Boston College Athletics
Hockey Hosts Maine Friday In League Series Finale
January 14, 2010 | Men's Hockey
Jan. 14, 2010
Hockey East Association Contest
Fri., Jan. 15, 2010 - 7 p.m., Conte Forum/Kelley Rink (7,884), Chestnut Hill, Mass.
#12/#12 Boston College (11-6-2, 8-4-2 HEA)
vs. #16 Maine (11-7-2, 8-4-1 HEA)
Game Information
Date
Friday, January 15, 2010
Time
7:05 p.m. EST
Site (Capacity)
Conte Forum/Kelley Rink (7,884)
Drop The Puck
Boston College is coming off a 4-1 league victory over Providence on Tuesday, Jan. 12 and will host Maine in its second of three straight home games on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 at 7 p.m. The Eagles, who had lost three in-a-row since returning to action on New Year's Day 2010, are 11-6-2 and 8-4-2 in Hockey East play. The team is currently in second place in the league standings, three points behind league-leading New Hampshire and one point ahead of the Black Bears. Maine enters Friday's game with a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2), including a 4-2 home win over Merrimack on Saturday, Jan. 9. The Black Bears are 11-7-2 overall and 8-4-1 in conference contests. Friday's game will mark the conclusion of this season's three-game Hockey East series.
Internet Video
The Boston College vs. Maine game will be video streamed live over the internet through CBS College Sports All-Access and will be available through Boston College's official athletics web site: http://bceagles.com
Internet Audio
ISP manages and produces all BC hockey broadcasts. Jon Rish (play-by-play) and Ken Hodge (color) will have the call, which is streamed live over the internet and available through Boston College's official athletics web site: http://bceagles.com
Real-Time Stats
Live in-game stats will be provided via Gametracker through each school's official athletics web sites.
Twitter Updates
Live in-game news updates on Boston College hockey are available through Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/bcsportsNews
Series Info
Boston College is 53-39-9 in the 101-game all-time series with Maine. The Eagles are 3-0-1 in its last four games against Maine and the senior class is 7-1-3 in 11 career match-ups, including a 4-0-1 record inside Conte Forum. Maine last beat BC at its home venue on Oct. 28, 2005.
Polls
Following its 3-2 loss to Boston University in Hockey East's Sun Life Frozen Fenway, BC checked in at #12 in both national polls - the USCHO.com poll and the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll. Maine is ranked #16 in the USCHO.com poll and is in the "Others Receiving Votes" category in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll.
USCHO.com PairWise
BC is ranked No. 13 in the latest USCHO.com PairWise rankings, while Maine checks in at No. 14.
Eagles, Black Bears To Close 2009-10 Series
Friday's game against Maine will be the last regular-season contest between the teams. The teams previously met twice in Orono at Maine's Alfond Arena in late November. BC defeated Maine 4-3 on Friday, Nov. 20 and the teams skated to a 3-3 tie the following night. Maine will be the second (of nine) Hockey East opponents to be cleared from the Eagles' 2009-10 slate. BC went 1-2-0 against Vermont this season.
We Will Be In Massachusetts
The team will not leave the state of Massachusetts until the first weekend in March for the Eagles' final weekend of the regular season, a home-and-home series with New Hampshire that begins in Durham, N.H. on March 5. BC will play its next 13 games in the Bay State.
York College Hockey News' Coach of the Decade
Coinciding with its announcement of the All-Decade Team that includes former Boston College star forward Nathan Gerbe, College Hockey News has selected Boston College's Jerry York as its Coach of the Decade, noting that York received a "slight nod over (Denver's) George Gwozdecky. Each coach - as well as Minnesota's Don Lucia - won two national titles in the decade. But for prolonged excellence for 10 years, no program has matched Boston College in that span, a team that also lost three national finals." Gerbe, a member of the Buffalo Sabres organization who starred on BC's teams from 2005-08, was named to College Hockey News' All-Decade Second Team. The time period used for selecting the All-Decade Team was the calendar years 2000-09. College Hockey News' notes that, "this means players that left college after 2001, were at a disadvantage. Most notably, this pertains specifically to Brian Gionta, who won the national championship with Boston College that year after a stellar college career. And it includes his defensive teammates, like Bobby Allen, Rob Scuderi and Brooks Orpik. None of them played enough in the 2000s, all just a year and a half."
Our Defense
Boston College is averaging a league-best 2.74 goals allowed per game through 19 games ... BC had used six defensemen regularly prior to an injury to freshman Patrick Wey at Denver (1/2); sophomore Malcolm Lyles has replaced Wey in the lineup in each of the last two games. Wey played in all 17 games and had three assists prior sustaining a broken right wrist ... Senior Carl Sneep leads all defensemen in games played with 134 while also leading the defensemen in points (15), goals (six) and assists (nine). Six-foot-three-inch freshman Brian Dumoulin leads BC's defensive corps with a +5 rating.
