It seems the only thing that might slow down Boston College and Boston University at this point in the season is having a lot of time off.
A combined 16-4-1 since the beginning of November, the Eagles and the Terriers are beyond red hot, and currently own the Nos. 1 and 2 spots, respectively, in the USCHO.com D-I Men’s Poll. It’s the first time in history the crosstown rivals have held the top two spots in any national college hockey poll.
Now each program faces a long layoff. BC won’t hit the ice again until Jan. 12 against Providence (save for an exhibition against Canadian college Simon Fraser shortly after the calendar flips to 2024), and BU is off until Dec. 29 when it travels to Yale (ECAC Hockey), a combined 61 days idle between the schools.
“It’s tough to keep the momentum going during the break,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo said, with a smile, after his team’s last game, a 5-2 win over Merrimack on Dec. 2. “We’ll just keep our guys — making sure they’re staying in shape, be sure they’re working out, training. It is a long break this year (but) everyone’s going to have two or three weeks off. That’s part of college hockey.”
Pandolfo speaks the truth — college hockey traditionally takes an extended break in December each year, so every team in the country is basically in the same boat. After Vermont and Long Island wrap things up on Sunday, there won’t be another Division I men’s college hockey game until Rensselaer (ECAC Hockey) and Canisius (Atlantic Hockey) drop the puck on Dec. 28.
Still, a gap of almost four weeks is unusual. Last year, the Terriers went 19 days between games for their December break, while the Eagles were idle for only 21.
“I expect our guys to be ready when we start the second half,” Pandolfo said. “We’re still looking for consistency, even shift to shift for our group.”
BU will be able to ease into their second-half schedule with games vs. a pair of teams that have struggled this year — Yale and Northeastern. BC, on the other hand, will go right back to the grind with a home-and-home series vs. Providence (currently ranked No. 10), whom the Eagles beat last Saturday night in a 5-4 thriller before a home sellout crowd of 7,884.
BC sophomore forward and Bruins prospect Oskar Jellvik scored a pair of goals just over a minute apart in the game’s final minutes.
“They’re obviously a very good team,” said Jellvik, about the Friars, after the game. “Very hard to play against. You saw it today, close game. They bring it every night and I think we have to bring it to them as well.”
Should Eagle and Terrier fans be dreaming of a chapter of the storied rivalry between the schools unfolding at the Frozen Four in Minneapolis the weekend of April 11-13? For a clue, one doesn’t have to look too far in the past — earlier this calendar year in fact, to the last time two teams from the same conference were ranked 1-2.
That was Minnesota and Michigan (B1G), who claimed the top two spots, respectively, in the March 20 poll to wrap up the 2022-23 regular season. Both schools reached the Frozen Four in Tampa, but neither turned its prestigious ranking into a national championship. Quinnipiac (ECAC Hockey), which was No. 3 in the March 20 poll, took home its first-ever NCAA title with an OT victory over the Gophers in the championship game.
