Maine at Northeastern: Pregame Notes and Line Combinations

BOSTON -- Good evening and welcome inside Northeastern University's historic Matthews Arena where the Huskies are getting set to close the Hockey East regular season with the second game of a home-and-home series on this Saturday night.

Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on GoNUxstream with Rob Rudnick and Robbie Vrolyk on the call.

The Huskies have already locked in the No. 6 seed and a first-round home series for the Hockey East Tournament, but opened this weekend's set with a gritty 5-3 win last night. Freshman defenseman Eric Williams scored two goals, while classmate Ryan Ruck backstopped the win with a career-high 34 saves.

NU is unbeaten in 14 of its last 15 games and has still not lost a Hockey East game in the 2016 calendar year. The Huskies' current nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1) in league play is its longest since joining Hockey East.

Maine salvaged a 3-2 overtime win over Merrimack last Saturday, but last night's loss was its sixth in seven games. The Black Bears fought their way out of a 2-0 hole in the first period last night as seniors Andrew Tegeler and Will Merchant scored goals before the first buzzer sounded.

These two teams will become familiar with one another as the Black Bears will return to Boston on Friday to open their first head-to-head playoff matchup since the 2001 quarterfinals. Maine's playoff positioning was locked up following last night's loss, coupled with Merrimack's 4-1 win over Vermont.

Here are tonight's lines:

BLACK BEARS (8-21-6, 5-14-2)

Blaine Byron - Cam Brown - Andrew Tegeler
Nolan Vesey - Steven Swavely - Brendan Robbins
Dane Gibson - Cedric Lecroix - Daniel Perez
Conor Riley - Brian Morgan - Brady Campbell

Dan Renouf - Rob Michel
Eric Schurhamer - Mark Hamilton
Sam Becker - Keith Muehlbauer

Matt Morris
Rob McGovern
Sean Romeo

HUSKIES (15-13-5, 9-8-4)

Nolan Stevens - John Stevens - Zach Aston-Reese
Dylan Sikura - Adam Gaudette - Mike McMurtry
Kevin Roy - Brendan Collier - Sam Kurker
Lincoln Griffin - Tanner Pond - Patrick Schule

Dustin Darou - Matt Benning
Colton Saucerman - Eric Williams
Jarrett Fennell - Garret Cockerill

Ryan Ruck
Derick Roy
Jake Theut