Needing a win to clinch home ice in the Hockey East quarterfinals, the Boston University men's ice hockey team visits Maine on Saturday (March 9) for the regular-season finale. The game, which starts at 7:30 p.m., will be televised on FOX College Sports Atlantic.
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BU enters Saturday in fifth place in the Hockey East standings and will face UMass Lowell in the Hockey East quarterfinals. A win against Maine will allow BU to host the River Hawks while a loss or tie Saturday means the Terriers will visit UMass Lowell for the best-of-three series. The Terriers have hosted the league quarterfinals in 12 of the previous 14 seasons.
The Terriers are on a five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1), tying a season high, and will attempt to close the regular season with a .500 record. BU and Maine have identical 14-15-4 overall records.
The Terriers and Black Bears are meeting for the third time this season after splitting a weekend series at Agganis Arena back in November. The rivals have played 132 times since first meeting in the 1923-24 season, and BU holds a 66-53-13 edge (.549), including a 26-11-5 advantage since the beginning of the 2005-06 season. The Terriers have won eight of the past 11 meetings and are 25-24-7 (.509) in the 56 meetings that have taken place at Alfond Arena.
Maine had a five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1) snapped last Saturday in a 6-0 loss at Massachusetts. The Black Bears are locked into the No. 6 seed for the Hockey East quarterfinals for the second consecutive year. Â
Junior forwards Mitchell Fossier (7g, 27a) and Chase Pearson (15g, 12a) have combined for 61 points to lead Maine's scoring attack. Sophomore defenseman Brady Keeper (5g, 13) has recorded 18 points while sophomore Eduards Tralmaks (8g, 9a) and junior Tim Doherty (8g, 8a) have chipped in 17 and 16 points, respectively. Â
Sophomore Jeremy Swayman, who has won three of his four starts against BU, has started all 33 games this year and has a 2.82 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.
BU split a weekend home series with Maine on Nov. 16-17, earning a 3-2 win in the opener before falling 3-1 the following night. In the opener, BU scored on three of its final four power plays, capped by sophomore David Farrance's game winner with 1:11 left in regulation. Senior Bobo Carpenter and freshman Joel Farabee also scored in the win.Â
After making 39 saves on Friday, Maine's Jeremy Swayman turned in a 40-save performance in the Black Bears' win the following night. Pearson (2g, 1a) and Fossier (1g, 2a) each had three-point nights while Carpenter got his second goal of the weekend for the Terriers.
Carpenter has eight points, including six goals, in nine career games against Maine while junior Chad Krys has six assists in seven games versus the Black Bears.
After both achieving a feat that no Terrier defenseman had accomplished in nearly 21 years, Krys and d-partner Dante Fabbro were named the Hockey East Co-Players of the Week on Monday. In BU's 5-1 victory over Merrimack, the two juniors each had a hand in all five goals, becoming the first BU blueliners since Chris Kelleher on March 14, 1998, to put up five points in a game. Fabbro is the only player in the country to have have 30 or more points and 70 or more blocked shots this season.
Farabee ranks third nationally in points per game among rookies at 0.94 and leads all Hockey East freshmen in points in league play with 24 (7g, 17a).
Junior Jake Oettinger is currently the hottest goaltender in the country, posting a .981 save percentage and a 0.60 goals-against average over his past five starts, including a pair of shutouts.Â
BU is first in the country in shorthanded goals with 10 and they have been scored by seven different players. The last time BU had 10 shorthanded goals with the 2009-10 season.
