BC Women’s Hockey vs. Northeastern: Final Thoughts & Prediction

Dark times on the Heights, indeed. It’s been a while since the Eagles have had as rough a stretch as this. Last week’s sweep at the hands of the UConn Huskies saw BC lose in the two worst ways possible — a shutout followed by a soul-crusher in OT — and I’m not entirely sure how much worse things can get.

The good news, I guess, is that Tuesday’s game against #3 Northeastern is the toughest contest left on the schedule. A loss would be whatever, given how things have gone lately and given that an at-large NCAA tournament berth is probably out of reach, but a win would be a real season highlight. Might as well hope for the best!

WHO

No. 3 Northeastern Huskies (19-2-1, 14-2-1 WHEA)
at Boston College Eagles (10-10-0, 8-7-0 WHEA)

WHAT

An upset opportunity!

WHERE

Conte Forum
Chestnut Hill, MA

WHEN

January 18th, 2022
7:00pm EST

HOW TO WATCH

Tuesday’s game will be shown live on NESNplus. Folks outside of the NESN coverage area can stream the game for free on CollegeSportsLive.com.

LAST TIME OUT

Big yikes. Boston College got swept by UConn in a home-and-home this weekend by scores of 3-0 and 4-3 (OT). Saturday’s overtime loss was particularly painful as the Eagles staged a third period comeback from 2-0 down, including two goals inside of two minutes remaining to take a late 3-2 lead. Unfortunately UConn scored a late goal of their own with seconds to play and scored in overtime to take the win.

Northeastern is one of the hottest teams in the country right now, having won 11 games in a row and going 17-0-1 in their last 18 games. They took down Boston University in their only game of the weekend by a score of 3-1 at Walter Brown Arena to extend the winning streak.

PROJECTIONS

KRACH (used for odds) has Northeastern strongly favored, as you might expect, but it doesn’t like the Huskies as much as most of the other rankings. KRACH has NU ranked in 7th with the Eagles ranked 18th. The numbers work out to Boston College having a 15.78% chance of winning, or roughly BC +534 with your local bookie.

The GRaNT rankings (used for point spread) have Northeastern closer to where the pollsters rank them up in 4th place, with BC down in 21st. The ratings calculate a final score of 3.39 to 1.00 in favor of NU, or something like a 3-1 or maybe 4-1 Northeastern win — not too bad I guess, given the ranking disparity, if you’re a BC fan.

THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE

Nothing to lose. Last week was bad, the last few months have been bad, really everything is bad. But this is a game that nobody on earth expects BC to win, so the pressure is off. Maybe it’ll help to have the team come out loose for a home game against a national championship contender. Crazier things have happened.

GAME TIME MEAL OF THE WEEK

All of the milkshakes

Look at this thing I ordered yesterday. Just look at it. What a glorious time to be alive. We have truly reached the pinnacle of human achievement.

Your favorite women’s hockey writer is out in Arizona on vacation (again) and the local creamery, Danzeisen Dairy, sells a flight of all of its milkshakes. I highly recommend engorging yourself on whatever sweet fix you can find for this game and just down it all in the first period. Sure, you might not get to sleep tonight, but your life is thriving, baby. No matter what BC does, you personally are guaranteed a big fat dub.

GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK

Pink Floyd — Comfortably Numb

Hello, is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home?
Come on now, I hear you’re feeling down
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again

One added bonus of downing like 6 gallons worth of milkshakes before this game is you might very well put yourself into a sugar coma. It will be a great way to numb the pain. Of course, then you’ll miss the EPIC UPSET VICTORY... so it’s a tough call.

PREDICTION

Pain.

Look, nobody will be more excited than me if BC pulls a rabbit out of a hat and gets the win. But realistically, the Eagles have not shown an ability to win a game like this all year. If anything, the available evidence suggests Northeastern will put up 50+ shots with BC in the mid-teens. That’s a real prediction, by the way.

Maybe Coach Crowley will print this down and stick it on the locker room bulletin board. Whatever it takes to light a fire. But I’ve got Northeastern winning this one 5-1.