BOSTON -- For the second time this season and 267th time in history, welcome to the Battle of Commonwealth Avenue. This evening, No. 17 Boston College seeks revenge on its archrival Boston University as it travels down the road to Agganis Arena to meet the No. 2 Terriers.
Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. The game will be televised on New England Sports Network with Tom Caron and Billy Jaffe on the call.
The Eagles were not able to defend their home barn in the first meeting of the season between the teams as BU earned a 5-3 win Nov. 7 at Conte Forum. Senior Evan Rodrigues netted his second goal of the night with 5:46 remaining to lift the Terriers, while freshman Nikolas Olsson scored and added an assist.
The Terriers lead the all-time series by a 130-119-17 count, but are just 3-10-1 in the 14 meetings since this building’s opening ten years ago. Last season’s meeting here was a 5-1 win for BC on Nov. 8, 2013.
BU enters the night in the midst of a six-game unbeaten stretch (3-0-3) since the beginning of December and Rodrigues has been a major factor during that stretch. The Terriers’ assistant captain has scored two goals and eight points in his last four games, three of which came in a 6-1 win at Wisconsin last Saturday.
Jack Eichel had an excellent second night for the Terriers at UW, scoring twice and adding two assists for his third four-point game of his freshman season. He remains the nation's leader in points per game (1.72), assists per game (1.17) and plus/minus (+22).
It’s been a similar recent road for BC as it has gone 5-0-2 since a 1-0 loss at Providence on Nov. 29. The Eagles finished a three-point Hockey East weekend over Northeastern with a 4-2 win Saturday, thanks to sophomore Adam Gilmour who extended his point-scoring streak to five games with a goal and an assist.
Here are tonight's lines:
EAGLES (12-7-2, 5-4-2)
Ryan Fitzgerald - Destry Straight - Austin Cangelosi
Zach Sanford - Adam Gilmour - Alex Tuch
Quinn Smith - Michael Sit - Chris Calnan
Cam Spiro - Matthew Gaudreau - Brendan Silk
Teddy Doherty - Michael Matheson
Noah Hanifin - Ian McCoshen
Scott Savage - Steve Santini
Thatcher Demko
Brad Barone
TERRIERS (12-3-4, 7-1-2)
Evan Rodrigues - Jack Eichel - Danny O'Regan
Ahti Oksanen - Robbie Baillargeon - Cason Hohmann
Nikolas Olsson - Matt Lane - Nick Roberto
A.J. Greer - Mike Moran - Chase Phelps
Matt Grzelcyk - John MacLeod
Brandon Hickey - Brandon Fortunato
Doyle Somerby - Brien Diffley
Matt O'Connor
Connor LaCouvee
Anthony Moccia