Everything you need to know when Irish hockey welcomes Boston College Friday

No. 1T/2 Boston College Eagles (9-2-1) vs. No. 18/18 Notre Dame (7-4-2)

When/Where: Friday, 4 p.m. at Lefty Smith Rink (4,852) in Compton Family Ice Arena, South Bend, Ind.

Radio: WZOC-FM (94.3) and UND.com. TV/Streaming: Peacock. Tickets: Available.

Coaches: Boston College, Greg Brown (23-18-7 in second season). … Notre Dame, Jeff Jackson (399-250-73 in 19^th season). 

Rivalry: Boston College leads 23-22-2 in series which began with 7-3 Eagles victory Dec. 20, 1969 at McHugh Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass. … In games played in South Bend, Boston College leads 10-8-1. … Notre Dame has won last two games: 8-2 on Jan. 19, 2022 at Compton and 5-2 on Nov. 25, 2022 at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill.

Last weekend: Notre Dame’s second Close encounter at Minnesota ends in 4-1 hockey loss

Rankings: Boston College is tied for No. 1 (with North Dakota) in USA Hockey/The Rink Live coaches’ poll and No. 2 in USCHO.com media poll. … Notre Dame is No. 18 in both polls.

Recaps: Boston College swept Hockey East home-and-home series with Connecticut. … On Friday in Chestnut Hill, Andre Gasseau scored two goals and later Cutter Gauthier scored game-tying goal at 6:16 of third period and game-winner at 4:28.6 in overtime as the Eagles won 5-4. … Saturday at Storrs, Conn., Jacob Fowler made 31 saves for his first collegiate shutout and the Eagles got goals from Will Smith, Gauthier and Oskar Jellvik in 3-0 victory over Huskies. … Notre Dame split Big Ten series in Minnesota. … On Friday, graduate goaltender Ryan Bischel made 32 saves, 16 in the second period, and the Irish got goals from Grant Silianoff, Patrick Moynihan, Drew Bavaro and Landon Slaggert in 4-2 victory. … Saturday, Bischel stopped 29 shots and freshman Carter Slaggert scored first collegiate goal, but Minnesota prevailed 4-1 despite being outshot by Irish 38-33.

Scouting Eagles: After opening with seven victories in first eight games, Eagles stumbled with 4-2 loss and 2-2 tie in Hockey East series at Maine Nov. 10-11. … Eagles have five players scoring in double figures through 12 games: freshman left wing Gabe Perreault (2-15-17), freshman center Will Smith (6-10-16), sophomore center Gauthier (11-4-15), freshman right wing Ryan Leonard (5-7-12) and sophomore left wing Jellvik (6-5-11). … Senior captain Eamon Powell (0-5-5) anchors defense in front of freshman goalie Jacob Fowler (2.14 goals-against average, .926 saves percentage).

NCAA statistics: Scoring offense, 3.67 goals per game (6^th); scoring defense, 2.25 goals per game (8^th); scoring margin, 1.42 goals per game (5^th); power-play percentage, 0.255 (12 of 47) (9^th); penalty-kill percentage, 0.915 (43 of 47) (4^th); faceoff win percentage, 0.480 (368-399) (48^th); penalty minutes per game, 8.92 (46^th).

Scouting Fighting Irish: Notre Dame had 5-0-2 unbeaten string snapped in loss Saturday at Minnesota.… Next Irish victory will be 400^th behind Notre Dame bench for Jackson. … Senior captain/left wing Landon Slaggert leads Irish in scoring with nine goals, four assists and 13 points. … Graduate-transfer (from Harvard) defenseman Ryan Siedem (1-9-10) is next followed by senior defenseman Drew Bavaro (4-5-9) and freshman center Danny Nelson (2-7-9). … Nelson is fifth in nation in faceoffs won with 153. … Graduate goaltender Ryan Bischel’s three shutouts tie him for nation’s lead with St. Cloud State’s Dominic Basse. … Bischel also is third in saves percentage (.936) and 11^th in goals-against average (2.08).

NCAA statistics: Scoring offense, 2.77 goals per game (38^th); scoring defense, 2.31 goals per game (11^th); scoring margin, 0.46 goals per game (23^rd); power-play percentage, 0.196 (9 of 46) (28^th); penalty-kill percentage, 0.884 (38 of 43) (7^th); faceoff win percentage, 0.529 (424-378) (14^th); penalty minutes per game, 8.69 (49^th).

B1G standings: 1. Michigan State 5-0-1, 16 points (10-3-1 overall); 2T. Wisconsin 4-2-0, 12 points (9-3-0 overall); 2T. Notre Dame 3-1-2, 12 points (7-4-2 overall); 4. Michigan 2-4-2, 9 points (6-6-2 overall); 5. Penn State 1-2-3, 8 points (6-4-3 overall); 6. Minnesota 2-3-1, 7 points (6-4-2 overall); 7. Ohio State 0-5-1, 2 points (3-5-3 overall). Conference series: Michigan State at Minnesota (Friday and Sunday). Non-conference series: Boston College at Notre Dame (Friday), Lindenwood at Penn State (Friday-Saturday), Princeton at Ohio State (Friday-Saturday), Michigan at St. Cloud State (Friday-Saturday), Alaska-Anchorage at Wisconsin (Friday-Saturday).

Quoting Jeff Jackson: (Boston College) “They are a lot different team than what we saw last Thanksgiving because they have that full line of freshmen (Perreault, Smith and Leonard) that came in from the national program who are all first-round (NHL) draft picks. Cutter Gauthier (sophomore center who was fifth pick of 2022 NHL Draft) may be a Hobey Baker finalist. And they are not weak on the back end (defensemen Powell, Charlie Leddy, Aram Minnetian and Drew Fortescue are NHL draft picks) and have one of the best freshmen goalies in the country (Fowler, 2023 third-round pick of Montreal). They are close to being the whole package.”

(Last weekend at Minnesota) “All in all, I thought we played well on Friday and maybe even better on Saturday. Their goaltender (Justen Close) played extremely well on Saturday. I think we’re doing some better things offensively. It’s one thing about getting chances; it’s another about finishing those chances. We need to get to (scoring) three goals a game.”

Next: Irish return to Big Ten competition when Michigan visits Compton Family Ice Arena on Friday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m.

– John Fineran, Tribune Correspondent