Simpson was not on the roster last weekend, when Providence began its crucial stretch with a sweep of the Black Bears by a combined score of 9-1. Freshman Jack Parsons started both games, stopping 46 of 47 shots en route to being named Hockey East’s rookie of the week.

Next up is BC, beginning Friday night at sold-out Conte Forum, with John Buccigross and Colby Cohen on the call for the ESPNU broadcast. It is a matchup of the Hockey East teams with the highest ratings in the NPI, the system used to seed and select the 16-team field for the NCAA tournament. Providence is 13 and BC is 16.

Providence coach Nate Leaman, when speaking to the media this week, said he did not have a plan for who would start in net.

“Jack obviously put together a good weekend,” said Leaman. “He worked his butt off last week, so he’s got to come in with the exact same focus … We’ll play it by ear. Obviously, it’s a big series this week.”

BC made a midseason move of its own, bringing in forward Oscar Hemming. The 17-year-old Finland native is eligible for this year’s NHL Draft and is projected to go late in the first round. He already has appeared in two games for the Eagles, picking up a pair of assists in a 4-3 win over Lake Superior State on Dec. 29.

The Eagles also are hoping senior forward Andre Gasseau, out since Oct. 24 with an injury, is back in the lineup this weekend.

The series will conclude Saturday at Providence.

Crimson struggling

Harvard will play three conference games in four days, all at Bright-Landry Hockey Center, beginning with Friday’s matchup with St. Lawrence, followed by Clarkson on Saturday and Union on Monday. It’s been a rough start to the second half of the season for the Crimson, who have gone 0-4 coming out of the break to drop to 7-7-1.

The first three setbacks came on the road against ECAC foes ranked in the top 15 of the NPI — Quinnipiac, Princeton, and Dartmouth — and a combined 29-2-2 at home. The fourth came this past Monday at home, a 4-1 loss to a BU squad that looks like it finally might be figuring things out.

“I think early on here we’ve beat ourselves, and that’s something that we’ll have to get beyond if we want to have sustained success,” said coach Ted Donato. “I think we’re still very focused on the fact that we think we can be an excellent team. We’ll have to hit the reset button. The games will come at us this weekend pretty quickly. It’s a good challenge for us.”

Senior Joe Miller had the lone goal for the Crimson in the loss to BU. It was his fourth in the last six games.

“We’ve got to play a lot more connected,” said Miller. “In the first half of the season we did a great job with that, just everyone being on the same page and being really predictable. We need to get back to that. We need to communicate better on the ice.”

Chara connection

Ahead of Zdeno Chara’s No. 33 being retired by the Bruins before Thursday night’s game, UMass coach Greg Carvel was asked if he had any stories he could share about the big defenseman. Carvel worked with Chara for the 2005-06 season, when he served as an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators and was in charge of the penalty kill.

At the end of that season, Chara was set to become a free agent, as was defenseman Wade Redden. General manager John Muckler called in the coaching staff to say the organization could only afford to sign one, and wanted to know who they thought it should be

“It couldn’t come out of our mouths fast enough,” said Carvel. “We were like, ‘Chara, like this is an easy decision. Zdeno Chara.’ And Muckler decided to sign Redden, and the rest is history.

“At that time, our assistant GM was Peter Chiarelli, and he then got the job with the Bruins, and in a heartbeat he signed Chara, and the Bruins went on to win a Stanley Cup, and the Ottawa Senators are still looking.”

Follow Andrew Mahoney @GlobeMahoney.