BC Women’s Hockey vs. Boston University: Final Thoughts & Predictions

EDIT: Today's game has been postponed (again) due to a burst pipe at Walter Brown Arena.

The games are coming at you fast and hot here in the second half! Boston College Women’s Hockey is in the middle of a stretch where they’re playing about three games a week right now, playing two games over the weekends plus a midweek game thrown in as well. Frankly, it’s happening at a pretty good time — Sure, the team has to dig deep to keep their legs underneath them, but they’re also playing with as deep a bench as they’ve had all year and they’re playing some of their best hockey, too.

Next up? Oh, just a little rivalry battle with the team down the street. No big deal.

WHO

Boston College Eagles (14-11-0, 12-8-0 WHEA)
at Boston University Terriers (10-9-4, 9-6-3 WHEA)

WHAT

The Battle of Comm Ave

WHERE

Walter Brown Arena
Boston, MA

WHEN

Sunday, January 30th, 2022
1:00pm EST

HOW TO WATCH

The game will be streamed for free at CollegeSportsLive.com. Here is a direct link to the game.

LAST TIME OUT

Boston College extended their winning streak to four games with a 3-1 win over the UConn Huskies on Friday. Normally that’s not a big deal, but UConn was sitting just outside the top 10 prior to the loss so that was definitely a quality win.

Boston University played on Friday as well and had themselves a weird one. They took a 4-0 lead over last place Holy Cross into the final several minutes of the third period but allowed the Crusaders to climb back into the game with three quick goals. The final was 4-3 BU, but — yeah, not the way you want to end a game for sure.

PROJECTIONS

KRACH (used for odds) has the Eagles ranked 15th and Boston University in 24th. Running the numbers gives us the Eagles with an 62.8% chance of winning, or BC -169 with your local bookie.

The GRaNT rankings (used for point spread) have the two teams a smidge closer, with the Eagles in 19th and BU in 22nd. Our calculator gives us a projected score of 2.44 to 2.22 in favor of BC — pretty close, so perhaps something like a 2-2 tie or a 3-2 BC win.

THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE

Don’t overlook... your big rival? The way things have gone this year there’s pretty much no excuse for the Eagles to overlook anybody — let alone their cross-town rival — but with the Beanpot on deck, BC will really want to make sure to live in the moment in this one. Boston University is having some of their own struggles this year, but they’ve also played some tough teams pretty close, and they have a win over #1 Northeastern this season to boot. BC’s playing better of late, but this game is going to be a battle.

GAME TIME MEAL OF THE WEEK

Whatever you’ve got left

This is not a time to be picky. You haven’t gotten a chance to go shopping yet for the week and you probably ate your cupboards bare yesterday while hunkering down for the snow storm. I feel that. Just look to the very back of your shelves and pull out whatever you’ve got. A half-empty box of rice, perhaps? Maybe some 3 year old molasses? Whatever’s going to put some calories in you.

GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK

Pinhead Gunpowder — Anniversary Song

I was pummeled in this house of pain
But I survived the wars I waged
And I’ve screamed with all the spit that’s on this stage
”This open heart is back tomorrow”

This is probably one of the deeper cuts on my playlist with Pinhead Gunpowder being one of the side projects of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. Gotta love the theme here with the roller coaster that has been Boston College’s season. Just a miserable slog of a middle-third of the schedule. But the Eagles haven’t given up the ghost just yet — keeping the winning streak going with Trophy Season up next would be a pretty nice way to set hopes high for some hardware.

PREDICTION

Like most of these games I’d be calling them losses if this was a couple weeks ago. But things are looking up. Plus, Boston University’s year hasn’t been all that hot. They have a close 5-4 win over BC earlier in the season, and they’ve got a win over #1 Northeastern, but those were both pretty much a lifetime ago now. I do think that this one ends up being a Heartburn Game, though, as the Terriers have kept most of their games within reach this year. I’ll take BC in a 3-2 road win to set up some momentum heading into their Beanpot semifinal on Tuesday at #1 Northeastern.