The seventh-seeded Providence Friars got past the second-seeded UMass-Lowell River Hawks in game 3 of their Hockey East Quarterfinals series on Sunday afternoon, setting up a Boston College vs. Providence showdown in the Hockey East semis this weekend.
The River Hawks will now await the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field next weekend to see where Lowell will be seeded. Right now, Lowell is seventh overall in the PairWise Rankings and is in line for a no. 2 seed when the bracket is released on Selection Sunday.
For the Eagles, they will face a Friar program which they swept the regular season series 3-0-0. BC took the first game of the series 4-1 back on December 6 and followed that up with a 10-0 drubbing of the Friars on February 24-25. Boston College is 6-3-0 all-time against Providence in the Hockey East Tournament, but the two teams haven't faced one another since the 2001 Hockey East Championship Game, a 5-3 BC victory en route to the program's second National Championship.
The year 2001 was also the last time the Friars advanced out of the Hockey East Quarterfinals round. Since then, PC has fallen on hard times, failing to even qualify for the Hockey East Tournament in five of the next nine years and each of the last four from 2008-2011.
That said, BC would be wise not to look past Providence. Senior goaltender Alex Beaudry is one of the best in the league and is coming off a 1-0 shutout victory. PC's 2-1 series victory over Lowell also goes to show you how much stock you should put into results from the regular season series (which Lowell had won 2-1-0, including two wins on the final weekend of the regular season).
Tickets for this weekend's Hockey East Championship can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com. Tickets for the semifinals are $17/$25 in the balcony or $30/37 in the loge and $39 for club seats and the first row of the loge, and are good for both semifinals games on Friday (5 PM and 8 PM).
Go Eagles!