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The City of Boston, Hockey East and Fenway Sports Management announced "Frozen Fenway 2014" on Thursday. The two week series of hockey and ice skating events will including two Hockey East men’s doubleheaders.

On Saturday, January 4, 2014, Merrimack College will face Providence, followed by Notre Dame against Boston College.

On Saturday, January 11, UMass Lowell will play Northeastern University, followed by University of Maine against Boston University.

“Last year, more than 90,000 people came to Fenway Park to watch college and high school hockey or to enjoy free, public skating,” said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “This generated tens of millions of dollars for local business. I’m confident that top-notch outdoor college hockey at Fenway Park will make for another unforgettable experience, drawing fans from across the region and serving as a major platform to showcase the people, culture, and local businesses that make our city special.”

“After the success of the Winter Classic in 2010 and the Frozen Fenway college games in 2012, hockey and skating are fast becoming winter traditions at Fenway Park,” said FSM President and Red Sox EVP/COO Sam Kennedy. “We welcome back Hockey East and, along with the Mayor, look forward to once again having our beloved ballpark be host to college games, high school games, and to welcome various communities throughout New England to Fenway Park this winter.”

Game times and ticket information for the two doubleheaders will be announced in the coming months.

In addition to the two Hockey East doubleheaders, there will also be two, free public skating days for City of Boston residents. The skates will be on Sunday, December 29, New Year’s Day, Wednesday, January 1. Information about tickets for the skates will be announced in the coming months.

Boston University introduced David Quinn as the school’s new men’s hockey coach Tuesday, replacing Jack Parker, who is retiring after 40 season behind the Terriers’ bench.

Quinn, who played at BU from 1984-87 and was an assistant coach at the school from 2004-2009, was most recently an assistant coach for the Colorado Avalanche

The 46-year-old Quinn was selected from a short list of candidates that reportedly included former Terrier Mike Sullivan and current associate head coach Mike Bavis.

"David Quinn is the ideal candidate for this job," said athletic director Mike Lynch. "His resume is filled with great experiences at every level and he is a proven head coach and a consummate professional. He is also a BU man, an important consideration as we deliberated. Jack Parker is in many ways irreplaceable, but I'm absolutely convinced that the future of BU hockey is in great hands."

"I'd like to thank President Brown and Mike Lynch for giving me this incredible opportunity and entrusting me with the BU hockey program," said Quinn. "I surely wouldn't be in this position if it were not for Jack Parkerand I'm very lucky to be able to call him my coach, mentor and friend. One of the things that makes this job so unique is that beyond all the success here, the former players have such a loyalty towards the program. I look forward to continuing that and the legacy that Coach Parker leaves behind."

Quinn, a native of Cranston, R.I., was a first-round draft pick of the Minnesota North Stars (No. 13 overall) in the 1984 draft. After his junior year, he tried out for the 1988 Olympic team but was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, temporarily forcing his retirement from the game.
Four years later, with his disease under control, Quinn tried out for the 1992 Olympic team. Although he failed to make the national squad, Quinn caught the eye of New York Rangers scouts, and played 19 games for New York's American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Rangers, in 1991-92.

The next season, he played 60 games with the Cleveland Lumberjacks of the International Hockey League. He retired permanently after that season moved into coaching, getting a job as an assistant coach for Northeastern.

For more, check out BU's website.

Brion O’Connor, who is a contributor to ESPNBoston.com, contributed to this report

Boston University didn't waste much time in choosing a successor to legendary hockey coach Jack Parker. And the Terriers kept it in the family.

On Tuesday morning, just three days after Parker's career ended with a loss in the Hockey East championship game, the school will introduce David Quinn, a former Terrier player and assistant coach and current Colorado Avalanche assistant, as the first new head coach of the BU hockey team in 40 years, according to multiple sources.

The 46-year-old Quinn was selected from a short list of candidates that reportedly included former Terrier Mike Sullivan and current associate head coach Mike Bavis.

Quinn, a native of Cranston, R.I., was a first-round draft pick of the Minnesota North Stars (No. 13 overall), and played for Parker from three seasons, from 1984-85 to 1986-87. After his junior year, he tried out for the 1988 Olympic team, but was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, temporarily forcing his retirement from the game.

Four years later, with his disease under control, Quinn tried out for the 1992 Olympic team. Although he failed to make the national squad, Quinn caught the eye of New York Ranger scouts, and played 19 games for New York's American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Rangers, in 1991-92. The next season, he played 60 games with the Cleveland Lumberjacks of the International Hockey League, notching 21 points on eight goals and 13 assists. He retired permanently after that season and went to work as an assistant coach for the Northeastern Huskies.

After Northeastern, Quinn joined the staff of Mike Kemp's fledgling Nebraska-Omaha program, earning a reputation as a solid recruiter before leaving to take a development coaching post with USA Hockey, eventually becoming the head coach of the U.S. National Under-17 team. In 2004, Quinn joined Parker's staff at BU, along with current associate head coach Bavis, playing a key role in bringing in the players that won Parker's third and final national championship in 2009.

After that championship season, Quinn left BU to take the head coaching job with Lake Erie in the American Hockey League, where he went 115-94-27 in three seasons, before being promoted last year to his current post as an assistant coach for the Avalanche under fellow BU alum Joe Sacco.

After Parker's retirement announcement on March 11, BU athletic director Mike Lynch said, "We're looking for the best possible guy for the job."

"We're going to look for a guy who has a great deal of experience, not only handling the public pressures of this job, which is a lot different from the job [Parker] took in the 1970s," Lynch said. "There's a lot more expectations, there's a lot more hype around BU hockey now than there ever has been. Jack's handled it well for 40 years, but the next guy coming in is replacing a legend. That's going to be a very challenging opportunity for someone, but we think it's a great opportunity for someone too."

For former Terrier David Quinn, that opportunity starts on Tuesday.

BOSTON -- Adieu, Coach Parker.

There would be no storybook ending in the storied career of the best hockey coach in Boston University history. Faced with a must-win scenario, and his Terriers unable to duplicate Friday's stunning comeback victory against Boston College, BU coach Jack Parker saw his 40-year career come to an end during the Hockey East finals on Friday at the hands of a determined Lowell River Hawks squad in a 1-0 thriller.

"From the opening faceoff, I thought both teams played extremely well. It was a great college hockey game," said Parker, employing one of his favorite assessments. "It was unbelievable that it was a 1-0 game, with all the chances going on. I was very, very pleased with our effort. I thought it was one of the best games we played all year. A real 60-minute effort.

"I was really happy with my team. I was really happy with everything that happened, except we couldn't put it by their goaltender, and they got one by ours. Both teams played extremely well. We got 36 shots. We had our chances. I guess it wasn't to be."

Instead, an unmistakable sense of "a changing of the guard" permeated the TD Garden after the final whistle. It was a fairytale run for Lowell (26-10-2), led by second-year coach Norm Bazin, as the top-seeded River Hawks captured their first Hockey East title. It was the exact opposite result of the 2009 title game, when Lowell needed to beat BU to advance to the NCAAs, only to lose 1-0. It was also particularly sweet for Bazin, who was a senior on the 1994 Lowell team that lost to BU in the 1994 Hockey East finals, 3-2.

"I congratulate UMass Lowell for a terrific season. I thought they were a terrific team all year long," said Parker. "I thought we gave them one heck of a game tonight, but they had a heck of a year. Winning the league, and then winning the playoffs, is quite an accomplishment for them, and for Norman. He's had a great year as a coach and deserves that Coach of the Year award."

Parker admitted that, when the game ended and he watched the Hockey East banner lowered so Lowell could be added, he thought of how the competition in the league had gotten progressively tougher over his tenure.

