March 7, 2008

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BOSTON - Coming off a convincing 6-0 victory at Providence on Thursday night, the No. 16 Boston University men's ice hockey team (16-15-4, 14-9-3 Hockey East) looks to secure the No. 2 seed for the Hockey East tournament on Friday (March 7) when it welcomes the No. 17/15 Friars (14-14-5, 11-10-5 HE) to Agganis Arena in the regular-season finale for both teams. The game, which starts at 7:30 p.m., will be broadcast live by NESN.

The Terriers have won their last five home contests, matching the Agganis Arena record set two years ago (Jan. 13-Feb. 10, 2006). BU last won six straight home games during the 1999-00 season (Jan. 9-March 11) at Walter Brown Arena.

With their victory last night, the Terriers earned home ice for the Hockey East quarterfinals for the fourth straight season. A win tonight would secure second place while a tie would ensure a finish of no lower than third. BU is 11-3-2 in its last 16 Hockey East games with two of the losses coming against regular-season champion New Hampshire.

Providence is 1-4-2 in its last seven games and tied with Boston College for fourth place in the league standings.

The Terriers and Friars go into Friday's game having played 153 times since the 1926-27 season and the Terriers hold a 93-48-12 (.647) advantage, including wins in each of the last five meetings. This will be the Friars' eighth trip to Agganis Arena, matching UMass for the most of any opponent, and BU has a 5-2 (.714) advantage in the previous seven match-ups.

Senior Pete MacArthur scored the game's first three goals and the Terriers never looked back, recording a convincing 6-0 victory over Providence on Thursday at Schneider. Sophomore Brett Bennett stopped all 25 shots he faced to earn his third shutout in the last six games.

MacArthur reached the 40-point plateau for the first time in his career following Thursday's natural hat trick, and classmate Bryan Ewing, who assisted on all three goals, is right behind with 39 points. BU has not had multiple 40-point scorers since 1999-00, when three Terriers reached the mark (Tommi Degerman, 43; Chris Heron, 43; Carl Corazzini, 42).