Hopes are high! Can BC deliver?
With their win over the Merrimack Warriors on Saturday night, the Boston College Eagles men’s hockey team has essentially secured the #1 overall seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Both the CHN and PlayoffStatus.com Pairwise Probability Matrices give BC a 99+% chance to be top dog when the NCAA tournament officially begins at the end of the month, before the Hockey East tournament even begins this week. BC has been dominant down the stretch, finishing the regular season on a 9-game winning streak and with a 15-2 record since the new year began. Despite the loss of Gabe Perreault and Will Vote to injury for the last handful of games, BC still took care of business and pulled out some gritty games against #18 UNH and #15 UMass. Perreault should hopefully be back soon for tournament play, and they’ll need him, because it’s win or go home from here on out against even tougher competition.
Boston College will need to win three straight games to claim their first Hockey East championship since 2012. They’ll need to win another four straight games after that to claim their first national championship since 2012. The Eagles are the odds on favorite to win both, with Vegas giving them a 1-in-5 chance to take home the program’s sixth national title in April. Nobody has really even touched their regular season success this season, but the playoffs are a different animal, and a dud game like they had against BU in the first round of the Beanpot could dash their hopes in a single evening.
That being said, this team is not inexperienced when it comes to winning big games. Despite being led by a bunch of freshman, BC’s players actually have a lot of experience they can bring over from their gold medal victory earlier in the year during World Juniors. Cutter Gauthier, Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Gabe Perreault all played pivotal roles in that tournament run, demonstrating their ability to show up in big games and play well against very tough competition. They’ve also shown up in a lot of big games during the regular season, sweeping #1 BU, defeating defending national champions Quinnipiac on their banner night, and keeping it very close with #2 Denver in one of their first games of the season. They have all of the talent and experience to make a very serious run at a national championship this season, all they need to do now is put together a handful of wins.
The Eagles will start their playoff journey this Saturday March 16th with the Hockey East quarterfinals, which will be their final game of the season in Conte Forum.