It’s the end of the regular season, and the Eagles are on top. After clinching their 18th Hockey East regular season trophy in a sweep against then-#17 New Hampshire, the Eagles play their last game before playoffs up in North Andover, where they’ll take on the Merrimack Warriors.
WHO:
#1 Boston College Eagles (27-5-1, 19-3-1 HEA) vs Merrimack Warriors (13-19-1, 6-16-1 HEA)
WHERE:
Lawler Arena, North Andover, MA
WHEN:
Saturday, March 9. Puck drops at 7:30PM.
HOW TO WATCH:
The game will be streaming on ESPN+.
FOLLOW ALONG:
@bcinterruption and @bc_mhockey on Twitter.
PREVIEW:
The Eagles last took on the Warriors back in January, coming away with 6-4 and 6-1 wins for the weekend sweep. Since then, Merrimack has gone 3-7-0, earning wins against New Hampshire, Vermont, and Providence. Coming off a 2-1 win against the Friars, the Warriors will be entering this matchup on a high.
On offense, Merrimack is led by junior Matt Copponi, who has 32 points in 30 games followed by sophomore defenseman Zach Bookman, who has 27 points in 31 games. Hugo Ollas and Zachary Borgiel seem to have been splitting time in net the whole season, but Ollas has been getting more starts recently with his .914 save percentage compared to Borgiel’s .890. The Eagles will likely be seeing Ollas in net.
The story with the Eagles will be the lineup on Saturday. Having already clinched the regular season title and the #1 seed in Hockey East playoffs, it’ll be interesting to see if Fowler gets the night off and if any of the other players take a rest or see fewer minutes.
As always, go eags!