The most-awaited weekend of the Hockey East season—maybe the entire D1 season—is upon us. Top-ranked Terriers and their ancient rivals, #2 BC, face off in a home-and-home series--the 292nd and 293rd editions of The Battle of Comm Ave--beginning tonight at Conte Forum.
The 7:00 pm. start will air on NESN with an ESPN+ live stream for fans outside New England, as well as an international stream. Friday's matchup also will be televised live in Canada on TSN while Saturday's game will be on TSN+.
With both schools bringing 16-4-1 overall records, BU and BC also are first and second in the Pairwise Ranking and in the Hockey East standings where the Terriers have a six-point lead.
"Regardless of the No. 1, No. 2, I think this rivalry is always a lot of fun to be part of,” said head coach Jay Pandolfo. “This year, the stakes are a little higher because of the one and two ranking. I think you have a lot of players on these rosters that are high-end talent that are going to have long careers after playing at these schools."
Photo credit Gracie Davenport
The star-studded
game will feature some of the most talented skaters in Division 1 and a barrel
of high-round draft picks. The Hockey
East list of leading scorers is heavily weighted with skaters from the two
Green Line schools. Among top 20 are five Terriers and five Eagles. You know the
names: Macklin Celebrini, Lane Hutson, Jeremy Wilmer, Ryan Green and Luke Tuch
for BU; Gabe Perreault, Will Smith, Cutter Gauthier, Ryan Leonard and Oskar
Jellvik for BC.
Celebrini and Smith shared this past week’s Hockey East Rookie of the Week honors.
In goal BC’s, freshman Jacob Fowler, a Montreal third-round draft pick who played for Team USA in the recent World Junior Championships, has an overall 2.27 GAA and a .922 save percentage. BU's Mathieu Caron, a junior transfer from Brown, sports a 2.33 GAA and a .918 save mark. However, his numbers in conference games are a tad better than Fowler's, 2.22 to 2.53, and .924 vs. .918.
Caron, like his teammates, got off to slow start in October, but is playing his best hockey right now. In BU’s current winning streak, he is 7-0-0 with a 1.43 GAA and a .947 save percentage, and, as Pandolfo points out, “is playing with a lot of confidence.”
With the teams’ records and rankings so close, it’s no surprise that the same applies to team stats. For all games, BC has a small edge in goals scored (87-84), shooting percentage (13.0 to 12.1) and penalty kill percentage (90.2 to 84.0) BU has given up one fewer goal and has the edge in power-play success (26% to 25.3%) and face-off wins (51.3% vs/ 47.8).
In conference games (each team has played 13), BU has the edge in goals for (55-51) and goals against (29-35), as well as shot percentage (13.4 to 12.6) and power-play percentage (31.7 to 27.3)
Senior captain Case McCarthy spoke with the Boston Hockey Blog after Thursday’s practice about the upcoming series. "You don’t know until you get in those first five minutes. The crowd is obviously going to be loud. I think just keep it simple early and really try to take it in and enjoy it because you only get so many of them."
(See the excellent BHB preview, linked below)
Commenting on the need for being ready to play a disciplined, focused and “direct” game, he added, “I think we’ve been doing a good job keeping it pretty tight in the room and taking it day by day. We’re obviously excited for the opportunity to play in this series. I think controlling our emotions will be huge this weekend.”
McCarthy also reflected on facing former teammate Jamie Armstrong, now an Eagle grad student: “I think for us, and especially him being part of mine and Sam Steven’s class, we created a pretty special bond. With that being said, he’s still on BC, so beat BC."
Pandolfo was still tinkering with his forward lines in Thursday’s practice. Looking to “see [Nick] Zabaneh in the middle of the ice again,” he moved the senior to center on the third line with Jeremy Wilmer and Dylan Peterson, while Jack Hughes goes to left wing on the Ryan Greene-Devin Kaplan line. Shane Lachance rejoined Stevens and Doug Grimes.
Pandolfo explained that he is comfortable matching any of his lines with any of BC's, but that he likely would do some matching with his defense pairs.
TONIGHT’S TERRIER LINEUP
● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, BU All-Access (audio), BU Men's Hockey Twitter
● Live Stream ESPN+, International stream
● BU Today Oh Brother! Three Pairs of Siblings Power BU Men's Hockey Success
● Boston Hockey Blog Terriers gear up for highly anticipated Battle of Comm Ave
● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape, Comm Ave Battle--A 1-2 punch
● NHL.com NHL prospects propelling Boston University, Boston College ahead of showdown
● USCHO.com #1 BU vs. #2 BC looming large this weekend, but not the be all end all
● Boston Herald No.1 BU vs. No. 2 BC weekend has college hockey world buzzing
►The new BHB Terrier Hockey Talk Podcast features a BU-BC preview with Sam Stevens and a recap of the Women's Beanpot.
►Prior to Saturday’s BU-BC game, there will be a pre-game
dinner for Alumni and friends at the BU Fitness & Recreation Center (next
to Agganis Arena). The event begins at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are ($20 for adults,
$10 for kids 6-12) and must be purchased separately from game tickets. Register
at this
link.
► BU Director of Hockey Operations Doug Friedman has been named head coach of Team USA for the 2025 Maccabi Games in Israel. He'll coach the Open Men's division team consisting of players born between 1986 and 2006. Prior to joining the BU staff, he was program director and head coach of the Twin City Thunder in the USPHL and previously athletic director and head coach at Kent's Hill School.
Friedman captained BU's 1993-94 squad that won the Hockey East championship and advanced to the NCAA title game.
Looking ahead
2024 recruit Michael Chambre stopped 35 shots, including a penalty shot, to lead Sioux Falls to a 4-3 overtime win over Dubuque. Chambre has won five of his last six starts and now has 14 wins. Stampede forward and 2025 recruit John McNelis recorded his 15th assist to extend his points streak to seven games.
tw-align-centerhaha nice https://t.co/SfJCCJZjxN pic.twitter.com/2Fcve5pRKL
— Sioux Falls Stampede (@sfstampede) January 26, 2024
Looking back
Charlie Coyle assisted on the overtime game-winner as Boston edged Ottawa, 3-2. Coyle and Charlie McAvoy also assisted on a first-period goal.
Clayton Keller scored his 20th goal and added his 25th assist, but the Coyotes were doubled up by Tampa Bay, 6-3.
Nick Bonino, in his 15th NHL season, has been place on waivers by the New York Rangers. He had signed a one-year, free-agent deal with New York last summer. Bonino is one of four Terriers to win both an NCAA championship and the Stanley Cup, along with Chris Drury, Kevin Shattenkirk and Jay Pandolfo. He was a member of BU's 2009 "DC Miracle" championship team and then won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017.
● NHL.com report
Women's Team
● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, BU All-Access (audio), BU Women's Hockey Twitter
● Boston Hockey Blog preview
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