BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The University of Maine men's hockey team will open up the 2017 Friendship Four Tournament tomorrow when it battles nationally ranked Providence in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The puck is set to drop on the Hockey East conference battle at 2:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. GT). The winner of the game will advance to Saturday's title tilt against either RPI or Clarkson of the ECAC Hockey conference.
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GAME INFORMATION
Game #11: Maine Black Bears vs. No. 10/11 Providence College Friars
DATE: Friday, Nov. 24, 2017
TIME: 7:00 p.m. GMT (2:00 p.m. EST)
SITE: SSE Arena – Belfast, Northern Ireland
2017-18 RECORDS: Maine 4-6-0 (3-3-0 HEA), Providence 7-4-1 (4-3-1 HEA)
Maine game notes
About the Black Bears  Â
• The Black Bears earned a Hockey East series split with No. 19 Boston University last weekend, winning at Alfond Arena on Friday night before dropping a tilt at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Saturday.
• UMaine earned a 5-2 win over the Terriers the first night on the strength of a 40-save performance from Jeremy Swayman and five goals from five different players, with Canon Pieper netting the first of his career.
• The Black Bears were 6-for-6 on the penalty kill while going 1-for-3 on the man-advantage.
• The Terriers came back strong on Saturday night to manage a split with a 7-0 win in Portland.
• UMaine played UMass Lowell closely on Nov. 3 but fell 3-2, despite freshman Emil Westerlund's first two career goals and a strong 24-save performance from
Rob McGovern.
• The next night, Maine scored six goals – including three in the second period – en route to a 6-2 win over the River Hawks.
• Maine hosted then No. 10/11 Minnesota Duluth for a two-game non-conference series the final weekend in October and went toe-to-toe with the Bulldogs both nights.
• On Oct. 27, the Black Bears battled back to tie the game on an Eduards Tralmaks goal in the third period before the Bulldogs potted the game-winner midway through the frame.
• The next night's game saw a 35-save performance from Swayman but a first period power-play goal proved to be the winner for the Bulldogs in the 2-0 affair.
About the Friars
• Providence enters Friday's contest on a three-game unbeaten streak after erasing a four-goal deficit on Nov. 18 to earn a 6-6 tie with Merrimack.
• The previous night, the 10th-ranked Friars topped Merrimack, 2-1, and in a 7-2 win over UMass on Nov. 11, the Friars notched five power-play goals.
• Providence has the nation's 17th-ranked power-play unit (22.6%) while the penalty kill unit is tied for 13th overall (85.5%).
• Erik Foley leads the team in points with 12 on a team-high six goals and six assists while Josh Wilkins is second with five goals and six assists for 11 points.
• Defenseman Jacob Bryson has a team-high eight helpers and also has one goal to sit third in points with nine.
• Hayden Hawkey has started all 12 games for Providence, going 7-4-0 in 11 decisions while posting a 2.71 goals against average, .907 save percentage and one shutout.
The Series with the Friars
• Maine enters Friday's contest – the 122nd meeting between the Black Bears and Friars – with an edge of 64-50-7 in the all-time series.
• The squads first battled on Jan. 5, 1980 at Alfond Arena, with the Friars edging the Black Bears, 4-3.
• The teams met twice last season, with Providence edging the Black Bears, 3-2, in the first game –
Rob McGovern made 33 saves while Patrick Holway and Chase Pearson both potted goals – and getting the sweep with a 5-3 win the next night.
About Head Coach Red Gendron
•
Red Gendron, who enters his fifth year behind the bench of the Black Bears, has won two NCAA Hockey National Championships and a NHL Stanley Cup as an assistant coach.
• He assisted head coach Shawn Walsh with the UMaine 1993 NCAA Division I National Championship team.
• Before being named the head coach of the Black Bears, Gendron was associate head coach at Yale University; the Bulldogs earned the 2013 NCAA Division I National Championship.
• Prior to Gendron's two seasons at Yale, from 2005-11, he was an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts.
• Gendron spent 11 seasons in professional hockey with the New Jersey Devils organization.
Swayman Tabbed For Rookie of the Week
• Freshman Jeremy Swayman earned the Hockey East Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on Nov. 20 after his 40-save performance in UMaine's 5-2 win over then No.18 BU on Nov. 17.
• The Anchorage, Alaska native stopped 10 shots in the first period and followed it up with 12 in a critical second before racking up 18 in the final frame.
Happy Tralmaks
• Eduards Tralmaks was tabbed as the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on Nov. 6, as announced by the Hockey East Association.
