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

Things were quite a bit less dire last weekend as the Boston College Women’s Hockey team came away with three points against Vermont to end their losing streak and get things somewhat back on track. Next up for the Eagles is a home-and-home against the Providence Friars, one of BC’s primary challengers for getting a top three spot in the Hockey East standings — important to avoid a potential matchup with Northeastern in the conference semifinals.

The Friars are no slouch, and it would be a big weekend if the Eagles could find a way to come away with a sweep.

WHO

Friday:
Providence College Friars (13-9-2, 10-7-0 WHEA)
at Boston College Eagles (12-9-3, 11-7-2 WHEA)

Saturday:
Boston College Eagles (12-9-3, 11-7-2 WHEA)
at Providence College Eagles (13-9-2, 10-7-0 WHEA)

WHAT

A big weekend that’s all about league positioning... and maybe a little about building momentum

WHERE

Friday:
Conte Forum
Chestnut Hill, MA

Saturday:
Schneider Arena
Providence, RI

WHEN

Friday, January 24th, 2020
2:00pm EST

Saturday, January 25th, 2020
2:00pm EST

HOW TO WATCH

Both games will stream for free on CollegeSportsLive.com. Here are direct links to Friday and Saturday afternoon’s games.

PROJECTIONS

KRACH (used for odds) has BC and Providence right next to each other at 15th for the Eagles and 16th for the Friars. BC’s got a small edge there in the actual ratings, which puts BC at 53.05% odds to win, or BC -113 with your local bookie (for entertainment purposes only, of course). That also works out to a 28.14% chance of a BC sweep.

GRaNT (used for scores) likes BC a little better — up slightly to 13th — with the Friars in 16th as in KRACH. Those work out to BC being favored by a 2.56 to 2.40 score, or something like a 2-2 or 3-3 tie, or perhaps a 3-2 BC win.

We have a direct link to all our BC Interruption hockey calculators in the site header. Just hover over “More” at the top of the page to be linked straight to the Live Pairwise, Projected Pairwise, KRACH, and GRaNT calculators.

LAST TIME OUT

Providence has been playing pretty well. They took a tight sweep on the road against New Hampshire last weekend by scores of 3-1 and 2-1. The week before, they earned a split against Boston University — a solid result with the Terriers sitting solidly in the top ten.

Boston College had an okay weekend against the Vermont Catamounts by winning the weekend with a wild 7-5 victory, followed by a meh 2-2 tie.

These two teams faced off earlier in the season when the Eagles took a strong 5-2 win at BC in early November.

THIS WEEK’S STORYLINE

BC ended the losing streak against Vermont, but they didn’t look all that great. The 7-5 win was exciting (and a great third period comeback) but it wasn’t exactly what you’d call sound defense. The following night, the Eagles started out playing well, but blew a two goal lead to settle for a 2-2 tie. If BC’s going to take a step forward with trophy season approaching, it would be nice to see them put up a couple strong 60-minute efforts again.

THE BIG QUESTION

Who is BC’s #1 goalie? The BC coaching staff has alternated between Maddy McArthur and Kelly Pickreign the last couple weeks as neither has really taken the reigns. There’s an opportunity for one of them to make a claim for the #1 slot with the Beanpot and conference tournament on the horizon.

RANDOM, POSSIBLY INCORRECT FACT FROM PROVIDENCE COLLEGE’s WIKIPEDIA PAGE

Providence is the *only* college or university in North America administered by the Dominican Friars. The only one! Neat, I actually didn’t know that.

GAME TIME MEAL OF THE WEEK

Baked Salmon Fillets

Were it not for the fact that you probably should eat these the same day that you buy them, I could probably have this for dinner every day of the week. They’re also one of the healthiest things you can eat, so you can pretty much eat your fill guilt-free.

I keep it simple with my salmon fillets — set the oven’s broiler to high, cut the salmon into however big you want them, skin on and all, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, some dill (essential), and a pad of butter each. Broil for 10-15 minutes until you start to get a touch of browning on there, and pair with your veggie of choice (I’m a green peas kind of guy) and maybe some rice if you want to go crazy.

If you don’t think that’s one of the best meals out there, I don’t know what to tell you.

GAME TIME SONG OF THE WEEK

Green Day — Oh Yeah!

I’m in the crowd full of angels and demons
I’m looking out for the jingoes and heathens
Nobody move and nobody gonna get hurt
Reach for the sky with your face in the dirt

I’ve always liked Green Day, sell outs as they may well be (NHL On NBC Theme, anyone?), but they can still make some good tunes. Their newest release is this one from their upcoming album, which will hopefully, for the sake of my own personal enjoyment, be good.

This season has been a disappointment — certainly the last couple months have been — but BC’s just one good weekend away from feeling good about getting a trophy or two. “Reach for the sky with your face in the dirt,” indeed.

PREDICTIONS

The losing streak definitely didn’t make it look like BC would be sweeping anyone anytime soon. They didn’t sweep Vermont, though they came close, and it was an up and down weekend. The defense was nonexistent for both teams on Friday (Bad!), but there was a great team effort behind the comeback to get the win (Good!), and though BC took a two goal lead on Saturday (Good!), they blew it and had to leave with a tie (Bad!).

Providence is a smidge better than Vermont, but hopefully that’s countered with another step up in improvement for BC’s play. I won’t call for a sweep this time (this week’s song isn’t Lizzo), but I’ll take what would be a decent enough weekend with three points — call it a 3-1 BC win at home before another 2-2 draw on the road on Saturday.