BOSTON -- Good Friday evening one and all! Welcome inside historic Matthews Arena where two of the hottest teams in college hockey are set for their 223rd all-time meeting as Northeastern hosts No. 16 Boston College in the first of a Hockey East home-and-home series.
Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. in the first of three meetings between the teams this year. The game can be streamed live, for free on GoNUxstream with Rob Rudnick and Greg Costa on the call.
The Huskies are 4-0-1 in their last five games and 6-1-1 in eight, fresh a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Yale on Tuesday night. Junior Mike McMurtry scored his first goal of the season with 3:14 remaining in regulation to lift NU.
McMurtry's fellow third-year Kevin Roy, a newly named Hobey Baker Award candidate, became the 47th player in school history to reach the 100-point plateau in his career with the tying goal 15:40 into the second. The Quebec native Anaheim Ducks prospect leads Northeastern with eight goals and 20 points, half of which have come in the last four games.
BC has won four straight, including a 3-2 win over host Dartmouth in the Ledyard National Bank Classic last Saturday. Following a 4-5-0 start, the Eagles have gone 7-2-1 and a win tonight would lift BC to its longest streak of the season.
Freshmen Alex Tuch and Noah Hanifin and sophomore Ian McCoshen all returned to the BC lineup the day after Team USA was knocked out of the World Junior Championship last Friday, while sophomore Thatcher Demko will return to the net this evening. The Eagles will be without sophomore Steve Santini whose wrist will have one more week to recover before next Friday's big Commonwealth Avenue clash at Boston University.
Junior defenseman Teddy Doherty leads the BC team with 15 points and has posted on the scoresheet in four consecutive games, while sophomores Chris Calnan and Ryan Fitzgerald have each scored eight goals in 19 games to pace the offense.
BC holds the all-time edge between the two teams, 161-47-14, and is in the midst of a six-game winning streak dating back to Oct. 20, 2012. Tonight marks the latest the two teams have played each other for the first time in a season since Jan. 26, 1981.
Following tonight's game, the series shifts to Chestnut Hill for the series finale tomorrow at 4 p.m. on NESN and TSN2 before the 8 p.m. clash in the 63rd Beanpot semifinal on Feb. 2.
Here are tonight's lines:
EAGLES (11-7-1, 4-4-1)
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
Scott Savage - Danny Linell
Noah Hanifin - Ian McCoshen
Thatcher Demko
Brad Barone
HUSKIES (7-10-2, 3-6-1)
Kevin Roy - Dalen Hedges - Mike McMurtry
Zach Aston-Reese - Mike Szmatula - Torin Snydeman
Nolan Stevens - John Stevens - Ryan Rosenthal
Mike Jamieson - Brendan Collier - Adam Reid
Trevor Owens - Colton Saucerman
Jarrett Fennell - Matt Benning
Dax Lauwers - Garret Cockerill
Clay Witt
Derick Roy
Jake Theut