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

The Eagles are onto the next round!! After taking down the UNH Wildcats in an OT thriller, BC will be taking on the top-seeded Northeastern Huskies in quarterfinal action.

WHO:

Boston College Eagles (15-17-5) vs. Northeastern Huskies (24-11-1)

WHEN:

Saturday, March 12 at 7:30PM.

WHERE:

Matthews Arena
Boston, MA

FOLLOW ALONG:

@bcinterruption and @bc_mhockey on Twitter

SO, WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH NORTHEASTERN:

The Huskies are 4-1 since the last time the Eagles played them, losing a game to Vermont in between two weekend sweeps of UConn and Merrimack. Because they won in regulation in the dying seconds of their last regular season game against Merrimack, and were assisted by BC sweeping UMass last weekend, the Huskies clinched the Hockey East regular season championship and the top seed of the tournament for the first time in program history.

Northeastern is led on offense by junior Aidan McDonough, who has 36 points in 35 games. The Huskies have star goalie Devon Levi back in net after the Olympics, who has a .953 save percentage and a 1.45 GAA this season.

The Eagles are 2-2 against Northeastern this year, winning back in October, falling in the first round of the Beanpot, then splitting the weekend a few weeks ago.

LAST TIME OUT:

The octofinal game against UNH was…. Interesting! BC took a 3-1 lead into the third period and blew it by taking two bad penalties and giving up two power play goals. However, they showed their resilience the same way they did against UMass last week, with Marc McLaughlin scoring off a beautiful setup by Marshall Warren in OT to end the game and extend the season. Eric Dop had 44 saves in the effort, setting a new career high (and breaking the career high he set literally last week against UMass).

KEY BC PLAYER(S) TO WATCH:

Dop has continued to be on a hot streak, and of course McLaughlin and McBain are always key players to watch. Jack St. Ivany also had a fairly good game against UNH!

PREDICTIONS:

I am truly so interested to see how this game goes. Both teams have their Olympians back! The Eagles have been clicking especially against strong teams though, and Dop has had a phenomenal few games here. I’ll say what I said earlier this week: if hope breeds eternal misery, bring on the misery. BC has been resilient the past few weeks. I’ll take a 2-1 BC win.