Providence 4, Vermont 4 (OT)
In the final regular-season meeting between the teams, the Providence Friars and Vermont Catamounts played a back-and-forth affair before ultimately settling for a 4-4 tie on Thursday night at Schneider Arena. The sides both posted a goal in each of the first two periods, before a combined four-goal stanza in the third to equal the final score. Both teams scored their inaugural goals of the game in the latter stages of the opening period, coming from UVM rookie Jonathan Turk and his counterpart Nick Saracino, who scored to tie Boston College in PC's previous game 13 days ago. After trading in the second, the Friars jumped ahead by two goals in the opening half of the third as sopohomore Stefan Demopoulos and rookie Steven McParland (shorthanded) beat UVM's Brody Hoffman (32 saves). However, just as the Catamounts looked to have been outdone, H.T. Lenz and Chris McCarthy found the back of the net to salvage the draw. With the tie, the teams evenly split their series with a 1-1-1 record and enter the break with a hard-earned point in the league standings. With PC stellar freshman Jon Gillies on the road with Team USA for the World Junior Championship, senior Russ Stein made 28 saves between the pipes as he earned the decision in his first-career start. Because of the teams splitting the points in the game, they close the first half with just two points separating each other in the league standings. The Friars entered the contest with two straight wins over UVM at home, but even with the tie, were able to extend their unbeaten streak to five games (2-0-3).
Joshua Kummins is the Hockey East beat writer and a weekend editor for SB Nation Boston. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKummins.