Boston College Men’s Hockey vs. UConn: Preview & Predictions

The Eagles are back home! After winning the Ledyard Classic trophy in dominant fashion by knocking off Dartmouth 6-1 in the championship game, BC returns to campus to kick off the second half of the year.

WHO:

Boston College Eagles (10-5-3) vs. UConn Huskies (8-7-0)

WHEN:

Saturday, January 8 at 4PM.

WHERE:

Kelley Rink

Chestnut Hill, MA

HOW TO WATCH:

The game will be streaming on NESN+ for folks in New England, and on College Sports Live elsewhere.

FOLLOW ALONG:

@bcinterruption and @bchockey on Twitter

SO, WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH UCONN:

UConn has had a bit of an interesting season so far — they’re 8-7-0, but were unable to play any games in December due to covid protocols within the program. After coming back from the pause and the holiday break, they dropped a game to Harvard last weekend, losing 6-3. This season, they’ve earned wins against Sacred Heart, Northeastern, BU, Dartmouth, Maine, UMass-Lowell, and Colgate.

The Huskies are led on offense by sophomore Ryan Tverberg, who has 16 points in 15 games, and senior Jachym Kondelik, who has 14 points in 15 games. In goal, senior Darion Hanson has started every single game and has a .916 save percentage with a 2.53 GAA.

The Eagles and Huskies last met on November 12, where BC came away with the 2-1 win at the XL Center.

KEY BC PLAYER(S) TO WATCH:

Oh man, this is hard, I’m not sure that I can pick just one or two players as the key players to watch! As always, Jack McBain and Marc McLaughlin had incredibly good weeks last week, but so did Drew Helleson and Nikita Nesterenko — who each had three points in two games at the Ledyard Classic. Jack St. Ivany just received Hockey East Defender of the Month honors and has 17 points in 18 games so far. Freshman Mike Posma also had a strong December, and came away last weekend with two points in two games.

(Not being able to pick just one or two key players to watch is a good problem to have though, and we can only hope that the entire team continues rolling as Hockey East play gets underway!)

However, Jack McBain did leave the championship game on Friday with an injury and we won’t know if he’s still out until the lineup is posted an hour or so before the game. If he’s not playing, then he isn’t a player to watch since we will literally not be able to watch him!

PREDICTIONS:

The Eagles are rolling and have played more games than UConn since the holiday break, but I think I want to see some more consistency from them before I predict that they can blow a more equally matched team out of the water.

So! I believe this will be another close one like the game in November — I’ll take a 3-2 BC win.

HOT BEVERAGE OF THE GAME:

A dirty chai! Ideally this would be from The Chocolate Bar, but since it’s not open on Saturdays I’ll have to visit another coffee shop.