Top-10 Series On Tap this Weekend

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – This weekend, the top two teams in the Hockey East standings meet for a home-and-home series between Top-10 teams. The third-ranked Boston College women's hockey team will host No. 10 Providence on Friday, Jan. 26, at Kelley Rink. On Saturday, Jan. 27, the series shifts to Providence where the Friars will host the Eagles at Schneider Arena.

Friday's game will start at 6 p.m., and the game will be streamed live on ESPN3, which is available at WatchESPN.com and on the ESPN app. Saturday's game is set for 2 p.m., and will be streamed on friars.com.

Boston College (22-2-3, 15-1-3 HEA) and Providence (14-7-6, 10-3-4 HEA) come into the weekend after tight series last weekend.

For BC, the Eagles needed overtime to claim a 3-2 win over Vermont last Friday, and then two third-period goals from Toni Ann Miano to take a 2-1 comeback win over the Catamounts on Saturday. Last weekend at New Hampshire, the Friars and Wildcats played to a 2-2 tie on Friday night before UNH earned a 1-0 win on Saturday.

BC and Providence are two of the three Hockey East teams ranked this weekend, with Maine (16-7-3, 10-4-2) ranked No. 9 in both polls and sitting in third place in the league standings with 22 points, two points back of the Friars with a game in hand on PC and 11 points behind BC with three games in hand of the Eagles.

This weekend's games will wrap up the teams' three-game Hockey East series. The programs met earlier this year at Kelley Rink, with the Eagles claiming a 7-4 win on Nov. 3. In that game, Providence opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game but BC extended a 3-1 lead by 14:14 of the first behind goals from Caitrin Lonergan, Miano and Daryl Watts. However, Providence used a Kate Friesen goal with 75 seconds left in the first and a Christina Putigna tally at 3:31 of the second to tie up the game at 3-3.

The Eagles scored three straight goals by midway through third before Brooke Boquist netted a shorthanded tally to pull the Friars within two at 6-4 with just over four minutes to play. However, Grace Bizal added a shorthanded, empty-net goal at 17:27 of the third to wrap up the scoring.

Providence leads the all-time series between the teams since BC elevated to varsity status in 1994-95, claiming a 36-32-3 record. PC won the first 16 meetings before the Eagles won their first-ever contest on March 3, 2002. Recently, BC has the edge in the series with a 22-3-0 mark since January 2011. Last year, Providence snapped the Eagles' 15-game winning streak with a 4-1 win at Schneider Arena on Feb. 18 in the teams' second-to-last game of the regular season.

Boquist leads 11 Friars in double figures in scoring, posting 24 points from 14 goals and 10 assists. Freshman Maureen Murphy has a team-high 17 goals and sits second in scoring with 22 points. Three of her goals are shorthanded strikes, which is tied for the national lead. In goal, Madison Myers has seen the majority of the time, playing 25 games. She has a 2.01 goals against average and a .925 save percentage to go with her 13-6-6 record.

For Boston College, senior goaltender Katie Burt comes into the weekend with 113 career victories, one shy of the NCAA record for career wins (114).

Following the Providence series, BC has a bye week in the schedule before opening play in the 40th Women's Beanpot on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The Eagles are hosting the 2018 tournament at Kelley Rink, and will face Northeastern in the opening round at 8 p.m. Boston University and Harvard will play the early game at 5 p.m. Tickets for the tournament are available at womensbeanpot.com.

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Players Mentioned

Grace Bizal

Katie Burt

Caitrin Lonergan

Toni Ann Miano

Daryl Watts