"When I first started coaching, and a good friend of mine [and former BU teammate], Billy Riley, was the coach at Lowell Tech," said Parker. "BU hockey was something special when I got the job here. Lowell Tech, now UMass Lowell, has come a long way, to the point where they're now the dominating team in Hockey East."

While the sentimental vote may have been in Parker's corner, the see-saw game turned in Lowell's favor with one dramatic play halfway through the third period, after the River Hawks had withstood a dogged BU attack.

With just over nine minutes left in the game, UML's Derek Arnold broke the heart of Terrier Nation. The junior from Foxboro, Mass., finishing a rare 3-on-2 break, spun around the back of the net and flicked a backhander that caromed off BU netminder Sean Maguire and into the net. It was the last goal that Parker would see scored from his viewpoint behind the BU bench.

Arnold, in the handshake line after the game, even managed to draw a laugh out of the outgoing BU coach.

"He said he wished he played for me. And I told him, I wished he did, too," said Parker with a wry smile. "He's a really good kid and a really good player."

The loss means Parker's Terriers (21-16-2) won't get an invitation to the NCAA tournament, which starts next weekend. Parker finishes his four-decade run with 897 wins, third all-time (behind BC's Jerry York, 935, and Ron Mason, 924) and the most by any coach at a single institution. He already has a record 24 NCAA appearances, but while disappointed the Terriers couldn't get a 25th, he said he left the TD Garden without regrets.

"I couldn't ask for more of my team," said Parker. "I couldn't ask for a better weekend for us. We played really well. We played really hard."

The Terriers kept the game close with a gritty, relentless style that Parker loves to preach. It was the same style he played with when he suited up for BU for three years, 1966-68.

"He was a very good skater. The best part of his game was his faceoffs and his forechecking," said longtime rival and friend, BC's York. "He was tenacious forechecking. So you could see some of the fire that he's had in his coaching career as a player."

For his players, the loss was compounded by the fact they weren't able to send their coach out on top.

"Obviously, we wanted to extend the season for Coach Parker for as long as we possibly could," said BU captain Wade Megan, a member of the senior class that will be the first in 40 years to leave the program at the same time as its coach. "At the end of the day, we played as hard as we possibly could, and we left it all on the ice. It's tough to have regrets when you play like we did tonight. We just couldn't solve their goaltender. That was the bottom line. It would have meant a lot to extend the season, especially for Coach Parker, but it wasn't meant to be."

Ryan Ruikka, an assistant captain, echoed Megan's sentiments. "This is my fifth year with Coach," said the Michigan native. "It's been a great time. He's an unbelievable coach, unbelievable person.

"We wanted to make the run as long as we could for him. We pushed hard at the end. We didn't get what we wanted, but he had a great 40 years here," said Ruikka, prompting a chuckle from his coach. "Some kids say he's the face of BU hockey, and I just thank him for all he's done for me and this organization."

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BOSTON -- Jack Parker's farewell tour picked up steam Friday night, as his Boston University Terriers fought back from a 2-0 deficit to beat archrival Boston College 6-3 in the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden.

The third-seeded Terriers (21-15-2) turned the tables on the second-seeded Eagles (22-11-4) with five straight goals, including three critical goals in the second period that gave BU a 3-2 lead going into the final stanza. After BU sophomore Evan Rodrigues finally sealed Parker's 897th win with an empty-net tally at 17:31 of the third period, the Terriers locked up their date in the finals against UMass Lowell on Saturday.

"We came back from the dead, I thought," said Parker, who is retiring after the season. "The game could have been a lot worse in the first half. We hung in there and hung in there, got a little life and took advantage of it.

"I was very proud of these guys," he said.

Saturday's final will mark BU's 10th time in the Hockey East championship game, where the Terriers have a 7-2 record. Perhaps more importantly, it gives Parker's players a chance to win the league crown, and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament that comes with it, in their coach's swan song.

"Now we have a chance to not only win a championship, but if we do, we'll have a chance to go to another tournament, which is what we would like to do. And we'll have all we can handle with Lowell tomorrow night," said Parker. "I was real pleased with my team. I was real pleased with my special teams. We got a very, very competitive effort tonight."

It didn't look that way early on. The Terriers took three first-period penalties, and the Eagles' power play looked impressive, moving the puck crisply and patiently. But BU's bend-but-don't-break defense, and some timely saves by freshman goaltender Sean Maguire (44 saves), kept BC off the board.

"The game was so out of hand the first half," said Parker. "I thought my guys were uptight, I thought we were struggling to move the puck, I thought we were outskated. I thought our goaltender really stood tall. Forget the fact that we were outshot badly. We were tentative."

At 17:50, BC's Johnny Gaudreau, the league's leading scorer and player of the year, had Maguire down and out, with the puck on his backhand, but he snapped it over the crossbar. Eventually, though, playing a man down caught up with the Terriers.

With BU's Sean Escobedo serving two minutes for tripping, the Eagles broke the scoreless tie at 18:33. Eagles forward Bill Arnold, driving down the right wing, threw the puck in front. It never got there. Instead, the puck deflected off BU defender Garrett Noonan and ramped over Maguire's left shoulder for a 1-0 BC lead.

"Kind of a bad hop," said the junior defender, who just returned from injury.

Quinn Smith nearly doubled the BC lead at the 5-minute mark, on another power play, but the sophomore forward's bid from the low slot rang iron. At 8:25, Whitney, streaking down the left wing, rifled a shot that narrowly missed the cage while being pressured by Matt Grzelcyk.

Twenty seconds later, though, the Eagles were attacking again. Smith didn't miss on his next bid, taking a picture-perfect feed from BC captain Pat Mullane and redirecting it over Maguire's glove at 8:46 for an even-strength tally.

BU showed some life at 12:17, halving the Eagles' lead. BU's Rodrigues executed a nifty toe drag that tripped up Smith, and then fired a wrister that broke through Parker Milner (21 saves). The goal gave the BU offense some spark, and the Terriers started strafing the BC net.

"I think it was almost two completely different games," said BC associate head coach Greg Brown, who along with Mike Cavanaugh was handling bench duties for a recuperating Jerry York. "I thought the first half, we were controlling a lot of the play, dictating the tempo. And then basically, right from their first goal by Rodrigues, their bench got a huge lift, and it seemed like they were asserting themselves more than we were after that."

The Terriers clawed all the way back at the 14:21 mark. When BC's Danny Linell, a converted forward playing defense, bobbled the puck at the BU blue line, Terrier Matt Lane seized the opportunity. Jumping past Linell, Lane raced in on Milner, switched to his backhand and tucked the puck between the legs of the BC netminder.

At 16:55, Milner came up with a big blocker stop on BU's Rodrigues, who got off a quality backhand bit while being tripped by Mike Matheson. The Terriers capitalized on the ensuing power play, with Noonan taking a super-cross-ice feed from Grzelcyk and threading the needle between Milner and the short side post from a bad angle. Noonan's sixth goal of the season gave BU a 3-2 lead at 17:59.

"I think we just finally figured it out," said BU's superb freshman Danny O'Regan. "Coach [was] telling us to play wings out of the zone. Our D's made some great looks up the ice. Nieto and Rodrigues are tough to keep track of. They slipped behind them a couple of times. A couple of skill guys, tough to contain sometimes. So I think it was us adjusting to them."

Milner made amends with 34 seconds left, denying Nieto with a great blocker stop on another breakaway bid. But the second-period collapse was an ominous sign, as BU had a 15-1-0 record this season while leading after two periods and the Eagles were 1-9-0 when trailing after the middle stanza.

BU went right back on the power play to start the third when BC's Gaudreau was whistled for cross-checking Escobedo behind the BU net, resulting in a five-minute major. And again, the Terriers made BC pay.

