No. 2 Eagles Travel to No. 18 Notre Dame on Black Friday

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 2 Boston College travels to South Bend, Indiana for a Black Friday non-conference matinee against 18th-ranked Notre Dame at the Compton Family Ice Arena. Faceoff is set for 4 p.m. (ET) with live coverage on Peacock and WEEI 850 AM.

SETTING THE SCENE
• The Eagles are 9-2-1 overall and 4-1-1 in Hockey East after taking five of a possible six points from a home-and-home sweep of UConn last weekend
• The Fighting Irish enters the matchup at 7-4-2 (3-1-2 B1G) after splitting with Minnesota on the road last weekend in Minneapolis
• As the schools enter the 49th all-time meeting of a back-and-forth series, neither team has won more than two in a row against the other since 2006

CUT AND DRIED
• For the second time this season, Cutter Gauthier was named the Hockey East Player of the Week on Monday after a 3-1-4 weekend in the sweep of UConn
• Gauthier scored twice on Friday night in a 5-4 victory at Kelley Rink, including the game-tying goal in the third period and the game-winning goal in overtime
• He added a key insurance goal late in the third period of Saturday's 3-0 shutout
• Gauthier finished the series with 14 shots on goal and a +2 rating

FOWLER LOCKS IT DOWN
• Jacob Fowler posted his first collegiate shutout last Saturday with 31 saves at UConn
• Fowler leads Hockey East and is tied for the NCAA lead with a .792 winning percentage
• The Florida native has started all 12 games in net this season and is 9-2-1 overall
• In his first six career Hockey East starts, Fowler has posted a .932 save percentage
• The rookie's 2.14 GAA ranks 11th among NCAA goalies with at least six games played

AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
• Boston College leads Hockey East and ranks fifth nationally in scoring margin (+1.42)
• BC is second in the league and sixth nationally in scoring offense with 3.67 goals per game
• BC is also eighth in the country defensively with a 2.25 GAA as a team
• Both special teams units have excelled with the power play (2nd HEA / 9th NCAA) clicking at 25.5% and the penalty kill (2nd HEA / 4th NCAA) sitting at 91.5%

YOUTH GONE WILD
• Boston College's all-freshman line of Gabe Perreault, Will Smith and Ryan Leonard has combined for 13 goals, 32 assists and 45 points through 12 games
• The trio is averaging 3.75 points per game, including 25 points in Hockey East play
• Perreault (17) and Smith (16) lead the team in scoring while Leonard (12) sits fourth
• The line has a +18 rating with Leonard (+8) and Perreault (+7) leading the squad

ALL HE DOES IS SCORE
• Cutter Gauthier has scored 11 goals in 12 games this season, leading Hockey East and ranking fourth nationally in goals per game
• The only player with more total goals is Jared Westcott of Lake Superior State (12)
• Gauthier is tied for the NCAA lead in both power play goals (6) and game-winning goals (4)
• He has three multi-goal games this season and leads the country in shots on goal with 67, including 22 over his last three games

STREAKY EAGS
• Gabe Perreault is riding a 10-game point streak with a scoring line of 2-15-17
• He has six multi-point games and owns a plus-8 rating during the point streak
• Ryan Leonard (4-3-7) and Will Smith (2-6-8) have both put together six-game point streaks since Hockey East play began for BC on Nov. 3
• Cutter Gauthier had a career-high seven-game point streak snapped on Nov. 11 in Maine

ON A PERR-ROLL
• Gabe Perreault has been named Hockey East Rookie of the Week twice this season
• Perreault leads Hockey East with 15 assists, which is tied for second in the country
• His team-leading 17 points rank second overall in the league and second nationally among all rookies
• The freshman winger has factored into 10 of Boston College's last 18 goals

SERIES HISTORY
• Friday will mark the 49th all-time meeting in the series
• Boston College holds a 24-22-2 lead in the "Holy War" against the Fighting Irish
• Notre Dame posted a 5-2 victory at Kelley Rink on Black Friday last season
• Eamon Powell gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead early in the second period, but the Irish responded with four unanswered goals with two in the second and two in the third
• The Eagles swept the Irish in a home-and-home series in December of 2019 by the combined score of 10-1, including a 6-1 victory in South Bend

NHL NOTES
• Johnny Gaudreau (Columbus) skated in his 700th NHL game on Saturday (Nov. 18) and scored a goal in Washington against the Capitals
• Gaudreau (233-457-690 in his first 700 GP) is among the top-10 highest scoring U.S. born players in NHL history through the 700-game milestone
• Thatcher Demko (Vancouver) ranks third in the NHL with a .929 SV% among goaltenders with more than six appearances; he is tied for second with two shutouts
• Chris Kreider (NY Rangers) ranks fourth on the Rangers' all-time goals list (275) and is five goals away from tying Adam Graves for third place (280)

UP NEXT
• Boston College travels to face No. 20 Harvard on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ and TSN+ in Canada

No. 2 Eagles Travel to No. 18 Notre Dame on Black Friday

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Players Mentioned

Jacob Fowler

Cutter Gauthier

Ryan Leonard

Gabe Perreault

Eamon Powell

Will Smith