ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine men's hockey team will look to gain some valuable points in the Hockey East standings on Friday night when it takes on the No. 9/10 Providence Friars at Schneider Arena. The game, which is slated for a 7:15 p.m. puck drop, is set to be aired on NESN Plus. The call of the game can be heard online or on 103.9 WVOM-FM, 101.3 FM, 1450 AM, or 1310 AM.
 

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GAME INFORMATION
Game #30: Maine Black Bears at No. 9/10 Providence Friars
DATE: Friday, Feb. 9, 2018
TIME: 7:15 p.m.
SITE: Schneider Arena - Providence, R.I.
2017-18 RECORDS: Maine 15-10-4 (9-7-3 HEA), Providence 17-9-4 (10-6-4 HEA)

Maine game notes

About the Black Bears    
• Maine split two overtime Hockey East tilts with Merrimack last weekend, winning 4-3 on Friday before falling 3-2 on Saturday.
• Brendan Robbins tallied his first career hat trick and Patrick Shea tipped home the game-winning goal 20 seconds into overtime for the win on Friday but Maine's comeback bid on Saturday fell just short.
• Jan. 26-27, Maine went to UMass and came away with a pair of 3-2 wins to earn a regular season series sweep.
• On Jan. 26, Cedric Lacroix scored a short-handed goal with 5:02 to play in the third period to help Maine to a 3-2 win while the next night, Chase Pearson scored twice and Emil Westerlund also found the net.
• Maine and UMass had also faced off on Tuesday, Jan. 16, with Maine winning, 3-1, in Orono.
• Pearson leads Maine in points with 26 on six goals and a team-high 20 assists and he also leads the team in shots on goal (83) and face-off wins (357).

About the Friars
• Providence enters Friday's game with an overall record of 17-9-4 and a 10-6-4 conference mark after a 2-2 tie and 4-3 loss at Vermont this past weekend.
• Erik Foley leads the Friars in points with 31 (13-18—31), with 20 of his points coming in the 19 Hockey East games that Providence has played this season.
• The Friars are 1-2-2 in their last five games, with the win coming against then No. 8/9 Northeastern on Jan. 27.
• Hayden Hawkey has started all 30 games for Providence this season, going 17-9-3 in 29 decisions while posting a 2.24 goals against average, .910 save percentage and three shutouts.
• Hawkey's 30 appearances is tied for the most in the country while his 1712:32 total minutes played ranks third.

The Series with the Friars
• Maine and Providence have squared off 122 times prior to Friday's tilt, with Maine holding an edge of 64-51-7 in the all-time series.
• The squads first squared off on Jan. 5, 1980, with Providence topping Maine, 4-3, at Alfond Arena.
• Maine had a 13-game unbeaten streak in the series (12-0-1) from Feb. 9, 1991 to Feb. 3, 1995.
• The Black Bears and Friars met back on Nov. 24 at the Friendship Four Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with Providence stealing a tough 3-0 win.
• 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.
• The teams have only a three-point differential in the conference standings, with Providence sitting in third and Maine in fifth (the top seven teams are separated by just seven points in the table).

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.

National Stat Check
• As a team, Maine's 3.28 goals per game average is 11th in the country and second in Hockey East behind Northeastern (3.39).
• Black Bear blue liners are averaging .66 goals per game, which is 11th in the country and second in Hockey East.
• Freshman goaltender Jeremy Swayman is tied for second in the nation among rookies  with12 wins.
• Swayman's .926 save percentage is sixth in the country, tops in Hockey East and second nationally amongst rookie netminders.

A Unique Hat Trick
• Brendan Robbins tallied his first career hat trick in Maine's 4-3 overtime win against Merrimack on Feb. 2.
• Robbins scored an even-strength goal in the first period and then converted a penalty shot and tallied a short-handed goal in the second.
• The penalty shot conversion was one of 11 in NCAA men's DI hockey this season.
• Of the 137 hat tricks scored this season and last (59 this year, 78 during the 2016-17 season), Robbins' is one of three to include a penalty shot conversion, joining Brock Voeser of North Dakota an Vinni Lettieri of Minnesota, who both did it last year.
• Maine's last hat trick (Nolan Vesey) and last penalty shot goal (Blaine Byron '17) had both come on Feb. 25, 2017 in a 5-4 win over Northeastern.

Chase in the Circle
• Chase Pearson leads Maine with a .543 winning percentage at the face-off dot, a number that places him seventh in Hockey East amongst players who have taken at least 175 face-offs.
• Pearson's 357 total wins is tops in the league and seventh nationally.
• The captain has won at least 10 face-offs in 25 out of 29 games played so far this season and had a 17-game streak of 10-or-more wins to open the season.

It's Worth Noting…
• Maine has 11 players in double-digit scoring and has received goals from 19 different players, assists from 21 and points from 21.
• Chase Pearson (6-20—26) is tied for seventh in Hockey East in scoring while classmate Mitchell Fossier (9-16—25) is tied for ninth, making them the only two underclassmen in the top 10 in conference scoring.
• Maine has scored a goal in all three periods in nine games this season.
• Brady Keeper (6-9—15) is tied for fourth in the conference in rookie defensemen scoring while his two-game winning goals are tied for first in that same category.

Up Next
• Maine will travel to rival New Hampshire on Wednesday, Feb. 14 for a rare weeknight battle with the Wildcats.

-UMaine-