The Eags are back!
Welcome back, Eagles fans! After a bit of a long wait, men’s hockey is back for the second half of the year — and they are jumping right back into it with another top-10 matchup on deck. The Eagles took on Simon Fraser last weekend in an exhibition game, defeating the Red Leafs 5-1. The seven players who won gold medals at this year’s World Juniors tournament should all be back on the ice this weekend as well.
WHO:
#1 Boston College Eagles (13-3-1, 6-2-1 HEA) vs #9 Providence College Friars (10-5-2, 4-3-2 HEA)
WHERE:
Friday
Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA
Saturday
Schneider Arena, Providence, RI
WHEN:
Friday, January 12 & Saturday, January 13. Puck drop is at 7PM for both games.
HOW TO WATCH:
The games will be streaming on ESPN+.
FOLLOW ALONG:
@bcinterruption and @bc_mhockey on Twitter.
PREVIEW:
Not much has changed for the Friars since the last time the Eagles saw them back in December! They played one game at the end of 2023, winning 3-0 against Brown, and then also took on Simon Fraser in an exhibition game last weekend, winning 5-2.
In their previous matchup, the Eagles blew a two goal lead in the third period, only to roar back and prevent a collapse and take the game 5-4 in regulation. Will Smith and Gabe Perreault scored the first two goals, while Cutter Gauthier scored the game tying goal after the Friars took the lead in the middle of the third. Oskar Jellvik scored the last two goals of the game to keep the Eagles on top. It was a pretty solid effort minus the blown lead, the Eagles essentially deciding that they were not going to take an L that night.
On the Friars offense, senior Nick Poisson now leads the team with 15 points in 17 games. Second leading scorer Jaroslav Chmelar had wrist surgery at the end of 2023, and looks to be out for a better part of this half of the year – so it’s likely the Eagles will not be seeing him in the lineup this weekend. In net, Philip Svedebäck has played in all 17 games and has a .911 save percentage with a 2.01 GAA.
It should be a close game, as most Eagles-Friars matchups are. As always, go Eags!