The old adage says beating a team three times in a season is hard. What about four?

The UMass hockey team will face Boston College for the fourth time this season at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside Conte Forum in the Hockey East tournament preliminary round.

The No. 8 Eagles have beaten the No. 9 Minutemen in all three previous meetings by a combined 14-6 score. Much of that separation came from a five-goal first period the last time UMass visited Conte Forum.

“That was an extreme game. We made some extreme mistakes and didn’t get any saves the first period. Then we played hockey for two periods,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “We finished with almost identical records and we finished eighth and ninth in the league for a reason. We’re pretty similar teams.”

UMass hasn’t beaten BC since dethroning the then-top-ranked Eagles in overtime Feb. 26, 2021.

The Minutemen are 0-5 since. They haven’t faced Boston College in the Hockey East tournament since the 2019 semifinals, an upset loss at TD Garden.

All of that is history, though.

UMass (13-16-5, 7-14-3 Hockey East) won three of its final four games to end the regular season. The Minutemen knocked Northeastern atop the Hockey East standings on senior day then swept Maine in Orono for the first time since 2010.

“The group’s got confidence that they didn’t have earlier in the year,” Carvel said. “I hope that they’re able to run with it.”

BC (13-15-6, 8-11-5), meanwhile, ended the year 1-4 with two losses against Maine and a split with UConn. Eagles freshman Cutter Gauthier is third in the league with 16 goals and has accumulated 34 points (T-6th).

They’ve allowed the conference’s second-most goals (101), but UMass is third (98).

These are also Hockey East’s two best power plays. The Minutemen convert 26.4 percent of the time, and Boston College scores on 24.1 percent of its man-advantage chances.

Cole Brady will take the net for UMass for the fifth game in a row. The Arizona State transfer is 3-2 allowing 2.8 goals per game over that stretch with a .911 save percentage.

“We got to a point where we needed some predictability in net and a guy who was gonna make the saves we expected him to make. He did that a little more last weekend,” Carvel said. “He’s proven to be a really good teammate, and guys play hard for him. He hasn’t had many breaks this year. He got one, and he’s running with it.”

UMass hasn’t played in the tournament’s opening round since 2018, beating Vermont 2-1 in a series. The Minutemen have received byes to the quarterfinals every tournament since. They’ve played in three straight semifinals and the last two finals.

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>