For the fourth-consecutive season, cross-town rivals Northeastern and Boston University will close out the Hockey East regular season with a home-and-home series. The Huskies have given the Terriers fits as of late, besting BU in the last three meetings, including Northeastern's first victory over Boston University in the Beanpot since the Huskies last hoisted the trophy on Feb. 8, 1988. Northeastern has not defeated BU in three straight meetings since a program-best eight-game winning spell that started on Feb. 23, 1987 and concluded on Jan. 17, 1989. All three NU victories have occurred in different venues (TD Garden, Agganis Arena, Matthews Arena). The last time the Huskies defeated BU at home, Vinny Saponari potted the overtime winner against his former club. The Huskies will be playing spoiler role in Friday's contest while BU fights for home ice in the upcoming Hockey East quarterfinals.

Rhett-oric
Boston University skates into Friday's contest at Matthews Arena two points out of home ice for the Hockey East quarterfinals. The No. 19 Terriers have won just twice in their last five games with a 5-2 loss to Vermont in their most recent outing. BU has nearly an identical home and away record, 8-7-1 and 8-6-1, respectively. Much like NU's rookie in Kevin Roy, first-year forward Danny O'Regan leads the Terriers in scoring with 0.91 points per game (12-18-30), good for 65th in the NCAA. O'Regan also ranks eighth amongst all rookies. Captain Wade Megan is one of six skaters in all of college hockey with three short-handed goals to help along BU's 27th-ranked penalty-killing unit (83.2 percent). The Terriers are averaging 2.94 goals per game (23rd in the country), but the defense has surrendered over three goals a game (3.06 gpg - 45th). BU is the sixth most penalized team with 15.5 PIMs per game.

Spoiler alert
Mathematically, Northeastern cannot make the Hockey East playoffs this season. The Huskies can still leapfrog Massachusetts for ninth place, but with Maine ahead of NU by five points with two games to play, Northeastern cannot sneak into that eighth spot. Northeastern looks to play the spoiler while its opponent, BU, fights to play at home for the playoffs next weekend.

Senior salute
Northeastern will honor six members of its senior class on Friday night as part of Senior Night. Skating in their final game at Matthews Arena will be Drew Ellement, Steve Morra, Vinny Saponari, Robbie Vrolyk and Chris Rawlings. Garrett Vermeersch will not dress for Friday night's game while Bryan Mountain, although a senior, still has a year of eligibility left and will return to the roster next season. Combined, these seniors have skated in 608 total games and have amassed 193 points (63-130-193) while Rawlings and Mountain has combined to stop 3,867 shots.

Rawlings rising in the record books
After his season-high 42-save performance against Maine on Jan. 11, Chris Rawlings surpassed Brad Thiessen's (2006-09) mark of 3,166 stops for the second most saves all-time at Northeastern and has amassed 3,462 career saves heading into Friday. Rawlings also surpassed Keni Gibson (2001-05) for the second-most games played in net in NU history (121). The North Delta, B.C., native needs 96 more saves to break Bruce Racine's (1984-88) school record of 3,557.

One away from 100
Vinny Saponari needs just one point over the course of the next two games to reach the 100-point mark for his career. Granted, NU's captain scored 47 of his 99 points as a member of Boston University. The last time a Husky scored 100 total career points was when both Wade MacLeod (61-76-137 – 20th all-time) and Tyler McNeely (44-61-105 – tied for 43rd all-time) met the benchmark in 2010-11. Saponari has accounted for 34 goals and 65 assists.

Century men
Senior Robbie Vrolyk and junior Braden Pimm both skated in their 100th-career game on Saturday at Maine. Pimm has accounted for 48 points in 100 games (22-26-48) while Vrolyk has amassed 32 points (20-12-32). Vinny Saponari (148), Garrett Vermeersch (130), Chris Rawlings (121) and Drew Ellement (119) have all eclipsed the 100-game plateau.

Raining on Boston University's reign
Before the Huskies' 3-2 victory over Boston University in the semifinal round of the 2013 Beanpot, Northeastern's last win against the Terriers in the tournament occurred the last time NU raised the 'Pot: Feb. 8, 1988. 9,128 days transpired between Beanpot wins against BU, snapping a 15-game BU winning streak. Northeastern's win against BU means this will be the first Terriers' graduting class to not win a Beanpot since 1965. With the semifinal win, NU has defeated BU three-straight times, marking the first time that's happened since the 1988-89 season.

