The Breakdown

Northeastern comes into Monday’s game losers of 3 straight and 4 of their last 5. However, the one win came against the UMass Minutemen in a thrilling 2–1 OT win at Matthews Arena. Either way, you know Northeastern is hungry to turn things around considering every game is important for them in the race for the NCAA playoffs, as is the case for BU. The Huskies currently sit at 13th in the Pairwise rankings with a second semester PDO at 100.45 (for further info on PDO, check out the explanation at the end of the article).

Northeastern PDO

Northeastern is littered with young talent who have already come into form. We know about Cayden Primeau from last year’s heroics. Primeau has regressed a little bit statistically this season, but his impact on games is even greater than before. He’s been huge for the Huskies and his experience at World Juniors has only made him sharper in the crease. Northeastern’s defensive weakness comes from the counter attack, as their defensemen frequently start or join in on offensive rushes leaving them as lilabilties if the puck is lost. Comparatively, BU’s attacking strength has been on the counter attack, especially when they can get talented forwards like Shane Bowers and Joel Farabee in space.

Following what was probably the most exciting college hockey game this season, BU now sits at 10–11–3 (8–6–2 in Hockey East) with a second semester PDO at approximately 103.05.

Boston University PDO

While the UMass game illustrated a bunch of positives for BU in terms of being able to compete with the best of the best, the same struggles that have haunted the Terriers practically all season came back to bite them. Losing battles in their defensive zone, not backchecking effectively, etc. This will be talked about more in the Keys To Victory section but it is still necessary to mention now. If BU can sure up defensively and not get overwhelmed by a potent Northeastern offensive push, opportunities for counter attacks will present themselves in spades.