• The freshman earned the honor after notching two goals and one assist in Maine's 6-2 win at UMass Lowell on Nov 4.
• Tralmaks opened the scoring in the first period, notched another goal during the second and then assisted on Mitchell Fossier's power-play tally in the third.
• Tralmaks leads the team in goals (5) and is tied for the lead in points (8).
Blocked Out
• As a team, Maine's average of 14.60 blocks per game is second in the league and sits 10th in the national rankings.
• The Black Bears have blocked at least 12 shots in all 10 games they have played, with a season-high 20 coming in a 6-3 win over Miami on Oct. 21.
• Senior
Mark Hamilton currently sits tied for 20th in the nation and tied for third in Hockey East with 27 blocked shots.
• The defenseman's 2.70 blocks per game is first in the league and tied for fourth overall in the nation.
•
Cedric Lacroix is averaging 1.33 blocks per game, tops among Hockey East forwards and 10th in the nation. Â
Balanced Attack
• So far this season, the Black Bears have received goals from 14 different players, assists from 17 and points from 19.
• Against BU on Nov. 17, UMaine had 10 different players earn a spot on the scoresheet for the third time this season.
• The Black Bears had 10 different point-getters in back-to-back games, doing so against Miami on Oct. 20 and 21.
• Against UConn on Oct. 6 and UMass Lowell on Nov. 4, Maine had nine different players register at least one point.
• Maine also has six different players with at least one power-play goal.
• All 19 skaters that suited up for the Black Bears in the two-game season-opening series against UConn recorded at least one shot on goal, with Chase Pearson's 10 leading the way.
Offensive Output
• The UMaine offense exploded in the two-game series against Miami (Ohio), scoring five goals on Friday, Oct. 20 and then six in Saturday, Oct. 21's 6-3 win.
• In the Friday contest, the Black Bears had five different goal-scorers and 10 different point-getters.
• The next night, UMaine notched five goals in a single period for the first time since the first period in a 7-3 win over North Dakota on Oct. 22, 2010.
• Also notable in the 6-3 win was that each goal came from a different player (Eduards Tralmaks, Patrick Holway, Brady Keeper, Patrick Shea, Mitchell Fossier and Tim Doherty).
• The last time UMaine had six different goal scorers came in a 7-0 win over Boston University on Nov. 14, 2013.
Friendship Four
• This weekend marks the third Northern Irish Connections Friendship Four Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• The Black Bears will be joined in by RPI and Clarkson of the ECAC Hockey conference as well as Hockey East foe Providence.
• Maine and Providence will meet on Nov. 24 with the winner advancing to take on either RPI or Clarkson the following night for a chance to win the 2017 Belpot Trophy.
•The teams will square off at the SSE Arena, home of the Belfast Giants – a professional team that competes within the Elite Ice Hockey League – and host of the Friendship Four since 2015.
• Each rendition of the tournament has been won by a Hockey East school, with UMass Lowell winning in 2015 and Vermont in 2016.
The 40th Season(s)
• With the start of the 2017-18 season, the men's hockey program is celebrating 40 years of Alfond Arena and 40 years of University of Maine men's hockey.
• Alfond Arena had its first puck drop on Nov. 18, 1977, when the Black Bears battled Acadia University - the same team that the Black Bears faced this year in their exhibition contest on Oct. 1.
• The Black Bears played a "home" contest against Boston University on Nov. 18, 2017, but it took place at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
• After 40 years of intercollegiate play, UMaine held an all-time record of 823-593-119.
Standing in the Hall(s) of Fame
• This year marked the first time that an entire team was ever inducted into the University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame, with the men's hockey 1993 National Championship team earning that honor while an assistant coach from that team in Grant Standbrook was also inducted.
• Additionally, Paul Kariya becamea member of the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2017 on Nov. 13.
• The 1993 squad went 42-1-2 en route to the national title while averaging 6.5 goals per game and only allowing 2.4 goals per game.
• From that team, the late head coach Shawn Walsh, forwards Jim Montgomery, Kariya, goaltenders Garth Snow and Mike Dunham and defenseman Chris Imes have already been inducted into the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame as individuals.
• Standbrook spent 21 seasons behind the bench at UMaine, serving as an assistant coach on Maine's 1993 and 1999 National Championship teams.
• In total over his career, he coached and mentored 34 All-Americans, eight U.S. Olympians and two Canadian Olympians and a pair of Hobey Baker Award winners (Scott Pellerin, Paul Kariya).
-UMaine-
