatcher Demko in 2016
• The sophomore is 16-3-1 this season to rank third nationally in winning percentage (.825) behind only Dryden McKay of Minnesota State and Adam Scheel of North Dakota
• He owns a record of 24-3-2 in his last 29 starts dating back to last season, which included a personal unbeaten streak of 20 games
• In 53 career starts, Knight is 39-11-3 for a .764 career winning percentage

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 ranks 10th nationally in scoring among freshmen and led all league rookies in goals (7), assists (11) and points (18) during the regular season
• He joins recent winners Alex Newhook (2020), Logan Hutsko (2018) and Colin White (2016)

HEY NOW, YOU'RE AN ALL-STAR
• In addition to being named Goaltender of the Year, Spencer Knight earned First Team Hockey East All-Star honors along with classmates Matt Boldy and Drew Helleson
• It marks the first time that Boston College has had three First Team All-Stars since 2014 when Kevin Hayes, Johnny Gaudreau and Michael Matheson were all picked
• Captain Marc McLaughlin was also selected as a Hockey East Third Team All-Star

HOBEY FINALISTS
• Classmates Matt Boldy and Spencer Knight are top-10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award
• Boldy is third nationally in points per game with a 10-20-30 line in 21 contests
• Knight ranks fifth in the country in SV% (.933) and 13th in GAA (2.13) this year
• Three Eagles in school history have won college hockey's top individual honor: David Emma (1991), Mike Mottau (2000) and Johnny Gaudreau (2014)

Eagles Clash with St. Cloud State in NCAA Regional Final

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Players Mentioned

Matt Boldy

Patrick Giles

Mike Hardman

Drew Helleson

Logan Hutsko

Michael Karow

Spencer Knight

Jack McBain

Marc McLaughlin

Nikita Nesterenko

Alex Newhook

Jack St. Ivany

Colin White