Men’s Hockey
MAINE vs. BOSTON COLLEGE
Time, site: Friday, 7 p.m., Sunday, 1 p.m., Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Records: Maine 0-4-3 (0-0 Hockey East); BC 6-1 (1-0)
Series, last meeting: BC leads 63-46-9, Maine 4-2 on 1/18/15
Key players: Maine — C Cam Brown (1 goal, 3 assists), LW Will Merchant (3 & 0), RW Blaine Byron (1 & 2), D Eric Schurhamer (0 & 3), D Dan Renouf (0 & 2), LW Dan Perez (1 & 1), G Rob McGovern (0-2-2, 2.15 goals against average, .933 save percentage); Boston College — LW Miles Wood (2 & 7), RW Ryan Fitzgerald (4 & 4), C Colin White (3 & 5), LW Zach Sanford (4 & 3), D Teddy Doherty (4 & 2), G Thatcher Demko (6-1, 0.86m .964)
Game notes: The Black Bears are 58th among 60 Division I teams in goals per game (1.43) and they are taking on the stingiest team in the country (0.86 goals allowed per game). It is BC’s best seven-game start defensively in the program’s 94-year existence. Demko has four shutouts in his last five games although two were against 0-8 Colorado College and another came against a 2-3-3 Wisconsin team whose two wins came at the hands of first-year Division I team Arizona State. Maine has lost four in a row and the power play is in an 0-for-20 funk. BC is the second-most-penalized team in the country (18.6 penalty minutes per game). Maine will have to manage the puck well and not turn it over because the Eagles are dangerous in transition. The Black Bears can ill afford to take many penalties because the Eagle power play is a good one (21.1 percent efficiency). And Maine has allowed four power-play goals in 12 chances in the last three games. BC has won eight of the last 10 games against Maine at Conte Forum.