The Terriers were patient, sending the puck around the perimeter before it was sent to an unmarked O'Regan in prime scoring position. With Ryan Santana setting a monster screen in front of Milner, O'Regan calmly snapped a shot low glove side for a 4-2 Terriers advantage at 1:42.

The Terriers kept firing away, slowly wearing down the Eagles. Arnold and Whitney got off a pair of short-handed shots, but they were long-range efforts that Maguire handled easily. O'Regan then put the game out of reach with another power-play strike.

With BC's Whitney serving two minutes for high-sticking, BU's Nieto launched a bomb from the right point that Milner blocked but couldn't control. O'Regan, cruising in the low slot, found the puck on his stick and immediately deposited it into the BC net, stretching BU's lead to 5-2.

BC showed some life when BU's Patrick MacGregor was sent off for cross-checking at 9:16, but the Eagles couldn't get the puck past Maguire.

"Maggie's been unbelievable this whole stretch, the last eight games or so," said O'Regan. "We'll rely on him tomorrow. He's the most competitive kid I know, so I know he's going to bring it tomorrow as well."

Whitney got one back for BC when he took a carom off the backboard and chipped a bad angle shot that rolled over Maguire's left shoulder at 13:43, cutting the BU margin to 5-3.

At 17:31, with Milner pulled in favor of the extra BC attacker, Rodrigues buried the Eagles with a short-handed, empty-net goal. But the Terriers were keenly aware that their season could easily end Saturday if they don't bring the same effort against Lowell.

"The job's not done yet," said Noonan afterward. "We have to win tomorrow. But it was a good win tonight."

Saturday's Hockey East championship will be a rematch of the 2009 title game won by BU 1-0. Both Lowell and BC have already punched their tickets to the NCAA tournament by virtue of their lofty national and PairWise rankings. BU, however, doesn't have the same luxury. The Terriers need to win to keep playing and extend Parker's legendary career for at least another game.

"Especially after the first period, we kind of realized he's such a great coach," said O'Regan. "We weren't going to let him lose to BC at the Garden as his last game, and we were willing to do whatever we had to."

"Much appreciated, Danny," quipped Parker. "Thank you."

In Lowell, BU faces a squad that swept three straight games with the Terriers this season. "They've had everybody's number," said Parker of the River Hawks.

"We have our backs to the wall," he said. "We have to win to continue our season. More importantly, we have to win for our seniors, not for me. We have to win for these guys who would like to win a championship."

BOSTON -- When BU coach Jack Parker announced his retirement Monday, he got a laugh from the assembled crowd with his characterization of the Terriers' hockey program.

"I always talk about BU being a family," said Parker. "I've got two daughters, and 226 sons. The team I have right now are my youngest sons. And I'm not having any more children."

Those "youngest sons" made sure their coach would have another game at the helm, and another trip to the TD Garden, by knocking the Merrimack Warriors out of the Hockey East playoffs with a scintillating 5-3 victory before 3,043 at Agganis Arena on Saturday. But the Terriers (20-15-2) did it the hard way, three times fighting back from one-goal deficits to finally take the lead for good in the third period.

"I thought everybody played hard," said Parker. "I thought both teams played really smart hockey, real intense hockey. You could tell that Merrimack knew this was it for them. They had to get going. They put 42 shots on net, 20 in the second period. They kept coming at us all night long."

For Merrimack (15-17-6), the loss was the fifth straight to BU, and a bitter pill for coach Mark Dennehy despite the improved play of his squad.

"I thought we played much better than we did last night [a 3-0 loss]," said Dennehy. "We gave ourselves a chance to win. Some great efforts by a lot of people. Sam [Marotta, Merrimack's goaltender] made some really big saves when he needed to. It just wasn't enough."

The win -- Parker's last on the rink that bears his name -- gave the third-seeded Terriers a sweep of their quarterfinal series against the Warriors, and a date with archrival Boston College in the league semifinals on Friday. Parker is seeking his eighth league championship, and 25th invitation to the NCAA tournament, during his swan song. And although Parker holds a 48-38-7 record all-time over his longtime rival, BC coach Jerry York, the two giants of college hockey are dead even, 37-37-7, since York returned to The Heights.

"It was kind of weird tonight," said Parker. "This is my last game in a BU rink. It hasn't dawned on me. It didn't dawn on me in the press conference [Monday], because I knew I had to go to practice the next day. It was weird. But it was nice to win."

The Warriors came out intent on spoiling the Terriers' party, blitzing the BU end in the opening minutes. An ill-advised elbowing penalty to Warrior Connor Toomey gave BU the game's first power play, but Merrimack's Marotta (29) came up big, blocking Sahir Gill's one-timer off a cross-crease feed at the bottom of the right faceoff circle.

At 9:28, Marotta came up big again, first stopping Wade Megan point-blank after a nifty toe-drag move by the BU captain, and then employing an unorthodox snow-angel technique to deny Gill on the rebound.

The Warriors broke on top with a minute left in the opening period, with BU's Evan Rodriguez in the box for interference. Junior Shawn Bates, carrying the puck into the Terriers' end with speed, split a pair of BU defenders before deking out goalie Sean Maguire (39 saves). The big freshman netminder managed to get an arm on Bates' shot, but a second effort by the forward from Saskatchewan, Alberta, got the puck across the line for the power-play strike and a 1-0 Merrimack lead. It was the first time that Merrimack took the lead in five games against the Terriers this year, and ended Maguire's shutout streak at 1:51:22 over three games, the fifth-longest in BU history.

Marotta again stymied the BU power play to open the second period, as the Terriers attacked the Merrimack net with Brendan Ellis serving two minutes for tripping. But just after Ellis got back on the ice, BU junior Matt Nieto tied the game, 1-1, with his 100th career point. Driving down the slot, Nieto snuck behind Merrimack defender Justin Mansfield, took a perfect pass from freshman Danny O'Regan, and tapped it behind Marotta.

Undaunted, the Warriors regained the lead just three minutes later. With Terrier Patrick MacGregor cooling his heels on a high-sticking call, and Merrimack's Josh Myers creating havoc in front of the BU net, Mike Collins collected the puck on his off wing and flicked a shot through a maze of bodies that beat Maguire over his blocker at 4:32.

Maguire prevented the Warriors from doubling the lead moments later, stuffing Merrimack's Brian Christie on a clean breakaway. Just before the midway point, Marotta denied Megan with a sparkling stop of his own, reaching behind to grab Megan's backhand bid.

Marotta had another big stop at 15:51, sliding across his crease to deny Cason Hohmann in the low slot as BU had the extra attacker on a delayed penalty call. During the ensuing penalty, though, Hohmann got the equalizer. Walking in off the left half-wall, the sophomore from Texas snapped a shot that Mansfield blocked. But in the blink of an eye, Hohmann collected his own rebound and roofed a shot over Marotta's right shoulder to square the game, 2-2, at 16:12.

Again, Merrimack responded. Collecting the puck after a mixup between two BU defenders, Warrior John Gustafsson spun at the right faceoff dot and ripped a wrister that beat Maguire short side for a 3-2 margin at 18:40. It wasn't enough.

With eight seconds remaining in the middle stanza and the Terriers on their third power play of the period, BU freshman Sam Kurker jammed at a puck as Marotta tried to cover it, and the biscuit slipped through the netminder's legs to tie the match, 3-3.

"It's bizarre that they score so late in the second period, and we come right back and score again," said Parker. "That was big. If they could have gotten out of the period up, we would have been down a little bit. We lost the first period, and came back and won the second period, which was big when we got that goal."

The Terriers took their first lead at 5:11. Sam Rosen flicked a shot that Marotta blocked, but Rosen followed his initial shot, and shoveled the rebound over the fallen netminder to give BU a 4-3 lead.

