The exam and holiday break marks the rough midway point of the Division 1 hockey season, but one game remains for a pair of New England clubs until it hits in full as Dartmouth makes the trip into Boston for a Friday night non-conference game with Boston University.
Following the ECAC vs. Hockey East game at Agganis Arena, all 20 of the region’s clubs will step away from action until Friday, Dec., 28, when a full slate for several days commences.
NON-CONFERENCE
Dartmouth (4-5-1, 4-2-1 ECAC) at Boston University (5-8-2, 5-5-2 HE)
Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Agganis Arena, Boston
Both teams take the ice this weekend with a 1-3-1 mark in their last five games, but BU earned its lone win in that stretch last Saturday to cap a home-and-home with UMass Lowell, 5-2, thanks to two goals from both senior Bobo Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.) and sophomore Shane Bowers. Junior Jake Oettinger made 40 saves for the second time in three games.
The Terriers have not played a non-conference game since falling to Union in the the Friendship Four title game after Thanksgiving in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but will also play four in January coming out of the semester break.
BU enters the game a bit shorthanded as head coach Albie O’Connell said last week that junior defenseman Chad Krys (Ridgefield, Conn.) would miss the remainder of the semester due to injury, while Bowers and defenseman Cam Crotty left the team to join Canada’s World Junior camp earlier this week. Sophomore Logan Cockerill and freshman Joel Farabee will depart for the U.S. camp following Friday’s game and look to make their first-ever appearances at the tournament.
Dartmouth’s last three wins have all come over ranked ECAC foes in Quinnipiac, Yale, and Cornell, but the Big Green suffered a weekend sweep at the hands of in-state rival New Hampshire last weekend, 3-2 and 4-0. Senior Carl Hesler (Boxborough, Mass.) assisted on both goals in the first game, which freshman Drew O’Connor and junior Shane Sellar scored.
These two teams have not met since Nov. 30, 2014 in Hanover, N.H., when Dartmouth won its third consecutive game in the series, 2-0. BU entered that game as the No. 1 team in the country and, despite the loss, still made its way to the Frozen Four at TD Garden later that season behind freshman sensation and eventual Hobey Baker Award winner Jack Eichel.
That victory makes the Big Green one of only four teams in the nation with a current winning streak against the Terriers, joining Minnesota State, Denver, and Colorado College. Two of the wins have come in Boston. BU last beat Dartmouth on Dec. 30, 2006, also in Hanover.
Here’s the schedule of regular-season games coming out of the holiday break:
Friday, December 28
Denver at Merrimack, 7 p.m.
Maine at Princeton, 7 p.m.
Catamount Cup - Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.
Rensselaer vs. Northeastern, 4 p.m.
Alabama Huntsville at Vermont, 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, December 29
Quinnipiac vs. Colgate, 3 p.m. (at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, N.Y.)
Maine at Princeton, 7 p.m.
Denver at UMass Lowell, 7 p.m.
Robert Morris at American International, 7:05 p.m.
Ledyard Bank Classic - Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.
Providence vs. Brown, 4 p.m.
Army West Point at Dartmouth, 7 p.m.
Catamount Cup - Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.
Alabama Huntsville at Northeastern, 4 p.m.
Rensselaer at Vermont, 7:05 p.m.
Sunday, December 30
Robert Morris at American International, 3:05 p.m.
Bentley at New Hampshire, 5 p.m.
Ledyard Bank Classic - Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.
Army West Point vs. Brown, 4 p.m.
Providence at Dartmouth, 7 p.m.
Monday, December 31
Colorado College at Merrimack, 4 p.m.
Connecticut at Yale, 4 p.m.
Boston College at Notre Dame, 5:05 p.m.
Wednesday, January 2
Colorado College at Maine, 6 p.m.
