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

The games are coming in hot here in the second half as the Eagles have a few COVID makeups to play. Boston College Women’s Hockey takes on Providence College this afternoon in one of those makeup games, and they’ll look to extend the winning streak that they started over the weekend.

WHO

Providence College Friars (8-9-5, 5-8-2 WHEA)
at Boston College Eagles (12-11-0, 10-8-0 WHEA)

WHAT

The rescheduled matchup from January 3rd

WHERE

Conte Forum
Chestnut Hill, MA

WHEN

Tuesday, January 25th
6:00pm EST

HOW TO WATCH

The game will be shown live on NESNplus for those in the New England area. Folks who live outside of NESN’s footprint can stream the game for free at CollegeSportsLive.com.

LAST TIME OUT

Wins! Boston College got off their extended slide thanks to a couple of games against league basement dweller Holy Cross, with the Eagles claiming 4-1 and 3-1 wins in the home-and-home.

Providence College’s record is a little deceiving as most of their remaining league games are against the lower-ranked teams — they still have all three games remaining against Holy Cross and two left against Merrimack. Still, they’re on a four game losing streak. This weekend they dropped a pair to (somehow) 2nd place Vermont by scores of 4-1 and 3-1.

PROJECTIONS

Close one today. KRACH (used for odds) has the Eagles ranked 18th and Providence in 21st. Running the numbers gives us the Eagles with an 53.03% chance of winning, or BC -113 with your local bookie. Pretty close to a Pick ‘Em.

The GRaNT rankings (used for point spread) have the matchup flipped, however. It shows the Eagles in 22nd and Providence in 18th. Our calculator gives us a projected score of 2.14 to 1.85 in favor of the Friars, or something like a 2-2 tie or maybe a 2-1 Providence victory.

THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE

Who wants it... least? Both of these teams have struggled pretty badly lately. The Eagles have a couple recent wins under their belts thanks to playing Holy Cross, but other than that, the two teams are pretty closely matched and struggling about the same. This seems to be one of those games where one team is going to out-struggle the other. I would expect it to be a close one.

GAME TIME MEAL OF THE WEEK

Grilled Pizza

Providence is apparently known for their unique grilled style of pizza. I still haven’t had the opportunity to try it, though I’ve been meaning to. Blogfather Emeritus Joe Gravellese swears by it, though, and the man knows food.

GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK

Felix Hagan & The Family — Gene Kelly

But these dreams don’t keep the lights on, they don’t pay for bread and cheese
There’s no free ticket for the rock star with the most convincing pleas
And though ambition is a virtue, and desire can breed a king
There’s no reaction without action, there’s no life if you don’t sing

The rest of the season is going to be a grind, baby. Gotta stay with it if we want to pull off some upsets and make some noise when trophy season gets here.

PREDICTION

Boy, I don’t like this one. Providence is better than their record and I still don’t think the Eagles are fully back on track. But, let’s make it a step in the right direction at least — let’s give this one a 2-2 tie through overtime, with the Eagles getting a shootout win.