Marotta kept the Warriors within 1 with a super blocker stop on Lane, who had a clean breakaway at the 10:10 mark. Lane had another spectacular bid to put the game out of reach at 12:44, when he chipped the puck past Ellis and then slashed across the crease, beating Marotta before his shot clanked off the left post and out.

BU captain Megan put the icing on Parker's final home win, diving at the puck on the right boards and sending it just inside the left post on the empty Merrimack net, where Gill tapped it in for the insurance marker at 19:55.

"I'd just like to start by saying what an honor it was to coach against Jack Parker. He's one of the reasons I wanted to come back to Hockey East, to coach against the likes of Coach Parker and Coach York and Coach [Dick] Umile," said Dennehy. "The game will take an absolute hit with his departure. Pretty big shoes to fill."

Parker departs Agganis with a record of 95-50-18 in the program's sparkling building on Commonwealth Avenue, and 896-471-116 overall. The Terriers now move on to the home of the Boston Bruins, where Parker has won 21 Beanpots and seven Hockey East tournaments. An eighth would ensure Parker's 25th trip to the NCAAs, the most of any coach, and a chance for the legendary coach to reach 900 wins.

"All good things must come to an end," said Parker with his trademark grin. "Oscar Wilde once said that some people cause joy wherever they go. Others whenever they go. So, some of my guys might be cheering when I finish up here. You never know."

Other Hockey East quarterfinals:

No. 2 Boston College 4, No. 7 Vermont 1
The Boston College Eagles suffered a setback before the puck even dropped on Saturday, as head coach Jerry York was sidelined after suffering a second detached retina in his right eye. However, the second-seed Eagles rallied, overwhelming the seventh-seed Vermont Catamounts by a 4-1 margin at Conte Forum to take the quarterfinal series, two games to none. BC scored the game's first goals, with the team's leading scorers Johnny Gaudreau, Steve Whitney and captain Pat Mullane all lighting the lamp to lead the Eagles. The win sends BC, the defending Hockey East and NCAA champs, on to the league semifinals, where they will face Boston University for the 262nd time.

No. 5 New Hampshire 4, No. 4 Providence 1
UMass Lowell will have to wait another day to see who their semifinal opponent will be next Friday, as New Hampshire forced a third and deciding game with a series-tying 4-1 victory over the Friars in Providence. Dick Umile's squad scored in each period, but didn't guarantee itself a game on Sunday until Jeff Silengo put UNH up 3-1 at the 17:33 mark of the third. UNH's Matt Willows put a bow on the win with an empty-netter at 18:23. Wildcats goalie Casey DeSmith (38 saves) got the best of his former USHL teammate, Providence goalie John Gillies (20 saves), to register the win.

Though they finished tied for second in the conference, the Boston University Terriers (17-12, 11-5 America East) found themselves on the sidelines for Championship Week in 2013.

Because of BU's impending move to the Patriot League for 2013-14, the America East Conference ruled the Terriers ineligible for the postseason tournament prior to the season.

But coach Joe Jones & Co. won't be sitting out the postseason entirely, as the school announced Thursday it has accepted an invitation to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

"We are very excited to accept an opportunity to continue our season in the College Insider Tournament," Jones said in a statement. "My staff and I are very excited to work with our guys and continue to build the foundation for our program.

“We look forward to represent our great university in the postseason."

Led by junior D.J. Irving, at 14.3 points per game the sixth most prolific scorer in America East, the Terriers placed four players on all-conference teams in 2012-13. Irving was a unanimous All-AE first team selection, junior Dom Morris and freshman Maurice Watson Jr. were named to the All-AE third team, and Watson and John Papale were also named to the AE All-Rookie team.

This is the third time in the past four seasons that BU will play in a postseason tournament, with a CBI berth in 2010 and an NCAA berth in 2011.

Coincidentally, the Terriers will face another future Patriot League member, Loyola Maryland (21-11, 12-6 MAAC), in the first round of the CIT on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET).

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.

College hockey's "second season" -- highlighted by the Hockey East quarterfinals -- resumes Thursday in Lowell, with the River Hawks hosting Maine. The remaining three quarterfinal matchups start Friday.

The Hockey East championship has been won by a local Boston squad -- Boston College six times, and Boston University twice -- each of the past eight years. Still, given the tight race for Hockey East's regular-season crown, with two points separating the top five teams, the postseason promises no easy passage to the NCAAs. Only top-ranked Lowell and second-seeded Boston College appear to be locks for at-large bids to the national tournament, though New Hampshire (ranked seventh nationally) should be safe as well. The remaining five teams must capture the Hockey East crown to prolong their season.

"This is anybody's tournament," said BU coach Jack Parker on Tuesday. "There's a lot of [teams] that have had really solid years. It's unbelievable that Northeastern and UMass are not in this tournament; they are such good college teams. Anybody you get is going to be a tough draw."

Here's the breakdown of the matchups, and the eight teams gunning to play in the league semifinals at TD Garden in Boston on March 22:

Hockey East
No. 1 Lowell vs. No. 8 Maine
The student faces the teacher. River Hawks coach Norm Bazin, in just his second year at Lowell, guided his squad to the top of the Hockey East with a remarkable second-half surge, going 18-3-1 since Dec. 8, and finishing 22-10-2 (16-9-2 in Hockey East). Now he'll face a Maine squad (11-17-8; 7-12-8 HE) led by Tim Whitehead, the man who hired Bazin when he was running the Lowell program.

"Obviously we're good friends," said Bazin. "He gave me my first opportunity in coaching and you never forget that. We really respect their staff and their team and the way they compete.

"It's one of those things you're certainly going to have a candid conversation before the game, but come game time, I think we'll have our game faces on."

Whitehead, who coached Bazin before adding him to the Lowell staff, echoed the comments of his former assistant, saying: "It is bittersweet to have to go against him in this playoff series. When the puck is dropped, it will be a great competition."

He's right. Maine, despite sneaking into the playoffs last weekend, took the season series from the River Hawks, including a 4-3 win at the Tsongas Center. Plus, the Black Bears are a road-worthy team, coming off a huge three-point weekend at rival New Hampshire.

"We were gripping our sticks a little tightly at home," said Whitehead, adding that the seniors had never suffered a losing record in Orono. "When we started going on the road, we were able to play with a lot more composure and intensity."

In Lowell, the Black Bears face a team with incredible balance. "Up front, I think we have four second lines," said Bazin of a squad that boasts eight players with 18 points or more. "I can't tell you who's going to be our best line every night, and I can't tell you who will be our weakest."

Bazin, however, did say his team won't make the same mistake as last year, when the River Hawks, then seeded No. 2, were upset at home by Providence. "Some of the best lessons you learn are from your failures," he said. "We probably didn't bring our A-game to the table every night. I think we have better depth this year."

Depth is something the Black Bears lack. What they do have, at the moment, is great goaltending from junior Martin Ouellette, fiery leadership from captain Joey Diamond and house money.

"We just want to keep playing," said Whitehead. "It is a very tight-knit group. They have stuck together through a lot. Our seniors have been excellent. ... They have all fought through adversity, but have stuck together and really helped our team move forward and improve. It is a great opportunity to get into the playoffs. We just want to play."

No. 2 Boston College vs. No. 7 Vermont
The BC Eagles (20-10-4; 15-9-3 HE) are in the rare position of looking up at someone above them in the Hockey East playoff seedings. But Friday's 4-4 tie with Vermont (11-17-6; 8-13-6 HE), coupled with Lowell's victory over Providence, cost the Eagles a shot at the regular-season crown.

"We're disappointed in the fact that we couldn't win a championship, but you've got to reset and all of a sudden it's the playoff championship we're going to go after," said BC coach Jerry York. "Our goal is to try and win it. We understand just because of our seeding doesn't put us in the Garden. We have to get by Kevin Sneddon's team, who has played very well at times over the course of the year, and I thought played us toe-to-toe on Friday night up in Burlington."

