Boston College Hockey at Vermont: Final Thoughts and Predictions

There are four games left in the Hockey East regular season and they all pose their own challenges. Before ending the year with a home and home against a very good UMass-Lowell team, BC must first navigate through the landmine of a two-game trip to Burlington. The Catamounts have struggled at home against good teams this year, being swept by Providence, Lowell, and Notre Dame, but it's still never easy to have to go on the road for two straight, especially in to a tough old barn like the Gutterson Fieldhouse.

The Catamounts are battling hard for playoff positioning, currently sitting in 7th place in Hockey East. They're in pretty good shape for locking up a home ice spot in the Octofinals but it's no guarantee, so they have a lot to play for.

at

Friday, February 19, 2016; 7:00 PM; Gutterson Fieldhouse; Burlington, Vt.

Saturday, February 20, 2016; 7:00 PM; Gutterson Fieldhouse; Burlington, Vt.

THE MATCHUP

Record	21-4-5 (12-1-5 HEA)	8-14-6 (2-8-6 HEA)
Pairwise	4th	31st
KRACH	4th	29th
Team Offense	#3 (4.10 G/GM)	#50 (2.26 G/GM)
Team Defense	#5 (1.93 GA/GM)	#27 (2.61 GA/GM)
Streak	T1	T1

Storylines

• Potential injury woes again: Matt Gaudreau took a whack to the head last Saturday at Merrimack and did not return, and apparently was held out of practice for much of this week. As such, his status is in jeopardy for tonight. In addition, Chris Calnan has continued to battle a series of nagging injuries all season long and he may be out tonight as well. At this point, BC is getting used to slotting guys in around the lineup to backfill for injuries and suspensions, but it's still a concern as BC seeks out precious points this weekend.
• Getting the defense back on track: After the Beanpot shutout, it wasn't a great weekend performance for the BC defense, giving up 8 goals in 2 games to Merrimack. Perhaps a faceoff against a Vermont team that has struggled to score all season long could be just what the doctor ordered.
• Low scoring affair?: Speaking of defense, it's what Vermont does (relatively) well compared to their anemic offensive output this year. Their defense has done a solid job over the last two weekends against a pair of very good offenses - holding Notre Dame and UNH to 2 non-empty net goals in each of the last 4 games. We'll see if Vermont can also slow down BC's attack, which has been roaring in recent weeks.

You might think that a cat would pick the Cats, but Gizmo was pretty quick to decided that BC will win both games. He's predicting a 4-1 BC game and then a 6-2 BC game.

Predictions Contest

JPDot 36 points
bostoncollegenyr 33 points

princisb 33 points
airforce987 33 points
pjpj23 32 points
cam_dezak 28 points
seobe 8 points
mig1168 8 points
95dougie95 12 points
we are bc 5 points
bcmike22 24 points
b0mberman 4 point
bcmurt09 7 points
tommykay 4 points
totheheights 2 points
bceagles66 2 points
rmbc81 1 point
spillerhighlife 1 point
eagles2015 23 points
eagleeye9184 2 point
bceaglekeepr 1 pint
suckstobu 1 point
kreidersjohnson 1 point