Boston College Hockey vs. UMass & UConn, 1/22-1/23: Final Thoughts and Predictions

Despite a strong weekend against BU, one major thing was left undone: #JY1K. Coach York's 1000th win continues to loom as an impending milestone and the Eagles will surely want to pick up a W tonight and get that potential distraction in to the rear view mirror as we approach the season's stretch run. They'll have a great opportunity to do just that tonight in Amherst when the Eagles take on the UMass Minutemen, who are 1-10-0 in their last 11 games. On Saturday night BC returns home to take on UConn, a team that started off ice cold but has shown improvement in recent weeks.

atFriday, January 22, 2016; 7:00 PM; Mullins Center; Amherst, Mass.

atSaturday, January 23, 2016; 7:00 PM; Kelley Rink at Conte Forum; Boston, Mass.

THE MATCHUP

		/
Record	15-4-3 (8-1-3 HEA)	7-12-4 (2-7-4 HEA) / 8-13-2 (4-7-2 HEA)
Pairwise	9th	38th / 43rd
KRACH	6th	36th / 44th
Team Offense	#5 (4.05 G/GM)	#40 (2.48 G/GM) / #41 (2.43 G/GM)
Team Defense	#6 (1.91 GA/GM)	#54 (3.61 GA/GM) / #41 (3.04 GA/GM)
Streak	T1	L4 / T1

Storylines

• JY1K: When the Eagles were in the midst of their winning streak back in the fall, it looked like Jerry York would likely hit the thousand win milestone during calendar year 2015, possibly in Florida at the Estero tournament. A series of unexpected hiccups prevented that from happening and now the milestone lingers a bit, carrying on to late January. Will tonight be the night?
• Renewed power play strength: The last two weekends, BC's improved output on the power play fueled them toward improved results. It was a late Ian McCoshen bomb on the PP that won them Friday night's game against BU, and it was the power play that helped BC rescue a point after falling behind PC 4-1 the week before. BC is now facing two teams looking to make upset bids against them and there's no better way to bury such teams than to make them pay for taking penalties. Can BC keep up their PP surge?
• Demko in command: We didn't know as of this time last week if Thatcher Demko would be playing against BU. Not only did he play, he played fairly well, particularly on Saturday night at Agganis Arena when he made a number of big stops to help preserve the tie. With two teams on the docket that have struggled to score, let's see if Demko can return to his early season ways of posting donuts on the scoreboard.

Chubby Love (we did not name this cat) is a super sweet and lazy guy up for adoption at Gifford. He does not, however, appear to be a BC fan.

Chubby Love was quick to decide that UMass will defeat BC, predicting a final score of UMass 4 BC 1.

You can visit Chubby Love and friends at The Gifford Cat Shelter, located right across from BC at 30 Undine Road in Brighton. Founded in 1884, it is the oldest no kill and cageless shelter in the U.S. More information is available at http://www.giffordcatshelter.org/.

In addition, don't forget to support the #MeowsternBias Beanpot fundraiser, raising money for the shelter. $10 feeds a shelter cat for a month! For details on the fundraiser click here.

Predictions Contest