For the second year in a row, the league's No. 2 vs. 7 matchup pits two teams that met the week before, in the regular season's final games. Last year, it was Lowell against Providence, and the No. 7 Friars bounced the host River Hawks from the playoffs. York will likely remind his squad of that result. He said he doesn't expect any surprises, and he doesn't expect his Eagles to look past the seventh-seeded Catamounts.

"It's not like, hey, we played them six weeks ago, what are they like now?" said York. "We know exactly what Vermont is and what their strengths are, and we're going to have to really be conscious of that, because they're a dangerous team."

York's senior class is looking for its fourth straight championship, but the current edition of the Eagles isn't the same as last year's model, which finished the season winning 19 straight to capture the NCAA title.

"We're completely different teams from last year," said York. "We lost a lot of seniors, we lost [Chris] Kreider, we lost [Brian] Dumoulin. Coming into this year is a whole new group of players to work with, with different strengths and different weaknesses. We've tried to address the weaknesses during the course of the year and build on our strengths. I think we've got a pretty good club."

Vermont, meanwhile, is returning the playoffs after a brief absence. Sneddon said his players have already put last weekend, and especially Saturday's 7-2 loss, behind them.

"There was a little bit of an emotional letdown from just kind of knowing we're in the playoffs, we're the seventh seed," said Sneddon. "It was a good learning lesson for us, to just remind our guys that if we're going to play soft against a team like Boston College, that's what they can do to you. In some respects, it may have been a perfect reminder as we head into the new season here."

Vermont's success in the postseason will hinge on the Catamounts' ability to shackle the league's most potent offense (88 goals), led by the likes of Johnny Gaudreau (18 goals, 28 assists, 46 points), Steve Whitney (24-17-41), captain Pat Mullane (15-23-38) and Bill Arnold (16-17-33). It will also be an interesting matchup in goal between UVM freshman Brody Hoffman and BC senior Parker Milner, the MVP of last year's NCAA title run.

"The biggest thing we have to do is make sure we're well aware of when Mr. Gaudreau, Mr. Whitney and Mr. Arnold are on the ice," said Sneddon. "They're excellent players, they're going to get chances. We just have to make sure that we make them earn those chances and minimize to the best of our ability their time of possession with the puck.

"I think right now our depth has helped us," he said. "Knock on wood, we're healthy and ready to go, and I think it's going to be a pretty big battle so we're going to rely on that depth."

No. 3 Boston University vs. No. 6 Merrimack
There's no shortage of one-liners when BU coach Jack Parker and Merrimack bench boss Mark Dennehy discuss hockey.

"I think I just heard [Parker] say that even though they finished third [in Hockey East], and they beat us three times, that Merrimack may be favored," said Warriors head coach Mark Dennehy on Tuesday. "He is amazing. Again, I just tip my cap, because he is always coaching."

But Parker's run is about to come to an end, and Dennehy knows full well that his 5th-seeded Warriors (15-15-6; 13-11-3 HE) are facing a Terriers team (18-15-2; 15-10-2 HE) eager to deliver Parker his eighth Hockey East championship, and its automatic bid to the NCAAs.

"My players have to be motivated too, because I'm coming back next year," Dennehy said. "So whoever is coming back with me better be motivated as well. This time of the year, I don't think it comes down to motivation. I believe it comes down to execution."

Execution has been a concern for the Terriers, who have played uneven throughout the year. The Terriers have again been a force up front, with 82 league goals (second in Hockey East), but the goaltending of freshmen Matt O'Connor and Sean Maguire, while good, hasn't been championship caliber. With O'Connor injured, Maguire will carry the load in the playoffs.

"We had a very solid and consistent first half. When we came back after break, we were very inconsistent," said Parker. "Mostly our inconsistency was in regard to playing without the puck -- how well we defended, how well we defended the initial rush, how well we played in our own zone. That lack of consistency of effort and focus is something that caused us some heartache, as far as wins and losses are considered. We seem to be out of that now."

The Terriers enter the playoffs having won five of their past six, a streak that started with a 5-2 series-sweeping victory over Merrimack. "It wasn't as if we dominated any one of those games" against Merrimack, said Parker. "They always saw our best game and hopefully we can do that again. I'm not sure if we saw Merrimack's best game, so I would say the advantage falls with them right now as far as that's concerned."

Dennehy agreed, to a point. "We do think we can play better against the Terriers than we have played, but you have to give them a lot of credit," he said. "Jack has said that they have played their best hockey against us; it's good to hear that we bring out the best in them. But it would be nice to see our team play a little bit better as well. They are very hard to play against. They defend incredibly well and all of their goaltenders have played well against us. They have got some timely goal-scoring and some really good play out of their better players."

"The biggest thing that we have recognized in the three games that we have played them -- two out of the three we outshot them by a pretty good margin -- was our turnovers and
giveaways," Dennehy said. "You can't turn the puck over against a team whose defensemen move the puck way too well. They can transition. Their forwards are fast, and if they get up the side on you, they make really good plays on the rush and they go to the net very hard."

No. 4 Providence vs. No. 5 New Hampshire
Last year, Nate Leaman got the Friars back into the Hockey East playoffs. This year, his second on the job, Leaman got them home ice. Now Providence (15-12-7; 13-8-6 HE) has got a date with New Hampshire, one of the league's perennial powers.

"Our games against UNH this year were all extremely tight games, and obviously we tied with them in the standings," said Leaman. "It's Hockey East, there's obviously a lot of really good teams. We are really excited about hosting and again, expecting really tight games.

"They bring statistically the best goaltender in the league. That's always concerning," said Leaman of UNH's Casey DeSmith. "They have a very good power play. They have a lot of pluses, they have a lot of weapons. Overall they were a very good offensive team. They have a very good power play and don't take a lot of penalties."

With the league's best defense, and third most potent offense, it's alarming that the Wildcats (18-9-7; 13-8-6 HE) slipped to fifth in the league, despite a lofty national ranking (No. 7). But if the lack of killer instinct (four one-goal losses and five ties in the past 14 games) was a concern for UNH coach Dick Umile, he didn't let on this week.

"Nate has done a tremendous job at Providence," said Umile. "The team is playing well and they have great goaltending [with freshman John Gillies], but I don't think enough is said about their great balance and speed. It's going to be a challenge, but as the team knows, it's a whole new season since only four teams go on to the Boston Garden.

"We have good leadership on the team and I think the team is ready to get on the bus, head down to Providence and play down there."

Legendary Boston University hockey coach Jack Parker will announce his retirement Monday, on his 68th birthday, sources close to the program tell ESPN.

Parker, who has coached the Terriers for 40 seasons, has won three national championships and led BU to 24 NCAA hockey tournament berths, most by any coach.

His 894 career victories are the most by a coach with one school, and third most all-time, trailing current Boston College coach Jerry York and former Michigan State coach Ron Mason.

His teams have also captured seven Hockey East titles and 21 Beanpot championships, the annual February tournament featuring BU, BC, Northeastern and Harvard.

BU finishes the 2012-13 regular seasons with a record of 18-15-2 and will face Merrimack in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East tournament next weekend.

The legacy of Parker's program took a hit last year when a report commissioned by the school concluded that hockey players were given star treatment and lived in a "culture of sexual entitlement", detailing numerous inappropriate incidents. The report was commissioned after two BU players were charged with sexual assault, in different incidents, less than three months apart.

The report did not conclude that Parker knew of the inappropriate behavior, but he was stripped of his title as executive athletic director.

BOSTON -- The Boston University Terriers have a pulse after all. Barely clinging to their top-20 ranking with a .500 record, the No. 19 Terriers put it all together Tuesday night to pin a 5-2 loss on No. 17 Merrimack at Agganis Arena.

