Series Finale Closes Out against Providence Friday Night

BOSTON COLLEGE vs. PROVIDENCE
Boston College and Providence close out the three-game regular season series on Friday, Jan. 12 at Kelley Rink. This marks the first closure of BC's four three-game Hockey East series. With the departure of Notre Dame, Hockey East has had each team play four other programs three times. For the Eagles, those four teams are Providence, UConn, Lowell and Maine. In the last meeting against the Friars on Oct. 27 on The Heights, Connor Moore scored his first goal of the season but PC responded with a pair in the second and the Eagles never responded. In the first meeting at Schneider Arena on Oct. 15, Casey Fitzgerald netted the overtime winner 69 seconds into the extra session to give the Eagles their first win of the season. The Eagles went down 3-0 early before Boston College rattled off four unanswered goals as Fitzgerald had a pair, including the game winner, alongside Christopher Grando and Graham McPhee. In the last 29 games overall, dating back to 2008, Boston College has dominated Providence, owning a 22-3-4 mark. BC posted a 15-0-2 mark from March 14, 2008 to March 1, 2013 against the Friars. Before beating BC in 2013, Providence had not won in Chestnut Hill since Oct. 31, 2006. Overall, the Eagles own a significant margin in the overall series, 113-49-14, and a 61-25-12 mark in Hockey East play. Since Nate Leaman arrived in Providence, Jerry York has had his number, owning a 10-4-1 mark over the Friar skipper.

FRIAR FOCUS
Providence skates into Friday's series finale on a four-game winning streak, and in dominating fashion. The Friars have thrashed their last four opponents by a combined goal total of 18-3, with a Three Rivers Tournament title in Pittsburgh and triumphs over Brown and Merrimack last week. Junior forward Erik Foley has been dominating, scoring at a clip of 1.30 points per game (12-14-26), 12th best in college hockey. Both offense and defense are near the top of the pack as the 11th-ranked offense in the NCAA is scoring at a rate of 3.32 goals per game. The defense, anchored by goaltender Hayden Hawkey (14-7-0 | 2.26 | .912), is surrendering only 2,27 goals per game, 10th best in all of college hockey.

HIGH-FLYIN' FIN
Sophomore forward Julius Mattila continued his high-scoring pace in Las Vegas by extending his point streak to nine three points in the Ice Vegas Invitational. He is one of three Eagles tied for the team lead with six goals and leads the Eagles with 18 points (6-12-18). During his hot streak, Mattila has accrued 14 points (5-9-14) amidst his nine-game tear and notched at least one point in 10 of his last 12 games.

CAN'T KEEP UP WITH COTTON
Sophomore forward David Cotton has meshed together a five-game point streak of his own and stayed hot the latter part of the first half of the season. The Parker, Texas native tallied his fifth goal of the season on Jan. 6 to account for at least one point in eight of his last nine outings, including four multi-point performances in that run. The second-year winger is now second on the team in scoring with 16 points (5-11-16) through 21 outings.

ALL IN
Sophomore forward Graham McPhee returned to familiar territory this past weekend at the IceVegas Invitational at T-Mobile Arena. His father, George, who played for Jerry York at Bowling Green, is the general manager of the Vegas Golden Knights. On Jan. 5, McPhee scored his third power play goal of the season and his team-leading sixth goal of the year. The following night, accounted for a pair of assists against Northern Michigan on Jan. 6, marking his third multi-point performance of the season.

DOWN A MAN ... DON'T MATTER
Junior captain Christopher Brown scored Boston College's third short-handed goal of the season on Jan. 6 against Northern Michigan. It marked his first short-handed goal of the season and second of his career. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich. native is now tied for the team lead in goals scored with six. Christopher Grando and Julius Mattila have also scored short-handed tallies this season.

EDDIE THE EAGLE
Sophomore goaltender Ryan Edquist secured his first-career shutout on Dec. 30 via 23 saves against UConn in his fourth start of the season, tenth of his career. The Lakeville, Minn. native's shutout marks BC's first shutout of the season and first shutout for the Eagles since Joseph Woll blanked Vermont on March 10, 2017. Edquist also stopped a career-best 42 shots at St. Cloud on Oct. 20. The Lakeville, Minn. native came in with 1.6 seconds left at Merrimack and made a game-tying save to preserve an Eagle victory. Edquist is 3-2-1 on the season with a .927 save percentage and a 2.11 goals against average.

DEFENDING THE NEST
Boston College's defense continues to limit the opposing lamp being lit as BC is now limiting its opponents to 2.81 goals per game. That number is tied for 23rd, nationally, and fifth overall in the conference. Over the course of the last 13 games, BC has given up four or more goals on only four occassions.

CASE'N THE JOINT
Captain Casey Fitzgerald is BC's leading scoring defenseman (4-8-12), which is tied for 50th, nationally, an 12th in the conference. The junior leads the Eagles in shots on goal (66), tied for the lead in blocked shots (24) and scored his first power play goal of the season on Jan. 6 vs. NMU.

THE BRICK WOLL
Sophomore backstopper Joseph Woll has stopped 369-of-411 shots faced in his first 15 outings for a .898 save percentage which is currently 60th in all of college hockey while his 2.90 goals against average ranks 40th in the game. Woll has stopped 1,281 - of - 1,410 shots faced (.909 save percentage) with a career mark of 2.72 goals against average. Woll was also one of 20 goalies named to the watch list for the 2018 Mike Richter Award, which annually honors the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA Division I men's hockey and is currently on his second run with Team USA at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship in Buffalo looking to capture gold once again.

LOOSE CHANGE
Graham McPhee accounted for a pair of assists against Northern Michigan on Jan. 6, marking his third multi-point performance of the season. On Jan. 5 against Michigan Tech, Casey Fitzgerald and Graham McPhee both scored power play goals, the first time this season Boston College scored a pair of extra-man goals in a game. Michael Kim also scored the Eagles' first extra attacker goal of the season against Michigan Tech on Jan. 5. Sophomore goaltender Ryan Edquist secured his first-career shutout on Saturday afternoon via 23 saves against UConn in his fourth start of the season, tenth of his career. The Lakeville, Minn. native's shutout marks Boston College's first shutout of the season and first shutout for the Eagles since Joseph Woll blanked Vermont on March 10, 2017.

ATOP THE LEADERBOARD
Boston College might have had a slow start in the non-conference slate, but the Eagles have responded rather thunderously in conference play. Winning nine of their first 12 games in the first half of Hockey East play, the Eagles are all alone in first place in the Hockey East standings by three points over Northeastern, having accrued 20 points with a 10-3 record to the early goings of the conference slate.

Series Finale Closes Out against Providence Friday Night

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Players Mentioned

Christopher Brown

David Cotton

Ryan Edquist

Casey Fitzgerald

Chris Grando

Michael Kim

Julius Mattila

Graham McPhee

Connor Moore

Joseph Woll