For all the success that Boston College hockey has had over the last decade, rare is the regular season sweep over a Hockey East opponent. A bit strange, no?, considering BC's dominance over the conference when the calendar turns to March and April, and the fact that there have been some bad, bad Hockey East programs over the years. It's a testament to just how hard it is to knock off the same hockey program three times in a season.
During the previous five seasons going back to the 2005-06 season -- the year that Vermont upped Hockey East's membership to an even ten -- BC has swept a conference opponent just nine times. That's nine out of a possible 45 Hockey East regular season series, or 17.7 percent of the time. On second thought, that's not that bad of a success rate after all.
Here are BC hockey's regular season sweeps from the 2005-06 season up until last season:
2005-06: Merrimack, Providence, Vermont
2006-07: Maine, UMass Lowell, Merrimack
2007-08: None
2008-09: None
2009-10: Massachusetts, Providence
The Eagles will attempt to pull off the rare regular season sweep tomorrow night that as they roll into a sold-out Tsongas Arena and look to close out UMass Lowell. Lowell has just six Hockey East points (good for last in the Hockey East standings) and has won all of four games on the year. The Eagles were 5-2 winners over the River Hawks back on November 2, and won at home last week 5-3.
Though BC has won the first two games of the series, this will be the Eagles first trip to Tsongas Arena of the 2010-11 season. Lowell's home ice hasn't been too kind to BC of late. The Eagles dropped both games to UMass Lowell on the road a year ago (3-1, 4-1) and haven't won in Lowell in nearly three years.