"It was nice to get a W, it was nice to get a W at home, [and] it was nice to get some goals. I liked our team tonight. We had a lot of guys play well, obviously," said BU coach Jack Parker. "In general, it was a solid effort against a very, very good team."

The win completed a BU season sweep over the Warriors and allowed the Terriers (15-14-2, 12-9-2 Hockey East) to claw to within a point of Merrimack (14-12-6, 12-8-3 HE) in the Hockey East standings and within two points of Boston College, UMass Lowell, idle Providence and New Hampshire. Boston College had a chance to break the three-way tie for first place but lost to Lowell, 4-2, creating a four-way logjam atop the standings.

"[The clock] will strike midnight and it'll be the 27th tomorrow and we'll be one point out of first place with four [games] to go," said Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy afterward. "We got a day off, so we'll put this behind us and move on."

BU is the only Hockey East team that Merrimack has failed to pry a point from this season.

"I don't know that we've played great against BU yet this year. I think they've done a pretty good job against us," said Dennehy. "They've gotten a lot of easy goals against us, which we usually don't give up. And they're very difficult to score against. At least we've found it that way. Maybe we just bring out the best in them."

In a makeup game rescheduled due to the Feb. 9 blizzard, the two squads entered the night -- the 100th meeting all time between the teams -- deadlocked in the all-important Pairwise Rankings at No. 22. Since only 16 teams make the NCAA tourney field (including automatic bids for conference champs), the game was critical for both squads. But Parker's team, once ranked as high as No. 6, has been in a tailspin, losing two last weekend to No. 12 UMass Lowell and registering only three wins in 14 games since New Year's Day (3-9-2).

Conversely, Merrimack was 7-2-2 in its past 11 games and was atop Hockey East as recently as Sunday, when Boston College edged past the Warriors in overtime. But on Tuesday night, BU was the aggressor from the start and was the better squad throughout the game.

"We started out with a pretty good pace," said Parker. "I thought we really generated some offense down low, and some time of possession down low, too. That really gave us a big jump."

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BOSTON -- Boston University fans have to wonder where the road leads from here, after the No. 13 Terriers finished dead last in the Beanpot tournament -- an event some have called the BU Invitational because of the school's 29 crowns -- for the second time in two years.

In 2011, the Terriers dropped both Beanpot contests for the first time since 1980, losing to Harvard in the consolation game, 5-4. The fallout was severe, as Jack Parker's squad missed the NCAA tournament at season's end.

On Monday, the Terriers (13-12-1) again came up short against the Crimson (6-15-2), squandering an early two-goal lead and dropping a 7-4 decision in the Beanpot consolation game. Harvard, led by Luke Greiner's hat trick and two goals by Marshall Everson, ended a nine-game winless streak.

Winless in their three games prior to Monday, the Terriers jumped out to a 2-0 lead, including a goal at 3:12 by Mike Moran that appeared to expose some Beanpot jitters by Harvard freshman goalie Peter Traber. However, Traber settled down after BU captain Wade Megan lit the lamp with a shorthand strike at 11:45, surrendering only two more goals and finishing the night with 43 saves.

Harvard came back to knot the game before the end of the first on even-strength markers by Dan Ford at the 13-minute mark and captain Danny Biega with only 15 seconds left in the stanza.

With Harvard's Colin Blackwell in the box for a high-sticking call to start the second period, BU surged to a 3-2 lead on a bomb by Evan Rodriguez at 1:38. After that, however, the Terriers stopped playing defense, and the Crimson jumped out front 4-3 on goals 71 seconds apart by Everson (3:19) and Greiner (4:32), both scored from the low slot.

Greiner got goal No. 2 on the night on a power-play tally at 16:33, and the Crimson looked to be cruising. Everson stretched Harvard's lead to 6-3 at 3:13 of the third with his second of the game, and seventh of the season.

BU's Cason Hohmann pulled the Terriers back to 6-4, after Sahir Gill drove hard to the Harvard net, drawing a crowd. The puck squirted loose to the right of Traber, and Hohmann tucked it home at 11:24.

Desperate for offense, Parker pulled BU netminder Sean Maguire (24 saves) with about minute to go, but Traber made a point-blank stop on Sean Escobedo at the doorstep with 33 seconds left to blunt any hopes of a Terrier comeback.

In a play that epitomized BU's night, Greiner picked the puck off Megan's stick at the BU blue line, and with the Terriers captain lying prone on the ice, slid it into the empty net with 8.6 seconds left to finish off his hat trick and the 7-4 scoreline. He may have ended BU's postseason hopes in the process.

Brion O'Connor covers college hockey for ESPNBoston.com.

BOSTON -- Boston University's quest for Beanpot title No. 30 will have to wait another year, as Kevin Roy and the Huntington Hounds of Northeastern dispatched the Terriers, 3-2, in the opener of the 61st edition of the tournament at TD Garden on Monday.

"It was a big game for our guys," Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said. "Now we have a chance to win the Beanpot. The goal is to get to that second Monday with a chance to win."

It was Northeastern's first Beanpot victory over BU since 1988 -- the last year the Huskies won the famed tournament -- and breaks a 15-game Beanpot losing streak against BU. The loss also means that BU's senior class will be the first since 1965 to graduate without a Beanpot crown.

"It's pretty devastating," said BU's senior captain Wade Megan, barely holding back tears.

Roy, NU's dynamic freshman from Quebec, was hardly fazed by the bright lights of TD Garden, tallying a goal in each period to pace the Huskies (8-13-3) while senior goaltender Chris Rawlings (32 saves) shut the door at the other end to deny the Terriers (13-11-1).

"For sure, it's a bigger stage, but I love to play those games," Roy said.

The squads traded goals in the opening period, with the Huskies lighting the lamp first just two minutes into the contest. After breaking up a BU rush in the neutral zone, former Terrier and current NU captain Vinny Saponari collected the puck and dished it to Roy on the right wing. Roy waltzed in on BU's Matt O'Connor (23 saves), but the big goaltender made a great right pad save. However, Roy and Saponari crashed the net, jarring the puck loose with Roy shoving it in.

BU tied it at 5:53, when freshman Danny O'Regan finished off a spectacular passing play. Megan was sprung on the left side by a super touch pass from Evan Rodriguez, then snapped a perfect cross-ice feed to O'Regan, who tucked a shot past Rawlings' left pad.

The Huskies forged ahead at 12:36 of the second, thanks to a gift from BU's defense. O'Connor, playing the puck behind his net, slipped a pass up to Ben Rosen. The senior defender immediately sent a pass to the slot, where an opportunistic Roy intercepted it, depositing the puck into a vacated net for an unassisted tally -- his second goal of the game -- and a 2-1 NU lead.

Referee Kevin Shea gift-wrapped a present for BU at 18:58 of the middle stanza, seconds after the Huskies killed off an extended two-man Terriers power play, with a questionable boarding call on NU defender Josh Manson. But the Terriers squandered the opportunity.

"We just demoralized ourselves with our power play," said BU coach Jack Parker, whose Terriers went 0-for-6 with the man advantage.

Desperate for the equalizer, BU turned up the heat in the third period (13 shots), but couldn't solve Rawlings. Roy put the game away at 15:22, making a tremendous play on a wild deflection. After Manson's point shot caromed off O'Connor, BU defender Garrett Noonan went to swat the puck into the corner. But Roy redirected the clearing attempt with the shaft of his stick past a startled O'Connor, netting the hat trick (and his 15th goal of the season) while giving the Huskies an insurance marker.

"It wasn't pretty, but when you go to the net, good things happen," Roy said.

