Notre Dame at Boston University: Pregame Notes and Line Combinations

BOSTON -- Welcome inside Agganis Arena on the campus of Boston University where the No. 3 Terriers will look to snag one more point to clinch the outright Hockey East regular-season title in the back half of a weekend series with Notre Dame on this Saturday night. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m.

The Terriers and Irish skated to a 2-2 tie last night while second-place Boston College and UMass Lowell finished with the same result at Kelley Rink, setting up BU to claim its first title since the 2010 IceBreaker Tournament when it defeated, ironically enough, the Irish.

Sophomore Nick Roberto scored his first goal of the calendar year and since Dec. 13, 2014 at RPI to open the Terriers' scoring just prior to the halfway mark of the second period in last night's game.

Senior assistant captain Evan Rodrigues. who scored BU's second goal, and freshman Jack Eichel remain the nation's two leading point scorers. According to SID Brian Kelley, Rodrigues is on pace to become the highest-scoring BU senior since Chris Drury scored 57 in 38 games during the 1997-98 season. Eichel tops the national charts with 48 in 28 games after assisting Roberto last night.

Both of Notre Dame's goals came from freshmen with Bruins prospect Anders Bjork providing the tying goal with 3:43 left in regulation after Jake Evans' opening goal in the second. Freshman goaltender Cal Petersen tallied 34 more saves and his .961 save percentage since a Feb. 6 tie at Maine ranks third in the country.

Sophomore Vince Hinostroza has been held off the scoresheet in the last two games after building an eight-game point streak over which he scored four goals and 16 points. He is tied for second in the country in points with BU's Eichel in that span and the two trail only Rodrigues.

The Irish are 5-3-2 leaders in the all-time series with BU. Their 4-0-1 mark in the last five games includes a three-game sweep last season.

Here are tonight's lines:

FIGHTING IRISH (13-15-5, 8-6-5)

Sam Herr - Thomas DiPauli - Peter Schneider
Mario Lucia - Vince Hinostroza - Anders Bjork
Dawson Cook - Connor Hurley - Jake Evans
Ali Thomas - Steven Fogarty - Austin Wuthrich

Luke Ripley - Andy Ryan
Robbie Russo - Jordan Gross
Eric Johnson - Justin Wade

Cal Petersen
Chad Katunar
Nick Stasack

TERRIERS (19-5-5, 13-3-3)

Evan Rodrigues - Jack Eichel - Danny O'Regan
Ahti Oksanen - Cason Hohmann - J.J. Piccinich
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

Connor LaCouvee
Matt O'Connor
Anthony Moccia