Game Previews

BU set for visit to Dartmouth on Saturday night

Staying in ECAC play after beginning 2020 with an overtime win over Brown University, the Boston University men’s hockey team will travel north to Dartmouth College on Saturday night for an 8 p.m. puck drop with the Big Green.

On Wednesday night, the Terriers (7-6-5 overall) overcame the Bears of Brown 3-2 in their return from a month-long hiatus from competitive competition. It was a dream debut for freshman forward Wilmer Skoog, notching the game-winning goal in his first official collegiate contest.

Having knocked off the 3-12 Bears, the Terriers now climb up the ECAC standings to face Dartmouth (7-5-2), who sits just three points off of the conference lead. The Big Green will skate at the University of Vermont at 7 p.m. on Friday night before hosting the Terriers in Hanover 25 hours later.

Sophomore forward Drew O’Connor spearheads a Dartmouth attack that averages over three goals per game. Going into the weekend, O’Connor leads the team in goals (8) and points (17), while freshman defenseman Tanner Palocsik is the only skater to boast a double-digit assist total (10).

Defensively, junior defenseman Brendan Demler has blocked the most shots for the Big Green (26), and senior goaltender Adrian Clark has claimed the crease with 13 starts through 14 games, posting a .904 goals-against average and allowing an average of 2.95 goals per game as of Friday morning.

The Terriers got the best of Dartmouth 4-1 when the men in green visited Agganis Arena last season. Now-junior defenseman Cam Crotty scored in the victory, but may be sidelined on Saturday after picking up what head coach Albie O’Connell described as a “Charlie horse” against Brown.

Those who pay attention to the PairWise rankings will be interested to know that the Terriers currently rank 22\3nd, while Dartmouth is listed at 28th. The Big Green do have four games in hand on BU, but this head-to-head matchup could be pivotal towards comparing these similar non-conference sides.

I will be making the trek to Thompson Arena for the game, so be sure to follow along with my coverage on our live blog and Twitter at @BOShockeyblog when the puck drops at 8 p.m.

Comments are closed.