Two games are in the books for the BC hockey team, and they come home feeling a little better after a nice 6-2 victory over RIT on Saturday night. After a pair of one-off games to start the season, they finally settle into a more normal rhythm this coming weekend with a pair of games at home, taking on Colorado College on Friday night in their home opener, followed by their Hockey East home opener against the UMass Minutemen on Saturday night.
Make no mistake, on paper BC should win these games, and I'll be very concerned if they don't. Colorado College is coming off a 7-win season last year and comes into this season with a new coach and two new goaltenders. The results haven't been stellar to start the year, winning a pair of one-goal victories over Alabama-Huntsville before getting swept by North Dakota last weekend. This is a pretty important non-conference game for pairwise purposes as this is one of only 3 games against NCHC teams for the Eagles this year, so it's likely to loom large down the stretch when the math becomes a little clearer.
This is also the first matchup between BC and Colorado College since the Tigers famously ended BC's 2011 season with a shocking first-round upset victory over the #1 Eagles. I know that game will be on a lot of people's minds this week, even though, remarkably, no player on either team was around for that game (though it feels like it was yesterday, because I Am Old, and so are you). We'll relive that horror show tomorrow with a little group therapy, looking back at what happened and discussing where it ranks in the annals of galling BC defeats during the Jerry York era.
No conference game is ever easy and I'm sure UMass will put their best foot forward on Saturday night, but it's another game I expect BC to come out and win at home. The Minutemen bounced back from an 8-2 loss to BU on opening night with a solid split out at Michigan State this past weekend, but Michigan State is not the Sparty of old. UMass has some exciting young players but BC will be heavily favored to take care of business on Saturday.
On Thursday, we'll chat with venerable UMass hockey blog Fear The Triangle (one of the very best blogs in Hockey East) about the Minutemen and what he's observed so far this season.
In addition to these articles, we'll have the usual Hockey Banter tomorrow, discussing BC's lineup and how we feel following the RIT victory. Thursday will feature the next episode of the Eastern Bias hockey podcast, wherein Shep will likely continue to predict an undefeated season for BU. We'll also have our eye on the women's team, which has a huge two game series at home this weekend against #5 Cornell, a team many consider to be a national title contender. Those games are Friday and Saturday afternoon at Conte. Friday will feature final thoughts and your chance to predict what's ahead for the weekend on the Heights.
1-1 feels a lot better than 0-1 did. Let's hope next week we're talking about 3-1 before the trip to Denver.