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

So far, so good — Boston College Women’s Hockey’s second half turnaround seems to be on track. After starting January out with a few losses, BC now sits on a three game winning streak and looks like a different team than they did in the midst of the never-ending L’s. And there are tangible reasons for that — the defense finally has a full complement of players for the first time in what might actually be years (there were seven (!!) defenders available against Providence on Tuesday!), and the Eagles have a new-and-improved top line that has quickly become a monster.

Tonight’s game against the UConn Huskies will mark a real challenge, and a win would be a big sign that the Eagles came to play here as trophy season approaches. The Huskies are somehow quite good this year sitting just outside the top 10 in the polls, and the game is in Storrs at an arena that has been an absolute nightmare to the Eagles.

It’s time to see if the Eagles have the weapons to make a run.

WHO

Boston College Eagles (13-11-0, 11-8-0 WHEA)
at UConn Huskies (19-5-2, 13-4-2 WHEA)

WHAT

Put-up-or-shut-up hockey

WHERE

Freitas Ice Forum
Storrs, CT

WHEN

Friday, January 28th, 2022
6:00pm EST

HOW TO WATCH

The game will be streamed for free at CollegeSportsLive.com. Here is a direct link to the game stream.

LAST TIME OUT

Boston College had its first “real” win in quite a while on Tuesday, earning a 4-2 win over Providence College at Conte Forum. Prior to that, BC’s last win against a team that wasn’t last place Holy Cross was against Maine early in December.

UConn is really playing well and is about to kick down the door of the top ten in the polls. They’ve won four in a row and are 7-1-0 in their last eight, with their most recent wins coming last weekend with a two game 3-1, 2-0 sweep of New Hampshire.

PROJECTIONS

KRACH (used for odds) has the Eagles ranked 18th and UConn in 11st. Running the numbers gives us the Eagles with an 35.84% chance of winning, or BC +179 with your local bookie. See, what’d I tell you, UConn is good for some reason!

The GRaNT rankings (used for point spread) are pretty similar, with the Eagles in 21st and UConn in 13th. Our calculator gives us a projected score of 2.64 to 1.92 in favor of the Huskies, or something like a 3-2 UConn win.

THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE

Prove that things are different. There was never going to be a magical “hey all of a sudden the same pieces are putting together different results” turnaround. Something had to materially change to turn the tide on the season, and we finally got it with a full set of blueliners and a new superline of forwards. The superstar trio of Abby Newhook, Kelly Browne, and Hannah Bilka were put together just a couple weeks ago and the payoff has been pretty immediate. The three totally went off against Providence as they combined for a 3-5—7 night and looked every bit as lethal as the numbers imply. Good luck picking a “best player” out of those three because the answer is whoever you happen to be watching at the time.

Now the Eagles have an opportunity to knock off a team that is knocking on the door of the top ten. Prove that this new formula can take down someone good and we’ll start to believe that some hardware could be in reach.

GAME TIME MEAL OF THE WEEK

Literally any of this

It’s UCONN DAIRY BAR DAY, baby!! Your favorite women’s hockey writer finally has an opportunity to get to a game in person and with the game just down the road (sort of) it seems like a great opportunity to load up on calories.

The Dairy Bar is reopening literally today. Gotta take advantage. Maybe go with the Husky Tracks? Maybe change it up? What is that “HUMONGOUS HUSKY” thing in the photo? Who knows! Maybe I’ll find out!

GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK

Kill The Sun — Motherfolk

Don’t hold your breath for me
I’ll be back before the morning comes
You don’t have to worry
We don’t quit ‘till the bottle’s done

WE’RE NOT DEAD YET, FOLKS

PREDICTION

DAMN THE TORPEDOES, I don’t care what the projections say and I don’t care that the game is at Freitas. I think we might actually have ourselves a different team for the second half. BC wins 3-0. We’re going full speed ahead on the blind optimism, baby; let’s go!