Boston College ended its month-long hiatus from Hockey East with a 7-1 beatdown over No. 9 Providence in the opener of a home and home on Friday night at Conte Forum.

The Eagles’ effort featured six different goal scorers, a five-goal onslaught in the second period and 31 saves from freshman goaltender Jacob Fowler, who notched his 14th win of the season.

The Eagles’ last conference match was a 5-4 home victory over Providence on Dec. 9. The No. 1 ranked Eagles improved to 14-3-1 overall, 7-2-1 in Hockey East and will face off against the Friars on Saturday night at Schneider Arena. Providence fell to 10-6-2 overall and 4-4-2 in Hockey East.

“For your first game back, you are obviously very happy with the score but we know we are going to have to be sharper in their building, especially on our breakouts,” said BC coach Greg Brown.

Brown had six of the USA Hockey-record seven players from the gold medal-winning U.S. team that competed in the IIHF World Junior Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, on the ice against Providence.

Forwards Cutter Gauthier, Gabe Perreault, Will Smith and Ryan Leonard, defenseman Drew Fortescue and Fowler were back in uniform. Defenseman Aram Minnetian was serving a one-game suspension for a cross checking incident against Providence on Dec. 9.

“They had great energy and you could see that,” said Brown. “We gave them a couple of days off and they practiced Wednesday and Thursday, but the energy and enthusiasm was there and they were excited to come back and play.”

BC eliminated any fears of accumulated rust by taking a 1-0 lead on a tic-tac-toe tally 35 seconds into the contest. Gauthier crashed the Friars’ zone along the right boards and fed Andre Gasseau in the high slot. Gasseau relayed the puck to Oskar Jellvik, who one-timed it from the left circle for his ninth of the season.

“On the first shift we were hemmed in our zone and scrambling around and Cutter executed a great 3-on-2 to get the goal, which is always the way you want to start,” said Brown.

BC went 2-0 on a nifty collaboration by the third line at 6:40 of the second period. Center Will Vote, a freshman from Arlington, forced a turnover behind the Providence cage and got it center Jack Malone in front. Malone slipped the puck across the crease to Jamie Armstrong, who backhanded it by PC goalie Philip Svedeback for his first of the season.

The Eagles went to town on Svedeback with two goals in the eighth minute of the frame. Smith flicked home a rebound to make it 3-0 with his ninth at 8:25. BC made it 4-0 on a bad angle shot by Leonard from the bottom of the left circle at 8:40.

“The second period felt pretty even and then we had a few pucks that just had eyes and found the back of the net,” said Brown. “The game was much more even than the score said at the end of the second period.”

Svedeback’s night ended when Gauthier scored his 14th on a redirect that made it 5-0 at 10:30. Svedeback, a Boston Bruins draft pick, was replaced by freshman Marcus Brannman. Vote redirected defenseman Jacob Bengtsson’s slapper to make it 6-0 at 14:05.

Fowler’s bid for his first shutout ended at 5:09 of the third on goal by Graham Gamache.