No. 2 Eagles Close First Semester Against No. 9 Providence on Saturday Afternoon

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 2/3 Boston College closes the first semester on Saturday afternoon with a top-10 Hockey East matchup against No. 9/10 Providence at sold out Kelley Rink. Faceoff is set for 4:30 p.m. with live coverage on NESN, ESPN+ and TSN2 in Canada. Radio coverage begins at 4:15 p.m. on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com.

SETTING THE SCENE
• Each of the last three Hockey East meetings between the schools have been ties
• The Eagles have won five of their last six, allowing a goal or less in their last four wins
• Providence has lost three of four (all one-goal games) but was idle last weekend

PACK CONTE
• BC leads Hockey East and ranks fourth nationally in average home attendance with nearly 55,000 total fans through eight games for an average of 6,836 per home date
• Conte Forum has seen four crowds of at least 7,300 fans this season, including three sellouts of 7,884 against Denver (Oct. 21), Michigan State (Oct. 27) and Northeastern (Dec. 1)
• Saturday's game against Providence and the Battle of Comm Ave against Boston University on Jan. 26, 2024 were both announced as sellouts this week
• Boston College is 6-2-0 through eight home games, out-scoring its opponents 35-23

LET'S CUT TO THE CHASE
• Cutter Gauthier is riding a six-game point streak with a 4-5-9 scoring line, one shy of his career-high streak which he set earlier this season from Oct. 20 - Nov. 10
• Gauthier has scored 12 goals in his first 16 games as a sophomore, ranking second in Hockey East and eighth nationally in goals per game (0.75)
• The only NCAA player with more total goals than Gauthier is Jack Devine of Denver (14)
• Gauthier is tied for the national lead in game-winning goals (5) and power play goals (6)
• He leads the country in shots on goal with 90, which is 25 more than anyone in Hockey East

WORKHORSE IN NET
• Jacob Fowler posted his 12th win last Saturday and improved to 12-3-1 overall
• He is tied with North Dakota's Ludvig Persson for the NCAA lead in win percentage (.781)
• Fowler ranks second in Hockey East and seventh nationally with a .929 save percentage
• The rookie's 2.04 GAA ranks ninth among NCAA goalies with at least eight appearances
• He enters the weekend second in the country in minutes played with 968:24

RED HOT LENNY
• Ryan Leonard finally had his point streak snapped at nine games last Saturday
• During the streak, Leonard scored nine times and added three assists for 12 points
• He ranks fourth in Hockey East in goals per game with 10 tallies, all in his last 12 contests
• Leonard currently leads the team and sits sixth in the league with a +8 rating
• The rookie ranks fourth in Hockey East with 60 shots on goal through 16 games

KILLER SPECIAL TEAMS
• Boston College's penalty kill is currently the top unit in the nation at 93.4%
• The Eagles have gone six consecutive games without allowing a power play goal and have been perfect on the kill in 10 of their last 11 games
• The last team to score on the power play against BC was Maine nearly a month ago on Nov. 10
• Boston College also leads Hockey East on the power play, clicking at 26.6%
• The PP ranks fifth nationally and has converted in all but three games this season
• BC has scored five power play goals over its last four games

AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
• Boston College leads Hockey East and ranks fifth nationally in scoring margin (+1.56)
• BC is second in the league and seventh nationally in scoring offense with 3.75 goals per game
• Boston College is also second in HEA and sixth in the country defensively with a 2.19 GAA
• The Eagles are tied with North Dakota for college hockey's top winning percentage (.781)

NORTHEASTERN SPLIT
• Boston College split a Hockey East home-and-home series against Northeastern last weekend, rebounding from a 5-3 home loss on Friday to win 3-1 at NU on Saturday
• Down 3-0 after one on Friday night, BC got second period goals from Mike Posma, Ryan Leonard and Eamon Powell as the teams went to the third tied 3-3
• Cam Lund netted the eventual game-winner on a 2-on-1 with six minutes left in regulation
• The loss snapped the Eagles' four-game winning streak
• On Saturday, Will Smith broke a 1-1 deadlock in the third period and Lukas Gustafsson added an insurance goal as the Eagles earned the split at Matthews Arena
• Gabe Perreault scored on the power play from Smith at 5:45 of the second to tie the game
• Jacob Fowler stopped 25 of the 26 NU shots he faced in a winning effort

SERIES HISTORY
• Boston College leads the all-time series with Providence 120-54-17 entering the 192nd meeting in series history
• The Eagles are 5-2-3 in the last 10 meetings between the schools
• Each of the last three matchups have been ties and seven of the last 11 matchups have been decided by a goal or less
• The schools each took three points from a home-and-home series last December, with each team earning an extra point with a shootout victory on the other's home ice
• In five of the last six meetings, one team has held the other to a goal or less

AMERICAN EAGLES
• Eight current and future BC men's hockey players have been named to the preliminary roster for the U.S. National Junior Team ahead of the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship
• Forwards Cutter Gauthier, Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault and Will Smith, defensemen Drew Fortescue and Aram Minnetian, goaltender Jacob Fowler, and incoming forward James Hagens will compete for a spot during training camp at USA Hockey Arena in Michigan from Dec. 14-16
• The final 25-man roster will represent the United States in the World Junior Championship from Dec. 26, 2023 - Jan. 5, 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden

NHL NOTES
• Matt Boldy (Minnesota) posted two goals and an assist on Tuesday night for the Wild in a road win at Calgary and now has four goals in his last four games
• With 279 goals, Chris Kreider (NY Rangers) is just one goal away from tying Adam Graves for third place on the Rangers' all-time goals list
• Mike Matheson (Montreal) ranks 10th in the NHL in time on ice (24:53 per game)

UP NEXT
• Boston College hosts Simon Fraser for an exhibition game on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024 at 7 p.m.

No. 2 Eagles Close First Semester Against No. 9 Providence on Saturday Afternoon

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Players Mentioned

Drew Fortescue

Jacob Fowler

Cutter Gauthier

Lukas Gustafsson

Ryan Leonard

Aram Minnetian

Gabe Perreault

Mike Posma

Eamon Powell

Will Smith