Providence at Boston College: Pregame Notes and Line Combinations

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Hello and welcome inside Conte Forum on the campus of Boston College where, on this Friday night, the No. 8 Eagles welcome No. 14 Providence for a key early-season contest. Tonight’s game is the Friars’ Hockey East opener.

Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. The game will be televised on American Sports Network with Tom Caron and Colby Cohen on the call.

These two teams finished last season about as even as possible, splitting their season series in January (and skating to a tie at the Florida College Classic last December) en route to tying for first place in the Hockey East standings. BC has a 110-48-14 edge in the all-time series, including a 15-0-2 mark in the last 25 contests here in Chestnut Hill.

The Eagles are 3-0-1 in their last four games, but enter this contest on short rest after a 2-2 tie Tuesday night at Merrimack. Seniors Scott Savage and Ryan Fitzgerald lifted BC to a 2-0 lead before the host Warriors struck twice in the third period to steal a point.

Freshman Joe Woll has been strong in net for BC, and he was just that on Tuesday. Woll made 32 saves, including 15 in the second period. His .926 save percentage for the season ranks 17th in the nation.

PC bounced back from consecutive losses to Miami and Holy Cross last weekend at Schneider Arena, tying Clarkson before a 6-3 win over St. Lawrence. Senior defenseman Anthony Florentino missed Friday’s game, but returned to the lineup with a goal and two assists against the Saints.

Five freshmen scored their first collegiate goals in last weekend’s pair of games, while sophomore Erik Foley scored his third power-play goal of the season on Saturday. Foley is one of three PC players with five points.

One final note: The second game of this year’s BC-PC series comes on Jan. 7, 2017, and will take place not at Schneider Arena in Providence, but down the road at Fenway Park.

Here are tonight’s lines:

FRIARS (2-2-1, 0-0-0)

Erik Foley - Brian Pinho - Josh Wilkins
Kasper Bjorkqvist - Scott Conway - Bryan Lemos
Brandon Duhaime - Robbie Hennessey - Shane Kavanaugh
Conor MacPhee - Ryan Tait - Garrett Gamez

Jake Walman - Josh Monk
Kyle McKenzie - Steven Ruggiero
Jacob Bryson - Anthony Florentino

Hayden Hawkey
Kris Carlson
Brendan Leahy

EAGLES (4-2-1, 0-0-0)

Ryan Fitzgerald - Colin White - J.D. Dudek
David Cotton - Austin Cangelosi - Christopher Brown
Matthew Gaudreau - Ron Greco - Chris Calnan
Graham McPhee - Mike Booth - Zach Walker

Michael Kim - Casey Fitzgerald
Luke McInnis - Scott Savage
Jesper Mattila - Connor Moore

Joe Woll
Ryan Edquist
Ian Milosz