The Huskies would need the extra goal. At 18:49, with O'Connor pulled for an extra attacker, BU's Matt Grzelcyk went on a rink-long rush, fired a shot that Rawlings blocked, collected his own rebound, and shoveled it in front. BU's Sahir Gill pounced, stuffing the puck past Rawlings to cut NU's lead to 3-2. But it was the Terriers' final bite, and BU was relegated to next Monday's consolation game.

"We weren't unfortunate tonight," Parker said. "Northeastern was the better team."

BOSTON -- Not in our house.

The No. 9 Boston University Terriers made sure that Boston College hockey coach Jerry York's date with the record book would have to wait another day, protecting their home ice Friday by outgunning the No. 1 Eagles, 4-2, before 6,150 at Agganis Arena. The Terriers' victory ensured that York will not break Ron Mason's record of 924 wins this weekend, though he could tie it Saturday at home, against BU on the back end of this home-and-home series.

"I thought BU was better than we were tonight," said York. "We had some excellent flurries, and (BU goaltender Matt) O'Connor made some very good saves. But for the most part, I thought BU had the territorial edge. Their transition game was very good tonight. They had a lot of odd-man rushes off turnovers. So hats off to them. They played better and deserved to win the game."

It was the first time that BU (8-4-0; 6-3-0 Hockey East) had beat the No. 1 team in the nation since Jan. 27, 2006, a 4-3 win over -- you guessed it -- Boston College. The BU victory also snapped BC's 10-game win streak.

"All in all, it was a good effort by us," said BU coach Jack Parker. "It wasn't like we dominated that game. You've got to come up with a top game to beat Boston College the way they're playing right now.

"They've just come off a streak where they've won 29 of their last 30 games" dating back to last season, said the BU coach. "That's a pretty good club. I thought we were fortunate. I thought we deserved to win tonight. I thought we played hard tonight. And we feel glad that we could raise our game up to beat a club that's as good as they are."

Both teams came out flying in this 260th meeting of the storied rivalry, and the action flowed from goal line to goal line for the full 20 minutes. O'Connor, BU's freshman netminder (35 saves), stood tall over the first 10 minutes, constantly thwarting the BC attack. BC's Parker Milner (30 saves) was forced into duty at the 10:30 mark, blunting a clean breakaway bid by BU's Sahir Gill. Two minutes later, the senior netminder from Pittsburgh smothered a snap shot by BU's Matt Nieto off the left wing.

The theme continued for the rest of the opening stanza, with both squads getting quality chances but unable to find the back of the net. BU's Alexx Privitera came close, ringing a shot off the left post, and Kevin Hayes forced O'Connor into a terrific left pad stop on his cross-slot bid.

"It was an unbelievable job of goaltending by both goalies," said Parker. "In a game that was 0-0 for as long as it was, there was a lot of things happening out there. There were a lot of opportunities for both teams."

BU kept the accelerator pegged to the floor to start the second, and Milner was called to make several big stops, none better than back-to-back saves on Nieto as he slashed across the crease. Not to be outdone, O'Connor kept the game scoreless with dandy stops on BC's Patrick Brown and Quinn Smith before swallowing up Steve Whitney's off-wing wrister with his glove.

"I thought we picked it up a little bit" in the second period, said Parker. "Obviously, we outshot them a bit more in the second. That had something to do with it. But I didn't notice any momentum swings, one way or the other."

The Terriers broke the drought at 9:04. BU's Evan Rodrigues made a great shift across the high slot, but fired his shot over the crossbar. Nieto pounced on the rebound, and snapped a shot off the right post. BU defenseman Garrett Noonan, cruising into the low slot, tipped the fluttering puck out of midair and past Milner for a 1-0 BU lead.

Unfazed, Milner made a dazzling left pad stop of Danny O'Regan's tip at the doorstep, but BU kept pressing. Fifteen seconds later, Rodrigues took an O'Regan feed and blistered a shot over Milner's glove for a 2-0 BU margin at 16:04.

BC answered immediately, with captain Pat Mullane stepping up for the Eagles (10-2-0; 8-2-0 HE). Stationed in the low slot, Mullane took a pass from Johnny Gaudreau and snapped a quick shot underneath O'Connor's blocker to halve BU's advantage at 16:42. With 10 seconds left in the period, BU captain Wade Megan steamed a short-hand bid that beat Milner over the left shoulder, but clanked off the crossbar.

The Terriers stretched their lead to 3-1 at 1:46 of the final period on a nifty individual effort by defender Matt Grzelcyk. The freshman from Charlestown, Mass., drove down the left wing, looped behind the BC net, and before Milner could recover, banked a shot off the stick of Eagles defender Teddy Doherty.

"That was the biggest goal of the game, I thought," said Parker. "They make it 2-1, and they can come out and start grinding away at us. And we immediately get the two-goal lead right back. I thought that was huge."

Milner kept the Eagles close with a nice glove stop on a Cason Hohmann bid, and O'Connor twice stuffed Steve Whitney in tight. Nieto was denied by the right post (the third time the Terriers hit iron), and Milner twice stuffed Megan after the BU captain stripped BC defender Patch Alber at the side of the net.

A late BC flurry with just over two minutes left in the game kept the Terriers pinned in their own end, but O'Connor continued his stellar play, making several top-notch stops while scrambling from post to post.

"We did have four or five really Grade A chances to score, we didn't capitalize on those," said York. "But for the most part, BU had more chances than us during the game."

Megan sealed the win with an empty-net shorthanded tally at 18:21. With 25 ticks left on the clock, and BU down two men, Gaudreau brought the Eagles back to within two, but BC wouldn't get any closer. Combined with BC's 4-2 win over BU on Nov. 11, the Terriers' victory on Friday sets up the rubber match for the season series on Saturday at BC's Conte Forum.

"I think (the win) was real big," said Parker. "It's real important for us to beat some teams that are ahead of us. We've got four losses, and three of those four losses are against the No. 1 and 2 teams in the nation (BC and New Hampshire). And the other one is against North Dakota at North Dakota. We feel pretty good that we're a good team, but we still have to beat those guys. It'll be interesting to see how things unfold tomorrow night, on another sheet of ice."

York, meanwhile, said he was looking forward to the opportunity to get right back to work on Saturday, and getting the Eagles back on track.

"It should be another outstanding game tomorrow night," said the coach, who remains just a single win shy of the career record. "Just switch venues."

BOSTON -- The Boston College men's hockey team made good on its No. 1 national ranking Sunday, following Friday's 3-2 win over No. 5 Notre Dame by edging No. 11 Boston University, 4-2, in a hard-fought matchup before 6,150 at Agganis Arena.

"Notre Dame is a big rivalry of ours because there's a lot of sports we play (together), but this one just ratchets it up a little bit more because of the history," BC coach Jerry York said after registering career victory No. 921. "Both rivalry games make you play with an intensity to match the other team's intensity. There were a lot of good players we saw against us this weekend, from Friday and Sunday. A lot of good players."

In the 259th meeting of this storied crosstown grudge match -- the first of three over the next three weeks -- the story was the goaltending for the first 50 minutes, despite both clubs having potent offenses (coming into the night, BC was ranked 12th in the country, with BU at 14). The teams combined for five goals over the final nine minutes, but the game was effectively over after BC sophomore sensation Johnny Gaudreau tapped in what would be the game-winner at 12:23 of the third.

"I thought the biggest goal of the game was the 2-on-1. We got caught in deep," BU coach Jack Parker said. "You can't give those guys opportunities like that. They've got an awful lot of great forwards and an awful lot of people who can move the puck. Gaudreau can get some gorgeous goals, and he's a terrific player in this league. We don't need him to have a tap-in like that."

