BIG Weekend

The fun continues for the BC Eagles this weekend as they travel north to take on the Riverhawks of UMass Lowell Friday night before they host UML at Conte Forum. BC is on a serious roll as they have won 4 in a row since the last time they visited Tsongas Arena. The more encouraging thing has been that in those four wins, BC has scored 22 goals (an average of 5.5 goals/game). Along the way the Eagles picked up a little hardware with their Beanpot win, which should ignite the students at the Heights and maybe get them out to a few games. An early start Saturday night should help too, along with a craptastic basketball team.

UML presents a few problems for the Eagles. They are a tough team that does not give up easily. They also play extremely well in their rink, so it will be huge for BC to get up early and take the crowd out of the game (and I would expect a big turnout for this game, given that BC is coming off a televised beat-down of UMass and the Beanpot). As we've mentioned before, UML has two strong goalies that can steal games, along with a few returning scorers from a team that made it to the Hockey East finals last year.

Players to watch:

Carter Hutton (UML) - arguably the better of the two goalies for the Riverhawks, Hutton sports a 2.1 GAA and has backstopped UML to 8 wins this year. He made 25 saves in a 3-1 win over the Eagles on January 23rd.

Kory Falite (UML) - the Riverhawks leading scorer, the senior has 14 goals on the season. On a very senior-heavy roster, Falite is the glue that keeps the UML offensive attack together. He also figured in the last meeting between these two teams, netting a goal.

Chris Kreider (BC) - this boy is on fire. A quick YouTube search will reveal that Kreider has to be BC's most exciting player. He also adds another offensive weapon and can take attention off the top line of Gibbons, Whitney, and Atkinson.

The Eagles could suffer from a post-Beanpot hangover Friday night, but UML is struggling lately, losing 3-1 to Merrimack (yes, Merrimack) last Saturday night. I expect UML to come out strong and maybe get one past BC early. I also expect that Jerry is going to go with Milner in one of these games this week given Muse's workload over the last few weeks, but we shall see. UML will try to out-physical BC, but they don't have the horses to run with these guys. As long as the refs don't screw us, I forsee a three point weekend.

Predictions:
BC 3 UML 3 (Friday)
BC 5 UML 1 (Saturday)


BC Students: SATURDAY'S GAME IS AT 5PM! THERE IS PLENTY OF TIME TO GET TO THE GAME, THEN GET READY TO GO OUT. BASKETBALL IS JUST GOING TO BREAK YOUR HEART. COME SEE YOUR BEANPOT CHAMPS RETURN HOME ON SATURDAY!

That is all.