CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- For the first time in nearly a decade during the regular season, third-ranked Minnesota pays a visit to Boston. The Golden Gophers open their weekend stay on this Black Friday evening in Chestnut Hill where they will face No. 12 Boston College in a 6 p.m. (5 p.m. Central) contest.
The Eagles lost and tied in Minneapolis last October but are hosting Minnesota at the Heights for the first time since Jan. 1999. Minnesota, which has appeared in two Worcester, Mass. regionals since 2000 but not played a regular season game in Boston since opening BU's Agganis Arena in 2005, has a 16-12-3 advantage in the all-time series with BC.
The Gophers were idle from NCAA play in the week gone by, but dropped a 5-4 exhibition contest to the U.S. Under-18 Team in overtime last Friday. Minnesota is 5-1-0 at home and 2-0-0 on neutral ice after the season-opening IceBreaker Tournament at Notre Dame, but has yet to win a true road game (0-2-0) after its 2-1 defeat at Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 15.
Senior Seth Ambroz snapped a three-game point streak for the 50th point of his career at UMD, assisting on the lone goal of the game by freshman Leon Bristedt. All-American classmate Kyle Rau, Minnesota's first two-year captain since 2002-03, leads the team with nine assists and 12 points in ten games.
BC puts a three-game winning streak on the line after its first Hockey East sweep of the season last weekend. The Eagles received freshman defenseman Noah Hanifin's second multi-point performance of the year with a goal and two assists in Friday's 5-3 win at Massachusetts, while senior Destry Straight scored twice and added an assist to beat Maine 4-1 on Saturday.
Minnesota's weekend in Boston concludes the second Big Ten/Hockey East Challenge, in which the Big Ten currently holds a 22-20 points advantage. Tomorrow night, the Gophers visit Northeastern's Matthews Arena for the first time since 1987.
Here are tonight's lines:
GOLDEN GOPHERS (7-3-0, 0-0-0-0 B1G)
Taylor Cammarata - Kyle Rau - Hudson Fasching
Sam Warning - Justin Kloos - Conor Reilly
Leon Bristedt - Vinni Lettieri - Seth Ambroz
Ryan Reilly - Christian Isackson
Brady Skjei - Ryan Collins
Mike Reilly - Michael Brodzinski
Ben Marshall - Jake Bischoff
Jack Glover
Adam Wilcox
Nick Lehr
EAGLES (7-5-0, 3-3-0 Hockey East)
Destry Straight - Adam Gilmour - Chris Calnan
Quinn Smith - Austin Cangelosi - Brendan Silk
Zach Sanford - Ryan Fitzgerald - Alex Tuch
Cam Spiro - Michael Sit - Matthew Gaudreau
Ian McCoshen - Noah Hanifin
Scott Savage - Michael Matheson
Teddy Doherty - Danny Linell
Thatcher Demko
Brad Barone
Alex Joyce