Tough on the Terriers
Captain Vinny Saponari had scored the last two game-winning goals against his former club Boston University prior to NU's semifinal victory. The Powder Springs, Ga., native netted the walk-off winner in overtime against the Terriers in the season finale last year before marking the game-winner with 2:03 left in regulation on Jan. 18. Saponari has scored seven game-winning goals in his career and three as a Husky. The game-winner at Agganis Arena marked his first of the season.

Comm Ave. chronicles
Northeastern's six goals at BU on Jan. 18 are the most on Terriers' ice since Feb. 28, 2004 and most ever at Agganis Arena.

Ooooo...Saucy
Newcomer Colton Saucerman scored his first two career power play goals in a big spot, converting both the Huskies' markers in a 5-on-3 situation at Maine on March 2. The Colorado Springs, Colo., native also added an assist on Cody Ferriero's power play goal, counting for his first-ever multi-point performance as a Husky (2-1-3).

Your defense is offensive
Josh Manson's torrid offensive pace continued on Feb. 23 against PC. He scored his first three career goals in straight games from Feb. 19 to Feb. 23, including his first-career power play goal on Feb. 23. Manson not only netted his first goal in his 60th-career game on Feb. 19, but also notched his first-ever multi-point performance when he assisted on Robbie Vrolyk's game-tying goal.

Possessed on the power play
Cody Ferriero scored his seventh power play goal of the season on March 2. Ferriero's seven PPGs leads Hockey East and is tied for seventh amongst all NCAA skaters. Ferriero has scored a team-best 10 career power play tallies.

Don't hate the play (make) er
Vinny Saponari registered his second playmaker of the season, posting three assists on Saturday night at Maine on March 2. The Powder Springs, Ga., native's first playmaker occurred against Boston College in the Beanpot Tournament. Newcomer Mike McMurtry also turned the trick at UMass on Feb. 19.

Comeback kids
Facing a 4-3 deficit after two periods of play at UMass on Feb. 19, Northeastern won just its second game in four years after trailing through 40 minutes of play thanks to Josh Manson's walk-off winner. The last time the Huskies came back and won a game after facing a deficit heading into the third period was at UMass Lowell on Feb. 11, 2011, when Jamie Oleksiak scored the OT winner at 4:46 of the overtime frame.

Minuteman mauler
Senior Robbie Vrolyk had another breakout performance against Massachusetts on Feb. 19, accounting for his first-career three-point performance and his third-career two-goal game. All three of Vrolyk's two-goal performances have come against the Minutemen. He has posted eight goals in eight-career games against UMass.

Rookie ruler
Heading into Friday's game vs. BU, Kevin Roy is college hockey's top scorer amongst all first-year skaters. Roy's 1.17 ppg (34 points) are tops amongst all rookie skaters while his 0.59 goals per game is tied for first. Nationally speaking, Roy is seventh in the country in goals per game and 13th in points per game. Roy is tied for sixth in Hockey East scoring.

Mountain of a win
Bryan Mountain relieved Chris Rawlings to start the third period in Northeastern's 5-4 overtime victory at Massachusetts on Feb. 19. The Bryn Mawr, Pa., native picked up his first win of the season via seven saves through 24:04 minutes of work. Mountain won his second-career outing and first since beating Merrimack, 2-1, on Dec. 5, 2009, to help keep the Huskies in the playoff race.

Power play push
NU scored a power play goal in four-consecutive games from Feb. 8 to Feb. 16. That marks the first time that has happened this season and the first time since closing out the 2011-12 ledger with five-straight games from Feb. 18 to March 3, 2012.

MVP effort
After scoring five of Northeastern's six goals in the 2013 Beanpot Tournament, Kevin Roy added to his sterling freshman season by earning Beanpot MVP honors on Feb. 11. Roy became the first Beanpot MVP of a second-place team since Boston University's Sean Fields in 2004. Roy is the Huskies' fifth-ever MVP and Northeastern's first since Bruce Racine took home the award in 1988.

Rookie wrecking the record books
Kevin Roy has scored 34 points (17-17-34) in 29 games as a rookie. Roy's 30-point benchmark stands as the seventh-consecutive season an incoming Husky has scored 20 or more points in a season, starting in 2006-07 with Chad Costello (11-11-22). Roy is the fastest to 20 points as a rookie since Jason Guerriero hit that same mark in his 18th-career game (2001-02). Roy is now one point behind Jim Martel (1972-73) and Guerriero for seventh-best season all-time as a rookie.