Two teams seeking to climb the Hockey East standings and into the NCAA Tournament picture will square off this weekend when the University of Maine’s Black Bears visit Providence College for a two-game series at Schneider Arena. Game times are 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday.
UMaine, 12-7-2 overall and 6-5 in Hockey East, will take a five-game unbeaten streak into the series (4-0-1) after coming off a 5-2 win and 3-3 tie at No. 6 Denver.
Providence is 9-7-2 and 4-3-1 and had a three-game winning streak snapped by Alaska (Fairbanks) last Saturday, 5-1.
UMaine has gone 4-1-1 vs. the Friars over the last six games including a 1-0 overtime win and 3-3 tie in Providence last season.
Thirteen of the last 18 games between the two have been decided by one goal and there has also been the one tie.
UMaine is currently ranked 12th in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll and 14th in the USA Hockey poll while the Friars are ranked 18th and 17th, respectively.
However, in the NCAA Power Index, which has replaced the PairWise ratings in emulating the NCAA Tournament selection process, Providence is 18th and UMaine is 22nd.
Sixteen teams make the NCAA tournament, with six automatic bids for conference champions and 10 at-large selections.
“Providence plays extremely hard and is always on the right side of the puck,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr, who previously assisted current Providence coach Nate Leaman at Union College in New York and at Providence. “They don’t give you anything free.”
Barr said this weekend will be a big series.
“Their season has been like ours, up and down. Hockey East games are going to be huge. They’re going to be highly motivated. They’re a really good team,” Barr added.
UMaine senior left wing and co-captain Thomas Freel said Providence is a hard, physical and well-structured team.
“It will be a gritty weekend for sure,” Freel said.
Freel also noted that Providence is “very good” defensively.
“We can expect to get hit and we’re going to have to be very well-structured,” Freel said. “We can’t give up chances off the rush. We’re going to have to track back well.”
Barr said the Denver series is something the Black Bears can build on.
“The most important thing is the guys cared about each other. It’s not about Xs and Os,” Barr said. “They blocked shots for each other, they backchecked and were stripping players of the puck on the backcheck.”
Barr highlighted a blocked shot by freshman defenseman Lukas Peterson with five seconds left in Saturday’s 3-3 tie against Denver, with Peterson taking the puck off the inside of his leg when a Denver player had a good look at goal.
“Those are things that win you hockey games and help your culture,” Barr said.
And that culture has struggled at times this season, but Barr said it has improved.
“When things haven’t been good, we haven’t had enough of that,” the coach added. “But it has gotten better.”
The Black Bears will enter the series boasting the Hockey East Player of the Month of December freshman left wing Justin Poirier and the Army ROTC Defender of the Month in senior defenseman Brandon Chabrier.
UMaine is 2-0-1 in its last three road games and is now 3-3-2 on the road while Providence has been better on the road (6-3-1) than at home (3-4-1).
UMaine continues to be led in scoring by Poirier (17 goals, 10 assists) along with senior defenseman and co-captain Brandon Holt (4 & 15), junior right wing Josh Nadeau (10 & 6), freshman right wing Miguel Marques (6 & 10) and senior left wing Owen Fowler (7 & 6).
Junior goalie Albin Boija has started three of the last four games and has an 8-5-2 record, a 2.45 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.
UMaine has scored 80 goals which is the most over the first 21 games of a season since the 2006-07 team scored 85.
UMaine’s 3.81 goals per game is tied for fifth best in the country.
Providence has allowed 2.56 goals which is tied for 19th best.
The Friars returned seven of their top 10 scorers off last year’s NCAA Tournament team and have been led in scoring by 6-foot-6 freshman and first round NHL draft pick Roger McQueen (6 & 10). He was the 10th overall pick and was selected by Anaheim.
But the Friars could be without veteran goalie Philip Svedeback, who has played 112 career games for them. The senior suffered a lower body injury midway through the loss to Alaska Fairbanks and had to be replaced by freshman Jack Parsons.