Eagles Head North to Maine for Weekend Set in Orono

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Boston College travels to Orono for a two-game series against Maine at Alfond Arena this weekend (Feb. 22-23). The teams face off on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on Fox College Sports. Pre-game radio coverage starts 15 minutes prior to faceoff on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com.

SETTING THE SCENE
• The Eagles had a seven-game winning streak against the Black Bears snapped last month as Maine came into Kelley Rink and earned a 7-2 road win on a Wednesday night
• BC has won nine of the last 11 meetings against Maine and hasn't lost in Orono since Jan. 18, 2015
• Boston College is trying to snap a four-game losing streak, while Maine is 3-1-1 over its last five
• Last February, Joseph Woll earned a 33-save shutout at the Alfond in a 5-0 Eagles win

HOCKEY EAST LOGJAM
• Heading into the final three weekends of the Hockey East regular season, just five points separate second place from eighth place in the league standings
• Boston College currently sits in fifth place with 21 points, three behind both UMass Lowell and Providence who are tied for second and two behind fourth-place Northeastern
• Maine is only one point behind BC in a tie for sixth with Boston University, while eighth-place UNH is two points behind the Eagles but owns the tiebreaker with a 1-0-1 head-to-head record
• Among the top-8, all but two teams have played 19 league games (Maine and Providence have played 20)
• UConn and Vermont are both seven points out of the eighth and final playoff spot with four games left

SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS
• Maine enters the weekend tied for sixth in the Hockey East standings with Boston University, one point behind the Eagles for fifth place (BC has a game in hand)
• The Black Bears are 3-1-1 in their last five games and took three of four points from a road series against Merrimack last weekend in North Andover
• Chase Pearson leads the team in goals (15) and leads the entire league in faceoff wins (364); Mitchell Fossier paces the squad with 31 points and 26 assists and ranks fifth nationally in assists per game (0.87)
• Bruins draft pick Jeremy Swayman has played nearly every minute in net and owns a 12-14-4 record, 2.81 goals against average, and .919 save percentage
• Maine has percentages of 16.3% on the power play and 84.8% on the kill, which is 13th in the country this season
• Red Gendron is in his sixth year as the head coach in Orono; his Black Bears are 7-7-1 playing at Alfond Arena this season

SERIES HISTORY
• The schools are meeting for the 126th and 127th times in the all-time series with Boston College holding a 69-47-9 overall advantage over the Black Bears
• BC had a seven-game winning streak against Maine snapped last month on Jan. 16
• The Black Bears' 7-2 win at Conte Forum was its first against Boston College since Jan. 18, 2015 and its first at Kelley Rink in almost six years
• Head coach Jerry York is 11-3-0 head-to-head against Gendron

LAST YEAR AGAINST MAINE
• The Eagles played the Black Bears for three straight games last February, earning a 5-0 shutout at Alfond Arena before sweeping Maine 6-3 and 2-1 at home
• David Cotton registered at least one point in all three games (1-3-4), linemate Logan Hutsko posted two goals and three assists, and Michael Kim had four assists
• Woll went 3-0-0 with a .957 save percentage and a road shutout

FIRST MEETING
• Maine used a three-goal second period back on on Jan. 16 to seize control against Boston College en route to a 7-2 victory in Hockey East play at Kelley Rink
• The Black Bears had seven different goal scorers on the night and snapped their seven-game losing streak to the Eagles, which dated back to 2015
• David Cotton and Jack McBain scored the two Boston College goals on the night, while Ryan Edquist made his second start of the year in net and finished with 33 saves
• Jeremy Swayman stopped 34 shots as he picked up the victory for Maine, which finished with 42 shots and won the faceoff battle 33-29

IRON MEN
• Senior captains Christopher Brown and Casey Fitzgerald both skated in their 140th career games last Friday
• Brown and Fitzgerald are trying to become the 46th and 47th BC players to skate in 150 NCAA games
• The duo has combined to miss just 12 games in their respective careers
• The last Eagles to reach the 150 plateau were Casey's older brother Ryan and Austin Cangelosi in 2017
• JD Dudek is set to skate in his 140th collegiate game on Friday at Maine in the series opener

POWERING UP
• During Hockey East play, the Boston College power play (23.4%) ranks second in the conference
• BC's power play unit has gone 9-for-37 in the last eight games (24.3%) following an 0-for-17 stretch
• Boston College is tied with UNH for the lowest number of power play attempts in Hockey East (98)
• The Eagles rank third in the league in team discipline with just 9.6 PIM per game

UP NEXT
• Next weekend, BC faces 12th-ranked Northeastern in a home-and-home series, beginning with Senior Night at Kelley Rink on Friday, March 1 at 7 p.m. on the Heights

Eagles Head North to Maine for Weekend Set in Orono

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Players Mentioned

Christopher Brown

Austin Cangelosi

David Cotton

JD Dudek

Ryan Edquist

Casey Fitzgerald

Logan Hutsko

Michael Kim

Jack McBain

Joseph Woll