BC Women’s Hockey vs. #8 Northeastern: Final Thoughts & Predictions

Huskies... Huskies everywhere...

Boston College, as a whole, is probably just about ready to be done with seeing Huskies these days. After football, men’s hockey, and women’s hockey went a combined 0-4 against the UConn version over the last couple weeks, Boston College Women’s Hockey gets the even tougher Northeastern version this weekend for a home-and-home.

If they Eagles hope to take some points away from this series, they’re going to have to play far better than they have in any other game this season. But BC took down an even better Northeastern team last year, so we know they’re capable of pulling off the upset.

WHO

Friday
Boston College Eagles (6-5-1, 5-3-0 WHEA)
at No. 8 Northeastern Huskies (10-1-1, 8-1-1 WHEA)

Saturday
No. 8 Northeastern Huskies (10-1-1, 8-1-1 WHEA)
at Boston College Eagles (6-5-1, 5-3-0 WHEA)

WHAT

Upset special!

WHERE

Friday
Matthews Arena
Boston, MA

Saturday
Conte Forum
Chestnut Hill, MA

WHEN

Friday, November 11, 2022
1:30pm EST

Saturday, November 12th, 2022
2:00pm EST

HOW TO WATCH

We get a nationally televised game this week! Friday’s game will be shown on ESPNU, which is always fun. Saturday’s game at Conte Forum gets back to the usual swing of things being on ESPNplus.

LAST TIME OUT

Northeastern had a couple league weekends last month where they dropped points to lesser teams (a shutout loss to Maine (??) and a tie to Providence), but the Huskies lit up New Hampshire by a combined score of 13-2 over two games last weekend to get back on track. Nothing like a couple games against the lowly Wildcats to get your mojo back.

Boston College... man, woof. The Eagles were swept by UConn and at this point would probably be happy to never have to play UConn in any sport ever again.

PROJECTIONS

We’re finally far enough into the season where we have some projections!

KRACH (used for odds) has the Eagles ranked 20th and Northeastern in 7th. Running the numbers gives us the Eagles with an 17.15% chance of winning, or BC +483 with your local bookie.

The GRaNT rankings (used for point spread) likes both teams a bit better, with the Eagles in 15th and the Huskies in 3rd. Our calculator gives us a projected score of 3.72 to 1.13 in favor of the Huskies, or something like a 4-1 NU win.

THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE

No Pressure. Getting swept by UConn is never fun, and it’s even less fun when your next weekend is against the toughest team you’ll face all year. But the pressure is off the Eagles for this weekend. Nobody’s expecting BC to win either of these games... so what better time to play loose and go after them?

GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK

Jim Croce — You Don’t Mess Around With Jim

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with Jim

This classic is a story about a big shot pool hustler that all the bad folks in town call ‘boss’ ...until the underdog came into town and knocked Big Jim senseless. That’s the vibe we need for this weekend against the Huskies.

And you better believe
They sung a different kind of story
When big Jim hit the floor

PREDICTIONS

Wouldn’t it be nice to see the Eagles come away with a big, statement W this weekend? The fact that they were able to do it last year in a classic Levy vs. Frankel duel has to give the team the confidence that they can do it again with the Huskies a little bit thinner up front and with Aerin Frankel finally off the roster.

BC is going to get heavily outshot in this series, but Northeastern has had quite a few snakebitten weeks this season where they couldn’t find the back of the net with their shots. I think we’re going to have two very different games this weekend — one where the Huskies have everything go right and dominate to the tune of a 5-1 win, but another where Northeastern is badly frustrated by Abbey Levy while Hannah Bilka scores a wondergoal for the 1-0 upset.