The series that college hockey fans have circled on their calendars all season is finally here. The Battle of Commonwealth Avenue will take center stage this weekend.
After meeting four times last season, No. 1 Boston University and No. 2 Boston College will resume their historic rivalry with an epic stretch that includes the traditional home-and-home series in Hockey East play and a Beanpot semifinal matchup.
This weekend, the Eagles will play host at Conte Forum on Friday night before the scene shifts to the Terriers’ Agganis Arena on Saturday. The teams will reconvene at TD Garden just over a week later in the Beanpot.
Here are five storylines to watch when the rivals meet this weekend.
The freshmen
We have to start with the star power. The top five scorers in Hockey East are all freshmen, including three who will take the ice in this marquee series.
BC’s Gabe Perreault is on a run of six consecutive multi-point games and now leads the conference with 27 assists and 34 points. While Eagle sophomore Cutter Gauthier has scored a league-high 16 goals, it’s BU’s special 17-year-old Macklin Celebrini who follows Perreault in points with 32, including six goals in his last four games.
The top local in the group is Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.), who finished last weekend’s series sweep of Merrimack with a six-game goal and point streak that gives him 31 points. Perreault, Smith and Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) form one of the most gifted lines in the country, having joined the Eagles from the U.S. National Team Development Program together.
LATEST PREP RANKINGS: There's a new No. 1 in boys prep and Salisbury gets a boost
Lots of NHL Draft picks
Both the Eagles and Terriers have 14 NHL draft picks on their rosters, the most among all Division 1 programs.
BC’s roster includes four first-round picks and six overall from the 2023 draft. Smith became the highest-ever draftee in program history when he was chosen fourth overall by the San Jose Sharks last summer. Oddly enough, the top scorer on his line is the lowest pick of the three, as the New York Rangers chose Perreault at No. 23.
BU boasts a first-rounder of its own in defenseman Tom Willander, who has often paired with Hockey East’s top-scoring blueliner Lane Hutson. Celebrini may gain top NHL Draft billing in June, as he tops NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings that were released earlier this month. After Celebrini, five of BU’s next six top scorers are sophomores, including Hutson and undrafted Jeremy Wilmer, a key playmaker who has a team-high 19 assists.
Goaltending gains
It should come as no surprise, but both teams have gotten some high-quality goaltending to help them climb to the top of the national heap. BC freshman Jacob Fowler and BU junior Mathieu Caron are both workhorses for their respective teams, sitting tied for second nationally with 16 wins apiece.
A playoff winner for the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms last year, Fowler has been the top freshman stopper in college hockey this season and ranks second overall in Hockey East with a .922 save percentage. The Florida native has given up two goals or fewer in 13 of his first 21 collegiate appearances and logged more than 30 saves in three of his last four.
Caron has rounded into form as the season has progressed after transferring from Brown, where he posted a .921 save percentage a year ago. Caron is a bit below that mark at .918 this year, but he has allowed just 10 goals for a .947 percentage across BU’s seven-game win streak. The Terriers have won 10 straight league games in regulation.
Quick trips
While the NCAA transfer portal has pushed to the forefront of the whole college athletics world in recent years, transferring from wearing scarlet and white to maroon and gold is certainly a big, unexpected change.
However, BC’s Jamie Armstrong (Warwick, R.I.) will don an Eagles sweater this weekend after spending the first four years of his college career on the east end of Commonwealth Avenue with the Terriers. The left winger has heated up of late, scoring his first goal of the season (Jan. 12 vs. Providence) before posting his second multi-point effort in a four-game span last Sunday against Merrimack.
BU has gained back a similar transfer in junior center Jack Hughes (Westwood, Mass.), who began his career at Northeastern and will experience his first taste of this rivalry series. Hughes has scored two of his three goals over the last five games.
BEST OF THE BEST: Top boys prep performers from Jan. 17-23
Rivalry rarities
The 290 all-time meetings between the archrivals have featured many memorable moments, but Friday’s game will be the first time they've ever met as the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams in the nation.
It's only the second time two Hockey East teams face off as No. 1 and No. 2 since USCHO.com's Top 20 Poll was established in 1997, as No. 2 New Hampshire beat No. 1 BC 3-2 in overtime on Nov. 19, 2002. The Eagles will be looking to reverse that trend on their home ice on Friday.
Neither team has won three straight in the series since 2017, when BU did it en route to a Beanpot title.
