Previewing the UVM Catamounts

 

One thing Coach York always talks about this time of year is “trophy season” and how you play for one thing and one thing only : trophies. This weekend, the Eagles will have a chance to claim it’s second trophy of the season with a couple wins over the Vermont Catamounts (they also need some help from PC and Maine).  Anyways, like I said, the regular season trophy is nice and all but it’s not what guys strive for @ BC. If this team wants to have  a chance at being a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, two wins this weekend are absolutely necessary. There is no other way around it. Unlike last weekend where the Eagles were missing two of their best players, this weekend leaves no room for excuses. It’s win or no 1 seed, or even worse, no home ice. Let me get this out of the way because I know it’s probably all you are thinking about. Steven Whitney and Patrick Wey both practiced today, and should be good to go for this weekend. I’d say Wey is a definite go and Whitney is right on the fence, but certainly leaning towards probable. Obviously, having these two back would be a huge boost. Whenever you get the best offensive player in your league best on your club, it never hurts. Same goes for Wey because he is as solid and smart of a defenseman as BC has on it’s team. They need him really badly, I mean just look at how bad things were without him.

After Saturday’s debacle, I think a lot of people started counting this team out and you never want to use injuries as an excuse but let’s be honest, BC had a very small chance of beating a team like Providence without elite players like Whitney and Wey. It’s not an excuse for playing poorly, but I mean just look at how well they played with those two guys at full strength a day earlier. With those two back in the lineup, I think we will see a lot of improvement on both ends. As for the previous meeting with Vermont this season, the Eagles won 4-1 @ Conte Forum but it was the Catamounts that outshot BC by a 39-30 margins. Don’t let the shots fool you because BC actually played a pretty good game considering the fact they had just lost two in a row to a really bad Maine team.  Anyways, since then both teams have had their ups and down but Vermont is actually playing some good hockey as of late as they’re coming off a nice 5-2 victory on Saturday night @ the Jack Parker Rink but they also fell to the Terriers by a 3-1 margin the night before. UVM’s problem this year has the inability to put the puck in the net. They have scored an average of 2.28 goals per game, good for 9^th in the league. The guy to watch up front is certainly former BC commit Chris McCarthy who leads the team with 11 goals and 17 assist along with a +/- of + 4, good for second on their club.

Honestly, it’s not really about what Vermont does. If they play well, great. If they play bad, that’s great to. What really matters is how BC responds to last Saturday’s disaster. One thing this team has done really well  this year is responding to adversity with all the injuries and suspensions. I think we’re going to see a BC team that comes out with a certain type of intensity that we didn’t see in the game vs the Friars on Saturday but we did see it on Friday night. Vermont doesn’t score a lot of goals but if the Eagles give them 5 or 6 power plays, then they will put pucks in the net. You can’t give a team like UVM chances on the power play because you know they’re probably not going to score a lot of even strength goals, so why give them extra chances ? 

Keys for the Eagles-

1. Grind it out. It’s never easy winning games on the road in this league but BC can do it if they play like they have in their past two roadies (@ MC and @ PC).

2. Got to find a way to execute better. The Eagles had a lot of chances to score early on in Saturday’s loss but they weren’t able to come through.  BC has got to find a way to execute better tomorrow night.  

Scouting the Catamounts-

 Best Wins- vs Providence vs Union

Worst Loss- vs Penn State

Pairwise Rank- N/R

Hockey East Rank- 6^th

Leading Scorer- Chris McCarthy- 11-17-28

Previous Meetings- BC is 1-0 this year vs UVM.

Go Eagles.