ORONO, Maine - The No. 6-seeded University of Maine men's hockey team will travel to Providence this weekend to battle the No. 3-seeded Friars in a best-of-three quarterfinal round of the Hockey East playoffs. All three contests - including the Sunday if-necessary game - ar set to begin at 7 p.m. Friday's and Saturday's NBC Sports Boston. The call of all three games can be
heard online or on 103.9 FM, 101.3 FM, 1450 AM or 1310 AM.
All three games can be streamed online through HockeyEastOnline.TV. Pack Network is the exclusive streaming partner of the Hockey East Tournament's opening round. Fans can purchase a league pass for access of to up to 21 Hockey East playoff games for $59.95 or one game for $9.95.
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GAME INFORMATION
Game #37: Maine Black Bears at No. 9/10 Providence Friars
DATE: Friday, March 9, 2018
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Schneider Arena - Providence, R.I.
Game #38: Maine Black Bears at No. 9/10 Providence Friars
DATE: Saturday, March 10, 2018
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Schneider Arena - Providence, R.I.
Game #39: Maine Black Bears at No. 9/10 Providence Friars (if necessary)
DATE: Sunday, March 11, 2018
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Schneider Arena - Providence, R.I.
2017-18 RECORDS: Maine 18-14-4, Providence 20-10-4
About the Black Bears  Â
• No. 6-seeded Maine advanced to the Hockey East Tournament quarterfinal round with a sweep of rival No. 11 New Hampshire in the opening round last weekend at Alfond Arena.
• The Black Bears scored three goals in the third period – including two from
Cedric Lacroix – in topping the Wildcats 4-1;
Jeremy Swayman finished with 26 saves while seven different players registered a point – including multiple points from Lacroix (2-0-2),
Brady Keeper (0-2-0), and
Brendan Robbins (1-1-2).
• Saturday night, Maine received goals from three different players and 27 saves from Swayman to earn the series sweep;
Rob Michel had three assists and Keeper added another two on the weekend while
Eduards Tralmaks,
Nolan Vesey and
Mitchell Fossier (1-1-2) found the back of the net.
• Fossier leads Maine with 33 points on a team-high 12 goals and team-high 21 assists.
• Maine finished the regular season tied for sixth place in the Hockey East standings, marking the best finish for the Black Bears since they also finished sixth during the 2013-14 season.
About the Friars
• Providence earned the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament by way of its 13-7-4 conference record and finished the regular season with an overall record of 20-10-4.
• The Friars last played on Feb. 24 at Massachusetts, dropping a close match 1-0.
• While Providence doesn't have any players in the nation's top 45 in scoring, it does have 11 players in double-digit scoring and two players with at least 30 points in Erik Foley (15-19-34) and Brian Pinho (12-18-30).
• Hayden Hawkey has played 94.5 percent of the team's minutes in goal, posting a 2.12 goals, .916 save percentage and three shutouts on his way to a second-straight 20-plus win season.
• The Friars have lost back-to-back games only once this season, falling to BU on Nov. 3 (2-0) and UMass on Nov. 9 (5-2).
The Series with the Friars
• Maine and Providence have squared off 123 times prior to Friday's tilt, with Maine holding an edge of 64-52-7 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 also battled on Feb. 9 at Schneider Arena, with Providence eking out a 3-2 overtime win;
Jeremy Swayman had 39 saves while
Chase Pearson and
Ryan Smith tallied the goals.
• 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.
• Maine's Associate Head Coach
Ben Guite had two career game-winning goals against the Friars while assistant coach
Alfie Michaud had four wins between the pipes.
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.
We've Been Here Before
• Maine and Providence last met in the conference playoffs when they squared off in the 2014 quarterfinal round, with the No. 3-seeded Friars taking the best-of-three series with 3-1 and 4-2 wins.
• Providence holds an overall record of 7-5-0 over Maine in the Hockey East Tournament.
• The teams have battled in the championship game on one occasion, with the Friars taking the 1996 title, 3-2.
National Stat Check
• As a team, Maine's 3.11 goals per game average is 15th in the nation.
• Black Bear blue liners are averaging .61 goals per game, which is also 15 in the nation.
• Freshman goaltender
Jeremy Swayman is third in the nation among rookies with 15 wins.
It's Worth Noting…
•
Jeremy Swayman's 15 wins mark the most by a Maine freshman goaltender since Ben Bishop went 21-8-2 in his rookie 2005-06 season.
• Freshman
Eduards Tralmaks is tied for fifth in the league in rookie scoring (10-14—24).
• Freshman
Brady Keeper is tied for fourth in the league for rookie defensemen scoring (6-14—20).
• Maine has 13 players in double-digit scoring and has received goals from 19 different players, assists from 21 and points from 21.
• Maine has scored a goal in all three periods in nine games this season.
• The Black Bears are 5-0-1 this season when
Patrick Holway finds the back of the net and 10-2-1 overall when he tallies at least one point.
Weekly Honor(s) for Swayman
•
Jeremy Swayman was named the Hockey East Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week on March 5, his sixth weekly award of the season, the most in Hockey East.
• Swayman is the only player this season to have earned at least one Rookie, Player and Defensive Player of the Week award.
• He was named the league's Defensive Player of the Week on Feb. 1 and was Co-Defensive Player of the Week on Jan. 22.
• Two other times this season he was named the rookie of the week (1/8; 11/20) and on Dec. 11 he was named the league's Player of the Week.
Solid Sophomore Campaign
•
Mitchell Fossier (12-21—33) is fifth in Hockey East in scoring, the lone underclassmen in the top five and one of three in the top 10.
• The Alpharetta, Ga. native has scored two game-winning goals this season and assist on three others – including both in Maine's opening round playoff series sweep of UNH.
• Fossier has 12 multiple-point games on the season and had a stretch of three-straight from Jan. 8-13.
• His 14 assists on the road leads the conference.
• The sophomore – who leads the team in goals (12) and assists (21) - enters Friday's contest on a season-long, four-game point-streak.
-UMaine-
