Pair at Maine Closes Regular-Season

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The third-ranked Boston College women's hockey team will close out its regular-season schedule this weekend, traveling to face No. 10 Maine in a two-game series at Alfond Arena, in Orono, Maine. Both games will be streamed live on goblackbears.com.

The two teams met once already this season, with BC claiming a 7-2 win at Kelley Rink on Oct. 29. This weekend's series will close the three-game regular-season series and will have large implications on the top half of the Hockey East standings.

Maine comes into the weekend in third place in Hockey East with 26 points, one point back of second-place Providence (27 points). Maine will look to post its best-ever conference finish by taking points this weekend as the Black Bears have never finished higher than third in the Hockey East standings. While Maine has two games remaining, Providence only has a single contest.

Entering the final weekend of league play, the only place that is locked into standings is BC's first-place finish. Places two through nine are all up for grabs as the top eight teams jockey for playoff positioning.

This weekend, Providence has a single game against Northeastern at home on Sunday. That results could send the Friars as high as second and as low as fourth in the final standings.

Fourth-place New Hampshire is set to face Boston University in a home-and-home series this weekend. UNH sits one point ahead of Northeastern, claiming fourth place by a single point over the Huskies. NU will face Vermont at home on Friday before Sunday's game against the Friars.

In the bottom half of the standings, just three points separate places six through nine. Vermont comes into the final weekend in sixth place with 18 points, but BU sits seventh with 17 and UConn in eighth with 16. Merrimack is currently looking into the playoffs from the outside, seated in ninth place with 14 points. However, the bottom two teams will meet in a home-and-home series this weekend with the higher finisher earning a Hockey East Quarterfinal berth against BC next weekend.

While playoff positioning is the key storyline of the weekend, BC freshman Daryl Watts comes into the weekend in reach of the Hockey East single-season scoring record set by Northeastern's Kendall Coyne in 2015-16. Coyne posted 55 points that season and Watts comes into the weekend with 51 points and averaging 2.32 points per game in conference games. In the season's earlier meeting between BC and Maine, Watts posted four points (two goals and two assists). She is also one goal back of Coyne's single-season goals record in league play (30), coming into the weekend with 29 goals in conference action this year.

Additionally, Caitrin Lonergan has a shot at the league's single-season assist mark. She comes into the weekend with 27 assists, five back of Alex Carpenter's league-record 32 in 2015-16.

Next week, BC will formally open Hockey East Tournament action. The Eagles will host the eighth seeded team in the best-of-three series at Kelley Rink. Faceoffs on Friday, Feb 23 and Saturday, Feb. 24, will be at 2 p.m., with the if-necessary game set for Sunday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. at Kelley Rink. All games in the series will be streamed live on ESPN3.

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Players Mentioned

Caitrin Lonergan

Daryl Watts