Dartmouth Preview

In my opinion, the second half of the season consists of games that the Eagles should win (Brown) and games in which they could greatly increase their pairwise standing with an "upset". Tonight would be one of those games. Although BC is starting to round into form, they will be  playing a Dartmouth squad that defeated Boston University a month ago and currently sits two spots above the maroon and gold in the pairwise. Realistically, BC only has one quality road win on their resume (@ Denver) but the new format has placed an emphasis on road wins which means a victory tonight could have some serious implications at the end of the season.

Dartmouth is off to a strong start with quality victories over the aforementioned BU and @ Union. They're a pretty experienced team as their top four scorers are all seniors, in fact their roster is on average, a year older than BC's. Leading the way for the Big Green is forward Tyler Sikura, a product of Canadian high school powerhouse St Andrew's College, who has recorded a team high 5 goals and 8 assists. They've got a pretty good top line with Sikura and fellow seniors Brad Schiehorn and Eric Robinson. I think one of the big keys is BC's big guys continuing to outplay the opponent's top guys, something we didn't really see early in the season. Guys like Fitzgerald, Gilmour, and Cangelosi are starting to find the back of the net at crucial junctures. Dartmouth played an exhilarating game last night vs Denver, a contest that went to overtime before the Big Green toped the Pios in a shootout. I don't think the Big Green are a particularly deep team as they've got 17 guys that haven't recorded more than 10 points but they do have some size and experience on those bottom three lines so maybe BC can ware them down as the game goes on.

I know what you're all wondering and my answer is I don't know if they're going to be just yet. Like I said last night, there are a lot of logistics involved but I don't see why they couldn't be there, it's only a two hour drive from Chestnut Hill. A lot of fans have suggested starting Barone again to give Demko some rest but if Demko is ready, they should certainly give him the nod because it's a huge game. I think it's going to be a real tight, physical game between two teams that desperately need the pairwise points so no matter who dresses, expect the Eagles to come out on fire.

Scouting Dartmouth- 

Record- 6-4-2

Leading scorer- Tyler Sikura (5-8-13)

Goals scored per game- 2.85 (25th)

Goals allowed per game- 2.00 (11th)

Power play- 11% (48th)

Penalty kill- 86% (21st)

Shot on goal margin- + 7.5......they shoot from everywhere, which is part of the reason I think they should try and start Demko.

Keys for BC- 

1. Get everyone back. Captain obvious here.

2. Capitalize on odd man rushes. BC probably could have scored two or three more goals on 3 on 2's and 2 on 1's last night but their transition game through the neutral looks really good right now.

3. Beware of how often these guys shoot the puck. If they fire it wide, BC could be able to turn that into numbers down the other end.

I'll post once I know about the players.

Go Eagles