In Goal
John Muse, a junior, has played in 13 games while freshman goaltender Parker Milner has played in six games. Muse is 6-5-2 with a 2.83 GAA and an .895 save percentage, while Milner is 5-1-0 with a 2.34 GAA and a .895 save percentage. Boston College has implemented a rotation in the goal crease in the last 11 games.
Our Offense
The team has scored 66 goals in 19 games and is 10th among national leaders with a 3.47 goals per game average ... eight different players have scored four or more times, led by surging scorers Cam Atkinson and Brian Gibbons. Gibbons, who has scored one goal in four straight games, has six goals in the last eight games while Atkinson has 10 goals in the last 12 games.
The Power Play
The team ranks seventh in Hockey East and 21st among national leaders with a 20.2 percent conversion percentage (21-for-104). In the last four games, BC is 2-for-23 (8.7 percent) in man-advantage situations. BC's power play has scored at least one goal in 11 (of 19) games to date and has scored multiple power-play goals five times, including a season-high four goals twice - at New Hampshire (Nov. 6) and against Clarkson (Nov. 27). Forward Brian Gibbons (2-8--10) and defenseman Carl Sneep (4-5--9) are the team's top power-play point producers, while senior Ben Smith has a team-high five power-play goals.
The Penalty Kill
BC has killed 87.6 percent (85-of-97) of its opponents' power plays this season, including 25-of-27 chances over the last seven games. It ranks first in Hockey East and seventh among national leaders. The team has held its opponent scoreless on the power play seven times this season. Junior Brian Gibbons netted the team's first shorthanded goal of the season in a 4-3 loss at #2 Denver and sophomore Cam Atkinson tallied BC's second shorthanded goal in as many games against Boston University (1/8).
The Faceoff Circle
BC is averaging a win from the dot 52.7 percent of the time (603-of-1144). Freshman Pat Mullane leads all centermen with a 59.8 percent win rate, while centers Jimmy Hayes (54.0 percent) and Matt Price (50.4 percent) all own win rates equal to (or better than) 50 percent. Additionally, sophomore wing Cam Atkinson boasts a 58.8 percent win rate from the faceoff circle.
Last Time Out
Junior Joe Whitney tallied one goal and two assists while his linemates Cam Atkinson and Brian Gibbons each tallied one goal and one assist to lead No. 12 Boston College to a 4-1 victory over Providence. BC led 2-1 after two periods. Whitney gave BC a two-goal cushion - at 3-1 - early in the third period and senior Matt Lombardi concluded the scoring at 7:36 on his first of the season for the 4-1 final. BC took an early 2-0 lead on scores from Atkinson and Gibbons in a first-period in which the host Eagles outshot PC, 22-1. Whitney notched the primary assist on each.
Gibbons Goal Scoring Is Going
Brian Gibbons, a 5-foot-8-inch, 165-pound forward, has scored one goal in four straight games, including a shorthanded goal against the second-ranked Pioneers, and has six goals in BC's last eight games. The team's leader in points (22), assists (13) and shorthanded goals (one), Gibbons has at least one point in 14-of-19 games and at least two points six times.
Atkinson Attacks
Cam Atkinson, a 5-foot-8-inch, 175-pound forward, has tallied at least one point in eight of BC's last nine games and has scored at least one goal in seven of the last nine games. Atkinson, whose six-game scoring streak was snapped in the team's 4-3 loss at #2 Denver (6-2--8), scored in a shorthanded situation in the team's 3-2 loss to Boston University on Friday, Jan. 8 and tallied two points - one goal and one assist - in the team's 4-1 home win over Providence (1/12).
Kreider, US Capture Gold At World Juniors
BC freshman forward Chris Kreider and Team USA defeated Canada, 6-5, on Tuesday, Jan. 5 to win the 2010 World Junior Championship. Team USA's other gold medal at a World Junior Championship came in 2004, when the U.S. defeated Canada, 4-3, in Helsinki, Finland. Kreider, who scored the team's first goal in Tuesday's gold-medal game, finished with seven points - six goals and one assist - in seven games and a +6 rating. A 6-foot-2-inch, 206-pound forward from Boxford, Mass., Kreider's six goals ranked third among all players at the World Junior Championship behind only Canada's Jordan Eberle and Sweden's Andre Petersson, who both scored eight times in six games. Kreider scored the winning goal in leading the United States to a 3-0 victory over Switzerland on Monday, Dec. 27, and had a hat trick, including one on a penalty shot, in a 12-1 win over Latvia on Tuesday, Dec. 29.
