Game-day information: Game 26 vs. Boston University
When	Monday, Feb. 1, 8 p.m.
Where	Boston, Mass.  |  TD Garden  |  Directions
Broadcast and stats	TELEVISION: NESN / TSN / TSN3 Live Blog  |  Live Stats  |  Audio  |  Tickets
Notes and yearbook	Game Notes  |  2015-16 Yearbook
Promotions	n/a
Social media	@GoNUmhockey  facebook.com/GoNUmhockey instagram.com/GoNUathletics  Use GoNU and Beanpot

BOSTON -- Riding a six-game winning streak, tied for the sixth longest in team history, the Northeastern men's ice hockey team squares off with No. 9/10 Boston University in the 64th Beanpot tournament on Monday at TD Garden. The Huskies and Terriers are meeting for the 41st time in Beanpot history in a rematch of last year's championship game. NU is 8-32 all-time against BU in the Beanpot, including a 3-17 mark in the semifinal.
 
Huskies vs. Terriers in the Beanpot
Northeastern and Boston University will be meeting in the Beanpot for the second straight season, and 41st time in tournament history. The Terriers lead the series, 32-8, including a victory against NU in last year's championship game. Monday marks the 21st time that the teams will meet in the semifinals, with BU leading that series 17-3. Each of the last three Beanpot games between the two teams have been decided by one goal.
 
Northeastern in the Beanpot semifinals
Entering the 64th annual Beanpot, the Huskies will be looking to return to the championship game for the 18th time in team history. Northeastern is 17-46 all-time in semifinal games, and 4-1 in the last five semifinal games. A win on Monday would send Northeastern into the championship game for the fourth straight season for the first time in team history.
 
Madigan and the Beanpot
Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan played and coached in the Huskies' golden era of Beanpot success. Madigan has direct involvement with three of NU's four Beanpot championships, two as a student-athlete (1984, 1985) and one as an assistant coach (1988).
 
Madigan actually scored a goal in one of Northeastern's two victories over BU in the Beanpot, including the 4-3 victory on Feb. 8, 1983. Trailing 3-0, Madigan scored the Huskies' first goal, sparking a four-goal flurry for the win. As a head coach, Madigan is 3-5 in four seasons.
 
Rest for the weary
With no games scheduled for the weekend prior to the Beanpot, the Huskies will have eight days be- tween its last game and the tournament semifinal. It marks just the fourth time in team history (1986-87, 2013-14, 2014-15), that NU has gone more than a week without playing a game before the Beanpot semifinal. Northeastern reached the championship game in each of those seasons.
 
Fifth time's a charm?
NU coaches in their fifth season at the helm have never placed higher than second in the Beanpot. Ben Smith and Greg Cronin are the lone coaches to lead team to the championship game (2010 and 1996). Below is a list of finish and year of each head coach in his fifth season:
 
• Jim Bell (1960 – third place)
• Fernie Flaman (1975 – third place)
• Ben Smith (1996 – second place)
• Bruce Crowder (2000 – third place)
• Greg Cronin (2010 – second place)
 
Coming in hot
Northeastern enters the Beanpot riding a six-game winning streak, which is tied for the fifth longest winning streak in team history. It marks the longest winning streak entering the Beanpot in program history. The previous long was three games, which occurred in 2012, 1995 and 1973.
 
Monday Night Roy
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. Roy became the first Beanpot MVP of a second-place team since Boston University's Sean Fields in 2004. Roy was the Huskies' fifth-ever MVP and Northeastern's first since Bruce Racine took home the award in 1988.
 
Roy became the first rookie skater to net a hat trick in his first Beanpot appearance since Boston College's Krys Kolanos on Feb. 7, 2000, in a 6-1 win over NU. The Lac-Beauport, Quebec, native became the first Husky to score a hat trick in the Beanpot since Mike Ryan netted three against Harvard on Feb. 8, 2002. Roy was also the first freshman to score the opening goal of the Beanpot since Boston College's Brock Bradford on Feb. 6, 2006. Roy followed that up with another Monday night performance of two goals in the championship game vs. Boston College.
 
Last season, Roy posted one goal and two assists, and is Northeastern's active leader in career Beanpot scoring with seven goals and four assists in six games. Should Roy have another strong tournament, he could become the fourth player in tournament history to take home two Beanpot MVP honors, and first player since Sean Fields in 2003 and 2004.
 
With 11 points, Roy needs one point to crack the top-25 in career Beanpot scoring. He would join Boston College's Steven Whitney as the only players to reach the top-25 since the turn of the millennium.
 
The rookie's time to shine
Freshman goaltender Ryan Ruck has earned the start between the pipes for the Huskies in each of the last 10 games. Should he start the Beanpot semifinal against BU, he would be the first Husky rookie to start in goal in a Beanpot game since Chris Rawlings in 2010.
 
The all-time series with the Terriers
The Huskies and Terriers will meet for the 227th time on Monday, which is tied with Boston College for Northeastern's most-faced opponent in team history. The all-time series with Boston University has been unkind to the Huskies as BU leads 58-160-8.
 
The teams met earlier this season for a home-and-home set in November, with Boston University taking both matchups. On Nov. 6 at Agganis Arena, the Huskies scored four second period goals to take a 4-3 lead through 40 minutes, but the Terriers responded with two more in the third to skate to a 5-4 win. Dylan Sikura led NU with a career-high three points (one goal, two assists).
 
The next night in front of a sellout crowd at Matthews Arena, NU received a career-high 30 saves from Ryan Ruck, but the Huskies could not climb out of a 2-0 second period deficit, ultimately falling to BU, 4-1.
 
