Top-Ranked Eagles Set for Home-and-Home with Northeastern

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 1 Boston College returns to Hockey East play this weekend with a home-and-home series against Northeastern, beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ and WEEI 93.7 FM at Kelley Rink. The series concludes on Saturday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN+ and WEEI 850 AM at Matthews Arena. Limited tickets are available at BCEagles.com or by calling 617-552-GoBC.

SETTING THE SCENE
• Each of the last five meetings between the schools has been decided by a goal or less
• The Eagles are riding a four-game winning streak after a pair of ranked road wins over No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 20 Harvard last weekend
• Northeastern enters the weekend at 3-7-1 overall (0-7-0 HEA) but defeated RPI 9-2 on the road last Sunday

BACK TO THE TOP
• Boston College returned to the No. 1 ranking in the country in both the USCHO.com Poll and the USA Hockey / The Rink Live Poll on Monday
• The Eagles are also currently first in the Pairwise Rankings for the NCAA Tournament
• BC spent two weeks at No. 1 in the national polls beginning on Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, and was tied for first in the USA Hockey / The Rink Live Poll with North Dakota last week

SERIES HISTORY
• This weekend marks the 252nd and 253rd all-time meetings in series history
• Boston College leads the all-time series against Northeastern 174-59-18
• BC is 7-4-2 in the last 13 matchups between the schools and has defeated the Huskies in five of the last six matchups on the Heights
• The teams tied the regular season series last year 1-1-2 with three of the four meetings taking place at Matthews Arena (one was a non-conference game)
• Boston College beat the Huskies 3-2 at Kelley Rink on Nov. 12 of last season as Marshall Warren scored the game-winner at 8:30 of the third period to snap a 2-2 tie

HOME ICE ADVANTAGE
• BC leads Hockey East and ranks fourth nationally in average home attendance with nearly 47,000 total fans through seven games for an average of 6,687 per home date
• Conte Forum has seen three crowds of at least 7,300 fans this season, including a pair of sellouts (7,884) against Denver on Oct. 21 and Michigan State on Oct. 27
• Boston College is 6-1-0 through seven home games, out-scoring its opponents 32-18

STACKING AWARDS
• Ryan Leonard (Player of the Week / Rookie of the Month) and Jacob Fowler (Goaltender of the Week / Goaltender of the Month) each won a pair of Hockey East awards this week
• Leonard registered four goals over the weekend for Boston College, including the first two multi-goal performances of his NCAA career
• He had at least one point in all eight November games, scoring eight goals and adding three assists for 11 points
• Fowler stopped 52 of the 54 shots he faced against the Fighting Irish and Crimson for a .963 save percentage while allowing just one goal in each road victory
• He earned his second straight Goaltender of the Month award after posting a 6-1-1 record in his eight starts with a 1.85 GAA and .939 SV%

TOUGH GUY TO BEAT
• Jacob Fowler has allowed just two goals over his last 209:17 of ice time
• The freshman posted his 10th and 11th wins last weekend and improved to 11-2-1 overall
• He is tied with North Dakota's Ludvig Persson for the NCAA lead in win percentage (.821)
• The Melbourne, Florida native ranks third nationally with a .931 save percentage
• The rookie's 1.98 GAA ranks fifth among NCAA goalies with at least eight appearances
• Fowler posted his first collegiate shutout on Nov. 18 with 31 saves at UConn

RED HOT LENNY
• Ryan Leonard extended his point streak to eight games last weekend, during which he has scored eight times
• Leonard's eight-game point streak is currently tied for the second-longest in the nation
• He ranks fourth in Hockey East in goals per game with nine tallies, all in his last 10 contests
• The Amherst, Mass. native is tied for 14th in the league in points per game (1.14)
• Leonard currently leads Hockey East with a +10 rating for the season

JUST CUT IT OUT
• Cutter Gauthier has scored 12 goals in 14 games this season, leading Hockey East and ranking third nationally in goals per game (0.86)
• The only NCAA player with more total goals than Gauthier is Jack Devine of Denver (13)
• Gauthier leads the entire country with five game-winning goals and is tied for the NCAA lead with six power play goals
• He is tied for the national lead in shots on goal with 79, including 34 over his last five games

AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
• Boston College leads Hockey East and ranks third nationally in scoring margin (+1.79)
• BC leads the league and sits sixth nationally in scoring offense with 3.86 goals per game
• Boston College is also second in HEA and fifth in the country defensively with a 2.07 GAA
• Both special teams units have excelled with the penalty kill (1st HEA / 2nd NCAA) sitting at 92.6% and the power play (3rd HEA / 11th NCAA) clicking at 25%

TOTAL TEAM EFFORT
• Ryan Leonard scored twice in the first period and No. 2 Boston College never looked back, earning a 6-1 non-conference victory over No. 18 Notre Dame on Black Friday
• Linemates Leonard, Gabe Perreault (1-2-3) and Will Smith (0-3-3) combined for eight points
• Oskar Jellvik posted a multi-point game with a goal and an assist, while Cutter Gauthier and Eamon Powell each had a pair of assists to give BC six players with multiple points
• Andre Gasseau netted his fifth goal of the season, while Drew Fortescue scored his third
• Celebrating his birthday, Jacob Fowler was 1:35 away from securing his second straight shutout; he stopped 29 of the 30 Irish shots he faced

SUNDAY MATINEE
• Cutter Gauthier snapped a 1-1 deadlock with his 12th goal of the season in the third period and BC posted a 4-1 road victory over No. 20 Harvard on Sunday
• Leonard scored twice for the second straight game, including one on the power play
• Senior Colby Ambrosio netted his first goal of the season in the third period to make it 3-1
• Rookie Jacob Fowler stopped 23 of the 24 Harvard shots he faced and BC killed off all three Harvard power plays, allowing just three shots on goal

GOALS IN BUNCHES
• As a team, Boston College has nine two-goal performances this season
• Cutter Gauthier has registered three of those multi-goal games, while Ryan Leonard's last two games have both been multi-goal outings
• Will Smith, Oskar Jellvik, Andre Gasseau and Jack Malone have one each on the year
• The Eagles have had a two-goal scorer in three of their last four games

NHL NOTES
• Among skaters who have taken at least 200 faceoffs, Kevin Hayes (St. Louis) ranks sixth in the NHL in faceoff percentage, winning 59.2% of his draws
• Johnny Gaudreau (Columbus) skated in his 700th NHL game on Nov. 18
• 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 fourth in the NHL with a 2.10 GAA among goaltenders with more than seven appearances; he is tied for second with two shutouts
• Chris Kreider (NY Rangers) sits in fourth place on the Rangers' all-time goals list (278) and is just two goals away from tying Adam Graves for third (280)

UP NEXT
• Boston College hosts No. 9 Providence next Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Kelley Rink to close the first semester

Top-Ranked Eagles Set for Home-and-Home with Northeastern

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Players Mentioned

Colby Ambrosio

Drew Fortescue

Jacob Fowler

Andre Gasseau

Cutter Gauthier

Oskar Jellvik

Ryan Leonard

Jack Malone

Gabe Perreault

Eamon Powell

Will Smith

Marshall Warren