BC Women’s Hockey vs. Franklin Pierce: Final Thoughts & Predictions

It’s officially hockey season — be sure to check out our season preview from earlier in the week!

Boston College Women’s Hockey starts their 2022-2023 campaign this afternoon, and the new season brings a welcome clean slate. The Eagles had a disappointing 2021-2022, but there are a lot of new pieces to plug their most glaring holes from last year. They don’t get an exhibition game to get into game shape this season, but a game against a team from the NEWHA conference works just as well and will actually count in the standings.

WHO

Franklin Pierce Ravens (Last season: 22-9-1, 16-4-0 NEWHA)
at No. 15 Boston College Eagles (Last season: 19-14-1, 16-19-1 WHEA)

WHAT

The 2022-2023 Boston College Women’s Hockey season opener (and home opener!)

WHERE

Conte Forum
Chestnut Hill, MA

WHEN

Saturday, September 24, 2022
1:00pm EDT

HOW TO WATCH

All Hockey East games (and BC non-conference home games) will be streamed on ESPN+ this year. While the games are no longer free, it’s a net win for fans of the program. The production quality of ESPN+ is as good as it gets, it allows you to see all of the league games, and it also allows you to watch ECAC games as well as both leagues have a partnership with The Mouse. The cost of $6.99 per month is a bargain compared to most of the streaming options out there (looking at you, FloHockey...) and there’s a decent chance you already have access with some bundle or another.

Here’s a direct link to Saturday’s game. International fans who aren’t able to access ESPN+ can also stream at the same price on the league’s StretchInternet site here.

LAST TIME OUT

This is the first game of the season for both teams.

Boston College’s 2021-2022 season ended with a whimper with the Eagles bowing out of the Hockey East tournament in the quarterfinals. As happened in most games last year, the Eagles were outshot in losing to the Maine Black Bears 2-1.

Franklin Pierce was one of the few teams to end their season with a win, as they won the NEWHA conference championship with a 1-0 victory over Sacred Heart. While, yes, they play in the weakest conference (one comprising of D-I and D-II schools), they no doubt had a really good year and came away with the top hardware they were playing for. The NEWHA gets its automatic berth into the NCAA tournament starting this season, so we’ll get a NEWHA team in the national tournament for the first time ever this year.

PROJECTIONS

Keep an eye on this section over the next several weeks as we use the KRACH and GRaNT rankings to predict each weekend’s games!

THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE

Don’t Get Complacent. Franklin Pierce may be a D-II team, but this is no D-II warmup. They are the defending conference champion, the NEWHA is now an NCAA-tournament eligible conference, and NEWHA teams pulled off some pretty big wins over major conference teams last season. Add in the fact that juggernaut Wisconsin opened up their season on Thursday with a shocking 4-1 loss to the CHA’s Penn State, and it’s clear that parity in women’s hockey is still on the rise, and just about anyone can take a loss on a given night.

GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK

Ottawa — Roman Candle

Burning like a Roman candle
Can’t stop ‘til it’s over
Flying off the handle
I just can’t control her

Season opener! Clean slate! No losses — let’s see how long we can keep it that way!

PREDICTION

Boston College shouldn’t have any problems coming away with a win, but this is a borderline trap game. Franklin Pierce has a solid defense and this can get stressful if the Eagles can’t get a couple goals early to open things up a little. This won’t be a double-digit beatdown as the NEWHA teams have gotten steadily better since forming an actual conference (and they’ll only continue to improve as these teams now have a guaranteed path to the NCAA tournament), but BC should get the W. Let’s call it 3-0 Boston College as the Eagles shake off the offseason rust for the new season.