January 26th can’t come soon enough
On Monday afternoon, USCHO released their weekly national poll for DI men’s college hockey, and the Boston College Eagles found themselves slipping from #1 into a tie for #2 with archrival Boston University. BC had an uneven weekend, dropping a game at home to Northeastern on Friday before going into Matthews Arena to take home a win on Saturday. It was enough of a struggle that the poll voters put North Dakota on top of this week’s poll instead, who split their weekend against #4 Denver.
The #1 ranking has been a bit of a curse so far this year, with several different teams holding the top spot before losing a game that they should win within a week or two of reaching the top. BC has been no exception, as this is the second time they’ve reached the #1 ranking in 2023 and then subsequently lost it. But it’s a long season and what really matters in the end is pairwise, which will determine seeding in the NCAA tournament. Boston College took a tumble from #1 in pairwise to #5 after their split with Northeastern. BU sits at #2 behind North Dakota.
The Eagles have just one game remaining before Christmas break, a match-up with Providence on Saturday night in Conte Forum. PC is quite the contender this season, too, earning a #9 rank in this week’s poll and sitting at 4th place in Hockey East standings. Be sure to check out BCI later this week as we preview the Friars and continue to cover this promising young team.