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

Well, well, well, what do we have here! The Eagles have split the past two weekends against Northeastern and BU, and they are riding on a bit of a high as they head into their last regular season home-and-home series against the UMass Minutemen.

WHO:

Boston College Eagles (12-17-5) vs. UMass Minutemen (19-10-2)

WHEN:

Friday, March 4 & Saturday, March 5. Friday’s game is at 7PM, and Saturday’s is at 4:30PM.

WHERE:

Friday
Conte Forum
Chestnut Hill, MA

Saturday
Mullins Center
Amherst, MA

FOLLOW ALONG:

@bcinterruption and @bc_mhockey on Twitter

SO, WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH UMASS:

The Minutemen are the defending national champions and defending Hockey East tournament champions. They’re having a pretty strong season this year, and are looking to clinch the Hockey East regular season trophy this weekend when they take on the Eagles. UMass went 6-2 in February, and they’re coming off a series sweep of Vermont.

Senior forward Bobby Trivigno leads the Minutemen on offense, with 42 points in 31 games, closely followed by freshman defenseman Scott Morrow, who has 30 points in 31 games. In net, Matt Murray has started most games, going 18-9-2 this season with a .919 save percentage and a 2.32 GAA.

LAST TIME OUT:

The Eagles split the weekend with BU last week, losing 6-3 at Agganis before responding with a 3-1 win at home.

KEY BC PLAYER(S) TO WATCH:

Jack McBain has not missed a beat since returning from the Olympics, grabbing three goals in two games last weekend. But in addition to him, I’ll have to say the entire senior class. Friday night is senior night at BC, and it’s their last regular season weekend as Eagles — and depending how the rest of the weekend in Hockey East shakes up, it could be their last game at Conte as well (let’s hope not!)

PREDICTIONS:

You know what? The Eagles showed a fighting spirit against Northeastern and BU these past few weeks, even though they weren’t able to sweep either series. I’d like to hope that they can split this series, especially for the seniors on Friday. I’ll predict a 3-1 BC win on Friday, and then a 3-1 UMass win on Saturday (a sweep for the Eagles would be nice though :) )