PREVIEW: Boston College Hockey vs. UMass

STORYLINES

• Two tough losses to BU have Boston College’s confidence struggling. A decisive win against a not-so-good team would give the Eagles a much needed boost.
• UMass is 5-16-2 overall this season. The Eagles beat the 7-4 in Amherst earlier this year. This could be an easy game, but getting overconfident could create problems for BC (as seen at the end of the away UMass game). UMass did pull off a win over Notre Dame in December, so anything could happen?
• Listen, it’s UMass. There aren’t that many storyline.

GAME DETAILS

Teams:

UMass (5-16-2, 2-8-1 Hockey East) at

Boston College (14-9-2, 9-3-1 Hockey East)

Date: Friday, January 20, 2017

Time: 7:00 PM ET

Venue: Conte Forum, Boston, MA

How to Watch on TV: N/A

How to stream the game online: You can watch online here.

How to Listen: WEEI 850 AM, WZBC 90.3 FM, or BCEagles.com

Following Along on Twitter: Follow @BCInterruption, @joegrav, @salzano14, @laurbear90 and @arthurbailin for hockey coverage.

STATS

GOALS PER GAME: BC 3.2, UMass 2.0

GOALS AGAINST AVERAGE: UMass 2.4, BC 3.3

SHOTS PER GAME: BC 32.8, UMass 24.9

SHOTS AGAINST PER GAME: BC 29.8, UMass 31.4

POWER PLAY: BC 17.5%, UMass 10.7%

PENALTY KILL: BC 80.3%, UMass 83.8%

CAT PREDICTIONS

Mimi had to think about this week’s predictions a little after going 0-2 against BU. Ultimately she thinks this should be an easy win.

Visit Mimi and friends at the Gifford Cat Shelter, the nation’s oldest cageless, no-kill shelter, located near BC on Undine Road in Brighton. Make a new friend before tonight’s game! (Seriously. Someone come adopt Mimi. She’s the best. And nothing makes me more excited than people coming in and saying “we learned about the shelter from BCI.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

• If BC doesn’t win this I might actually cry.

I’m not going to keep track of predictions for the rest of the season since for various reasons we lapsed on that over the past month, but feel free to leave your score predictions in the comments so you can feel smart if you’re correct :)