Eagles Host UMass Wednesday in Hockey East Opening Round

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 8 seed Boston College and No. 9 seed UMass are set to clash in the Hockey East Opening Round on Wednesday night at Kelley Rink live on NESN+ and ESPN+ at 7 p.m. The winner advances to the Hockey East Quarterfinal on Saturday to face either Boston University, Merrimack or Northeastern on the road. Tickets are available at (617) 552-GoBC or BCEagles.com.

SETTING THE SCENE
• The schools will meet for the 11th time in Hockey East Tournament history
• BC is 9-1-0 in the 10 previous matchups, including four quarterfinal sweeps all played at Conte Forum
• The Eagles' only tournament loss to the Minutemen came in a play-in game at the end of the 1994-95 season between the No. 8 and 9 seeds in Chestnut Hill
• Boston College has won three of the last four meetings overall on the Heights

SERIES HISTORY
• Boston College leads the series with UMass 73-17-3, including a 37-8-1 advantage dating back to 2008, heading into the 94th all-time meeting in series history
• The Eagles have won five in a row against UMass and are 9-1-0 in the last 10 meetings
• BC is 3-0-0 against Massachusetts this season, including a Hockey East sweep last month and a 4-2 non-conference victory at Fenway Park on Jan. 7
• The last Hockey East Tournament matchup in the series was a 3-0 Boston College shutout over top-seeded UMass in the 2019 Hockey East Semifinal at TD Garden
• The most recent tournament meeting at a campus site came in 2012 at Kelley Rink

FEBRUARY SWEEP
• BC swept UMass in a home-and-home on Feb. 17-18 by the combined score of 10-4
• In the opener at Kelley Rink, Boston College exploded for five goals in the first period and Nikita Nesterenko recorded his first career hat trick in a convincing 7-3 victory
• Nesterenko (3-1-4) and linemate Oskar Jellvik (1-2-3) combined for seven points, while defensemen Eamon Powell and Charlie Leddy each collected a pair of assists
• Mitch Benson made 29 saves for the win in his 100th career start
• Trevor Kuntar scored twice in the series finale, including the eventual game-winner in the third period, and BC swept the weekend with a 3-1 road win in Amherst
• It was Boston College's fifth straight win over the Minutemen at the Mullins Center
• Connor Joyce added an insurance goal for the Eagles in the third period

FROZEN FENWAY
• Graduate forward Cam Burke scored his first two goals in a BC sweater, powering the Eagles to a 4-2 victory over then-No. 15 UMass on Jan. 7 at Fenway Park
• BC improved to 4-1-0 all-time at Fenway, including four consecutive wins
• Boston College moved to 7-1-0 in its last eight meetings with the Minutemen
• In his return from the World Junior Championship, Cutter Gauthier opened the scoring just 2:25 into the night and added an assist on Eamon Powell's empty-netter
• BC finished with a 37-25 edge in shots on goal and won the faceoff battle 30-24

JUNIOR CLASS
• Boston College's junior class represents four of the team's top six scorers
• Nikita Nesterenko, Trevor Kuntar, Colby Ambrosio and Eamon Powell have combined for 102 points this season, which is 37% of the team's scoring
• Three of the four have already surpassed their career-highs in points
• Ambrosio is one point away from matching his career-high, but has surpassed his career-best in goals (10) after scoring last Saturday at UConn

POWER UP
• BC ranks second in Hockey East and eighth nationally on the power play at 24.8%
• Boston College has scored on the power play in six of its last seven games and capitalized twice on the power play last Saturday at UConn
• Cutter Gauthier (7) and Trevor Kuntar (6) rank second and fourth in the league respectively in power play goals
• The Eagles have scored at least once on the power play in 23 of their last 32 games

NHL NOTES
• Jack McBain (Arizona) registered his second multi-point game of the season against the Devils on March 5 with a goal and an assist
• Mike Matheson (Montreal) has a point in seven of his last eight games with eight total points over that span, including a goal on March 6 against Vegas
• Thatcher Demko (Vancouver) was activated from injured reserve on Feb. 27 and has a .937 save percentage in three starts since his return

Eagles Host UMass Wednesday in Hockey East Opening Round

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Players Mentioned

Colby Ambrosio

Mitch Benson

Cam Burke

Cutter Gauthier

Oskar Jellvik

Connor Joyce

Trevor Kuntar

Charlie Leddy

Jack McBain

Nikita Nesterenko

Eamon Powell