The win was the eighth in a row for BC (8-1-0; 7-1-0 Hockey East) since dropping its season opener against Northeastern and improved the school's overall record against its historic adversary to 115-127-17. It also enabled York to pull even – 36-36-8 -- in his 80 games against BU behind the Eagles' bench. More importantly, the win keeps BC on track to help York reach the all-time collegiate win mark of 924. Currently with 921, York can tie Ron Mason's mark as soon as Nov. 30, and break the record on Dec. 1. The opponent each night? Boston University.

"We'll see them again later on," said Parker, who has 881 career victories and is third on the all-time list. "And this game will make us grow up. This game will help us. I thought we hung in there and played pretty well against the No. 1 team in the country."

BC got the drop on the Terriers (5-3-0; 4-2-0 HE) early, opening the scoring at the 43-second mark. Junior Kevin Hayes curled quickly behind the BU net, wrapping a pass to Destry Straight at the top of the crease, and the sophomore from British Columbia tapped it past Terriers freshman netminder Matt O'Connor.

"We played well. I thought both teams played really well," Hayes said. "Our line was jelling from the start. We were lucky enough to get a goal right away. It's a lot easier when you score right away."

With 13 minutes gone, BU had several golden opportunities to knot the game with BC captain Pat Mullane in the penalty box, but Sahir Gill and Danny O'Regan both misfired from the slot.

O'Connor kept the Terriers close with a dandy glove stop on Calgary draft choice Bill Arnold's power-play bid with only 22 ticks left in the opening period, then O'Connor stuffed Mullane with a pad save 20 seconds into the second. The rest of the middle stanza belonged to the BU penalty killers, who kept the vaunted BC power play -- ranked No. 1 in the country -- off the board despite playing shorthanded for half the period.

"Both teams did a great job killing penalties," Parker said. "They go 0-for-6, we went 1-for-7. I thought that was the best part of our game as far as executing what we wanted to execute."

"Both penalty kills were keys to the game," York said. "Not many power play goals there, from teams with the weapons we both have."

The Terriers had more chances, but continued to have trouble finding the net. Just past eight minutes, BU captain Wade Megan set up Cason Hohmann, but the sophomore's wrister nicked the outside of the right post. Eight minutes later, Evan Rodrigues had BC's Milner in his crosshairs, but rifled his shot over the netminder's left shoulder. Ninety seconds later, O'Connor again came up big, using his full 6-foot-5 frame to stop Gaudreau's point-blank slapper.

"Both goalies played extremely well," Parker said. "O'Connor gets 20 saves and Milner gets 25. Some of them were real tough saves, on both ends. O'Connor had a couple of 10-bell saves."

Hohmann had another top-notch bid a minute into the third, breaking in on Milner from the left wing, but BC freshman defender Michael Matheson hustled back to get a stick on Hohmann's backhander.

BC was able to put the game out of reach with two quick strikes with less than 10 minutes left. The Eagles went up 2-0 after BU's Sean Escobedo made a diving play to break up a 2-on-1 between Hayes and Quinn Smith. Hayes, however, stayed with the play, corralling the puck behind the BU net and snapping a centering pass that banked off O'Connor's skate and into the goal at 11:01. Just 82 seconds later, Gaudreau finished off a textbook 2-on-1, taking a slick feed form Mullane and guiding it past O'Connor for the eventual game-winner.

Desperate for goals, Parker pulled his goaltender with more than five minutes left, and the move paid off at 15:20. Walking in from the right face-off circle, BU defender Matt Grzelcyk fired a shot that Milner stopped but couldn't control, and the freshman from Charlestown pounced on the rebound and ripped the puck past the BC goalie short side for his first collegiate goal.

Then things got interesting. With BU again on the power play after a bench minor (too many men on the ice), Arnold gathered the puck in his own zone and lofted a backhander from just outside his own blueline that nestled into the back of the BU net for a 4-1 BC advantage at 18:02. But at 18:43, BU defender Alexx Privitera snapped a shot from the high slot that eluded Milner for a power-play goal to cut the deficit in half. But it was BU's last gasp of the evening.

"Games like this help both our teams get better," York said. "We push each other. Win or lose, you're going to be better because of the game we played. It will benefit both of the teams."

If the Eagles can take care of business against Merrimack and Dartmouth in their next two games, they will set up a truly epic home-and-home series with their fabled opponents, with York's date with history hanging in the balance.

Joe Jones was shocked.

He was on campus when he got the call, telling him that because BU will be transferring to the Patriot League in 2013-2014, his team would not be eligible for the America East tournament and effectively would not have a shot at the NCAA tournament.

“I think the first thing I would say is that for all the athletes at BU, it was hard,” the second-year Terriers coach said at the Massachusetts basketball media day last month.

Boston University was picked to finish third in the conference’s preseason poll.

Once the news was delivered -- athletic director Mike Lynch met with the team to discuss the decision -- it was up to the Terriers to digest it as best they could. Some found they couldn’t. Jake O’Brien, who missed BU’s previous NCAA appearance with an injury, decided to leave the school in search of a better path to the postseason.

“For our guys, I think it was a lot for them to handle,” Jones said. “I think, alright you’re not gonna be able to play in your conference tournament, now you lose a kid that is a very good player and is a good friend. And so they have to handle that.”

After the initial shock wore off, Jones said, the players did as well as he could’ve hoped.

“I gotta be honest with you, and this is not blowing smoke, they have done an unbelievable job handling all the things I just talked about,” Jones said. “And really feeling like we have a chance to compete for a regular-season championship, that that’s not gonna sway us at all from our goal each and every season to play for a regular-season championship. But to go through that and I think to embrace the challenge that they have speaks volumes.

“And to me, that’s what sports is all about," he added. "Things aren’t always gonna go your way. So you’re gonna have to adapt.”

The loss of O’Brien, who transferred to Temple, hurts. The Terriers already lost last season’s leading scorer, Darryl Partin, to graduation. Partin, the AE Player of the Year, scored 19.6 points per game, 19th in the country.

O’Brien, the 2009 AE Rookie of the Year, would’ve been expected to shoulder some of that load. But after missing two seasons with recurring foot injuries, he couldn’t stomach not having a shot at the NCAA tournament.

“I felt really bad for Jake,” Jones said. “Being a member of the team and not being able to play when they won the America East championship had a huge part in this, wanting a chance to compete for the conference championship and thinking about getting to the NCAA tournament I thought were the reasons he left.”

The decision still hurt.

“That hurt my heart because me and Jake were pretty close,” D.J. Irving said. “I mean, I understand his decision to leave but, yeah, that hurt me.

“I think he made the right decision, because he didn’t get a chance to play with us in the NCAA tournament in my freshman year,” Irving said. “So he wanted to get a chance to be a part of that. I understand his decision completely, I probably would’ve done the same thing.”

For the Terriers point guard, the AE’s decision means every game BU plays becomes more important, because if BU is to have any shot of postseason play, it has to win the AE regular-season title.

“I think it motivates us because we know from the first game of the season, every game counts, every possession counts,” Irving said. “So it’s gonna make us go even harder in the beginning, rather than trying to get better during the season.

And while it’s a hard pill to swallow now, Jones believes that in the long run the move to the Patriot will be a good one.

“I think it’s gonna be terrific,” Jones said. “I think from top to bottom it’s gonna be a very strong conference. I think right now it’s probably at an all-time high in the last 10 years in terms of the notoriety that the league is getting with Bucknell and Lehigh being so strong.”

But that’s for another day. For now, the Terriers will focus on the task at hand … and try to suppress their disappointment at the AE’s decision.

“You’ve seen it happen with other teams, but when it happens to your team it shakes you up a little bit,” Jones said of the decision. “Because we all play for championships. Like, c’mon, you’re playing for a championship, you’re playing for a right to play in the NCAA tournament. We all know that’s the goal.”

And because of a decision that was outside of the team’s control, it’s a goal that just got a whole lot harder for the Terriers to achieve.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.