GAME FACTS

Who:

#45 Colorado College Tigers (1-3-0, 0-0-0 NCHC) at
#25 Boston College Eagles (2-2-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East)

#25 Boston College Eagles (2-2-0, 0-0-0 Hockey East) at
#17 Holy Cross Crusaders (2-0-1, 1-0-1 AHC)

What:

Home opener at Conte Forum / nonconference game at the DCU Center

When:

Friday, October 21, 2016, 7:00 PM ET

Saturday, October 22, 2016, 7:00 PM ET

Where:

Friday: Conte Forum, Boston, MA
Saturday: DCU Center, Worcester, MA

Why:

It’s time to get our first in-person look at the Eagles as BC returns to Massachusetts after a four game road swing to start the year.

How to Watch:

Friday night’s game will be streamed via BCEagles.com. Tomorrow’s game will be streamed through Holy Cross’s website here.

How to Listen:

Stream the audio broadcast on BCEagles.com or listen on WEEI 850 AM.

BC STORYLINES

In the first three games of the season, BC’s offense struggled, but they broke out on Sunday, scoring 8 goals against Wisconsin in a wild game. Colin White and Ryan Fitzgerald scored their first goals of the season, empty netters; can those get them going?

Another early season struggle for BC offensively has been the power play, which hasn’t scored yet through four games, despite having a lot of talent on that top unit.

David Cotton has two goals to lead the Eagle freshmen, and has been part of a productive unit with Austin Cangelosi and Chris Brown.

BC’s young defense and goaltender Joe Woll got cracked open for the first time on Sunday, but looked really stout before that.

The Eagles have to be pretty happy to be 2-2 after four games on the road, but now enter in to a stretch where they will want to pile up some wins.

GETTING TO KNOW THE OPPONENTS

Colorado College has been down in the dumps over the last few seasons and is off to another rough start this year at 1-3. CC has played all Hockey East teams so far, splitting a weekend series at UMass-Amherst, then getting handled for two at home against UMass-Lowell.

CC has continued to struggle defensively - another theme carried over from the last few seasons. CC gave up 12 goals in two games last weekend against UML. Freshman goalie Alex Leclerc has a .771 save percentage and 5.24 GAA in four games. That’s... not good.

Offensively, CC is paced by five players with three points - four of whom are frsehmen. CC is one of the few teams that are as young and inexperienced as BC, with just four seniors on the roster. They've had a lot of turnover under Mike Haviland, who is in the midst of a major rebuilding project.

Holy Cross is off to a good start. They went 1-0-1 against Niagara, then had a huge overtime win over Providence last weekend at the DCU Center. Junior T.J. Moore leads the nation with six goals.

THE NUMBERS GAME

Holy Cross is #6 in the nation offensively with 4.67 goals per game, led by Moore.

Colorado College is near the bottom of the nation defensively, allowing 4.75 goals per game.

BC is one of four teams in the nation that's gone 0-fer on the power play, and the Eagles have been by far the worst - 0-for-23. The next-most-futile is 1-of-23 Alaska Anchorage (the other 0-fers are 0-for-12, 0-for-5 and 0-for-4). On the bright side, Colorado College also has been pretty poor on the power play at 2-for-30. So maybe don’t expect many power play goals?

THE EXPECTATIONS GAME

BC was happy to split the last two weekends, but I think this weekend it’s reasonable to think the Eagles can and should take both.

Holy Cross will be feeling good after beating Providence last weekend, and of course, they memorably beat BC the last time these two teams got together.

RANDOM FACT ABOUT COLORADO COLLEGE

Colorado College's list of notable alumni includes Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani, the former Prime Minister of Yemen, and Steve Sabol, the NFL Films Guy.

OBLIGATORY GIF OF THE WEEK

I mean, how can we talk about Holy Cross hockey without including this?

CAT PREDICTIONS

Cat predictions are brought to you by the adoptable cats of the Gifford Cat Shelter, the nation’s oldest cageless, no-kill shelter - located near BC on Undine Road in Brighton.

Midnight Sky got adopted so we have a new cat-predictor, BIG LOU. Big Lou is a 10 year old guy that was over 30 pounds when he came to us. Now he's a spry 22 pounds! Big Lou doesn't like to move very much, but he was able to be bribed to stand up and make predictions using treats.

Big Lou picked CC to win tonight (cats have to stick together), but BC to finish off the the weekend with a split.

HUMAN PREDICTIONS

Joe Gravellese - Boston College 5, Colorado College 0
Boston College 2, Holy Cross 1

Grant Salzano - BC 3, CC 2.... BC 3, HC 2

Laura Berestecki - BC 5, Colorado College 2...... BC 4, Holy Cross 3

Arthur Bailin - BC wins 4-2 vs. CC and 5-1 vs. Holy Cross. Get out the brooms.

Eric Hoffses - BC 4, CC 2.... HC 3, BC 1

PREDICTION CONTEST

Joe was the only BCI staffer to correctly predict a split with Wisco winning on Friday. JPDot came close to nailing it on the fan side.

Standings
JPDot 2
CoachJF 1
Gifford Cats 1
Joe Gravellese 1
BCJacket5 1

LEAVE US YOUR THOUGHTS

The Eagles are back home. How will they do in the Conte Forum/Kelley Rink opener? Will you be in the house? Leave your thoughts below.