Boston College Men's Hockey vs Quinnipiac Opponent Preview: Just a Minute

The Boston College men’s hockey program is just a day and a few hours away from making its 2025-26 season debut against Quinnipiac in Conte Forum. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. EST and will be televised on ESPN+.

The Bobcats enter the matchup as the No. 13 squad in the initial USCHO NCAA Division I hockey rankings, while the Eagles are ranked No. 6.

Here is an overview of Quinnipiac’s roster and a preview of Friday’s season opener.

Forwards

Returning senior forward Jeremy Wilmer makes up for his lack of size with elite puck skills and a knack for positioning himself in the right places at the right times.

Wilmer (5-8, 165) led the Bobcats in points last season with 40 (15 goals, 25 assists) in 38 games played, including five power-play goals—good for fourth on the team. He generated four game-winning goals and spent only four minutes in the penalty box, but his plus-minus rating (-6) ranked in the bottom half of Quinnipiac’s roster.

The Bobcats also return junior Mason Marcellus (38 points, 10 goals, 28 assists), classmate Andon Cerbone (35 points, 15 goals, 20 assists), and sophomore Aaron Schwartz (30 points, 12 goals, 18 assists) to the offensive rotation. 

All three players eclipsed the total points mark of 30—only five players on QU’s roster surpassed this mark—in 2024-25 and are practically guaranteed to produce even more this year.

2024-25 leading goalscorer Jack Ricketts (20 goals), however—who transferred to Quinnipiac after playing four seasons at Holy Cross—is no longer in the NCAA, and graduate student Travis Treloar (36 points, 16 goals, 20 assists), a former Ohio State Buckeye before he joined QU’s ranks, has moved on from the program as well.

Defensemen

The Eagles will be facing one of their former defenseman, Charlie Leddy (6-3, 190), when the Bobcats visit Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Friday night. A former fourth-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils, Leddy played his first two collegiate seasons on the Heights until he transferred to QU for his junior campaign, in which he tallied a goal and 10 assists.

The Bobcats’ backline is anchored by returners Leddy, sophomores Elliott Groenewold (6-4, 215), Drew Hockley (6-4, 190), and Braden Blace (6-4, 195), but there are more newcomers in the unit than returners.

QU brought in Logan McCutcheon (5-10, 160), Brady Schultz (5-10, 190), Nate Tivey (6-5, 205), and Graham Sward (6-4, 195) as first-year members of the team, along with senior Will Gilson (6-1, 180) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institution (RPI).

Size is definitely a strength of the group, but the lack of experience among the Bobcats’ first-timers is going to be a challenge that head coach Rand Pecknold will have to navigate around.

Goaltenders

Unlike BC, which will feature a new goalie this season in Jan Korec, QU is returning its two primary starts from a season ago, juniors Dylan Silverstein (6-2, 190) and Matej Marinov (6-1, 170).

Silverstein played in the majority of the Bobcats’ games in 2024-25 (23 starts in 24 games played), but his goals against average (GAA) of 2.25 was ultimately worse than Marinov’s 1.75, which he manufactured in 15 starts and 17 total games.

Marinov also bested Silverstein in save percentage at .928 in comparison to .903, overall record at 12-3 to 12-9, and total shutouts, 3-2.

Outlook

The last time the Eagles and Quinnipiac faced off in a season opener came in the 2023-24 season. BC came out on top in overtime, 2-1, to kick things off in BC head coach Greg Brown’s second year at the helm of the program, in which the Eagles advanced all the way to the NCAA Division I men’s hockey Frozen Four Championship game—which they lost.

BC has not started its season at home since the year before that, when the Eagles fell to QU, 4-0, at the beginning of the 2022-23 season.

Since both programs are currently equipped with so much youth on their rosters, this matchup will provide a glimpse at how well their respective rosters can adjust to the speed of college hockey. BC has a total of six freshmen while the Bobcats have 10.

Prediction:

3-2 Boston College.