Scouting Boston University
Boston University comes into the Beanpot unbeaten in four straight (3-0-1), all against league foes. The Terriers are 14-7-4 overall this season, and its 8-4-3 mark in Hockey East is good for a tie for fourth in Hockey East. The Terriers are ninth in the nation averaging 3.58 goals per game this season, and have scored two goals or fewer in just one game since the start of January.
 
Danny O'Regan leads the team with 29 points this season (eight goals, 21 assists), which is tied for 22nd in the country. The senior forward is also second in the nation in career points (57-82-139) among active skaters. Trailing close behind is fellow senior Ahti Oksanen with 28 points (14 goals, 14 assists) as the two head up a BU senior class that is fifth in the country in senior class scoring (43-51-94).
 
Sean Maguire has received each of the last eight starts in goal for the Terriers, going 5-1-2 in those games. Overall, he is 7-4-1 on the year with a 2.33 goals against average and .921 save percentage. In both games against Northeastern earlier this season, Connor Lacouvee got the start in goal.
 
Streaking
Northeastern enters Monday's game unbeaten in each of its last eight games (7-0-1), which is currently tied for the second longest active winning streak in the nation and tied for the sixth longest unbeaten streak in team history.
 
During NU's unbeaten streak, the Huskies are outscoring its opponents by more than two goals per game. It's 3.88 goals per game ranks in a tie for ninth in the nation in that span, while its 1.62 goals against per game is tied for sixth.
 
Northeastern's power play, meanwhile, is clicking at 22.9% (8-of-35) in the last eight games.
 
Guess who's back, back again
Jan. 22 marked the return of senior captain Kevin Roy, who had missed 12 games with an upper body injury. Roy returned to the lineup and logged an assist and a +2 rating in his first game in more than two months. Roy has an assist in each of his last three games played (a span of 72 days).
 
Also returning to the lineup is senior Dustin Darou, who missed the first 19 games of the season following a lower body injury suffered at the Travis Roy Wiffeball Tournament last summer. Darou scored the game-winning goal in last year's Beanpot semifinal before netting the game-tying goal in the title game against Boston University.
 
When you're hot, you're hot
Mike McMurtry carries a nine-game point streak into Monday night's game. The senior winger has three goals and 11 assists in his last nine games, which is a career-long. Freshman Adam Gaudette has also been hot of late, and has three goals and nine assists in his last six games. Zach Aston-Reese, meanwhile, has points in 10 of his last 12 games (five goals, nine assists) and 17 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in his last 16 games.
 
Gaudette earns Hockey East weekly honors
After posting three points to help lead Northeastern to a weekend sweep of Merrimack, freshman center Adam Gaudette was named the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on Monday.
 
Gaudette scored a power play goal and added two assists for the Huskies last weekend. On Friday night, he recorded a pair of assists in a 5-2 win on the road before scoring the game's first goal the following night as Northeastern picked up four crucial points in the league standings. In doing so, the Braintree, Massachusetts native extended his point streak to a career-long seven games (three goals, nine assists). Gaudette is fourth on the team with 17 points this season (six goals, 11 assists), which is tied for seventh in Hockey East and tied for 18th nationally in points among rookie skaters.
 
On the road again
The Huskies have been logging some serious windshield time this season. NU has visited Minneapolis (1,392 miles each way), South Bend (893 miles each way), Belfast (nearly 3,000 miles each way), and Canton (364 miles), among others, since October.
 
Northeastern will conclude the regular season having traveled 12,488 miles, according to the New England Hockey Journal, after trips to New Hampshire, Merrimack, UMass Lowell, UMass and UConn to end the regular season.
 
Recapping the Jan. 23 win vs. Merrimack
Northeastern used goals from four different scorers and 15 stops from Ryan Ruck to skate to a weekend sweep of Merrimack (7-13-5, 2-7-5) on Jan. 23 at Matthews Arena, 4-1.
 
The Huskies never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a goal from Adam Gaudette before Brett Seney tied things up in the second period. From there it was all Huskies, with Nolan Stevens, Dylan Sikura and Zach Aston-Reese all scoring for the hosts.
 
NU used a 2-of-6 performance on the power play to set the tone for the evening, with Gaudette and Sikura both potting goals on the man advantage. Northeastern outshot the Warriors 25-16 in the game, and was perfect on the penalty kill yet again, going 5-of-5. Collin Delia made 21 stops for Merrimack.
 
The Ruck stops here
Freshman netminder Ryan Ruck made his collegiate debut on Oct. 17 at Bentley, making six saves in relief of Derick Roy in the third period. Ruck arrived at Northeastern after playing for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL for two seasons, posting a 3.17 goals against average and a .903 save percentage in 33 games in 2014-15.
 
Ruck followed that up with a 21 save effort at Minnesota on Oct. 23, including an early candidate for save of the year, which was the No. 2 play on SportCenter's Top Plays of the night.
 
The rookie has a 2.47 goals against average and .906 save percentage in 21 games this season, and was named the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week following a 26-save performance against Michigan State on Dec. 19, earning his first collegiate victory.
 
Over the last eight games, Ruck is 7-0-1 with a 1.61 goals against average and .935 save percentage. His .938 winning percentage in his last eight games leads the nation in that span. On Jan. 8 at No. 13 St. Lawrence, he made 24 stops to pickup his first collegiate shutout.
 
Winner winner, chicken dinner
Freshman Lincoln Griffin has four goals and two assists on the season, including three game-winning goals, which is tied for the nation's lead in game-winning goals among rookie skaters. Should Griffin finish the year with the team-lead in GWG, it would be the third time in the last four seasons that a rookie has led the team in game-winners.
 
The road ahead
Northeastern will take on UMass Lowell on Friday, Feb. 5 at Tsongas Arena between Beanpot games. Puck drop is slated for 7:15 p.m. in the first game between the two clubs since the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland.