Beantown Bragging Rights at Stake for M. Hockey

Three quarters get you a bus ride on the T, and the 86 bus takes you almost to the door of Silvio O. Conte Forum, home of one of the best hockey teams in the nation.

Tonight, you won’t even need the 75 cents, as the Boston College Eagles face off against the Harvard men’s hockey team at the Bright Hockey Center at 7 p.m. It is a matchup between the No. 6 team in the country and the Crimson, who is currently ranked No. 11 in the latest USCHO poll.

Both teams stand at the top of their respective conferences. The Eagles (9-3-2) are tied for first place in Hockey East, leading the league in team offense and defense. The Crimson (9-3-0, 9-2-0 ECAC) is four points ahead of Yale at the top of the ECAC.

On paper, the matchup looks fairly even, especially with BC missing its leading scorer, freshman forward Patrick Eaves.

Eaves, usually part of the first line, was seriously injured in the Eagles’ tie with the Black Bears on Saturday.

Maine’s Robert Liscak and BC’s Chris Collins got entangled, with Liscak trying to take away Collins’ stick in the left corner. The players were grabbing both ends of the stick, which formed a clothesline that Eaves hit at a high speed skating backward.

Eaves fractured his C-5 vertebra and will be out of action for a minimum of six weeks. Although he will require a brace to immobilize his neck, Eaves is expected to make a full recovery.

But that recovery will not come in time to help the Eagles against the Crimson.

“We’re trying to set a standard of how we want to play as a club,” BC coach Jerry York said.

Part of that standard will now be adapting to Eaves’ absence.

With Eaves missing, the Eagles’ top line will include Collins, junior captain Ben Eaves and A.J. Walker, a trio that has combined for 34 points this season.

BC’s strength lies in its transition game, part of the key in its 4.11 goals per game, which is best among Hockey East teams.

“BC is a very talented team, and so are we,” sophomore goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris said. “They’re an explosive offensive team, and so are we. We’ve got to be strong in the neutral zone to stop their transition.”

Offense and transition are not the Eagles’ only forte. BC’s defense is also first in Hockey East, allowing a mere 1.78 goals per game. Integral to that stingy defense has been the play of the Eagles’ goaltending duo of senior Tim Kelleher and sophomore Matti Kaltiainen.

How the Crimson contends with the Eagles’ defense will depend on its ability to establish its own transition game while countering BC’s.

“Our transition game was exceptional [against Princeton and Yale], and that’s something we’re going to need against teams like BC and Maine who move the puck well,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said.

Back-to-back 6-3 wins over Princeton and Yale have Harvard’s confidence and its offensive cohesion at an all-time high.

“This weekend’s games helped create momentum,” Grumet-Morris said.

Harvard carries a four-game winning streak into tonight’s contest, and has impressed coaches across the ECAC.

York, yet to see Harvard in person, was nonetheless effusive in his praise for the Crimson.

“Their forwards are really impressive,” York said. “Noah Welch is developing into one of the top rear guards in the country, and Dov has really come up as a goaltender. He got a lot of experience from Worchester last year.”

All that talent has not helped Harvard in the past against the Eagles. Last year the Crimson faced BC twice, a post-Thanksgiving 1-0 loss at Conte and a 4-0 defeat in the Beanpot consolation.

Looming larger than Harvard’s recent history against the Eagles is the Crimson’s record against nationally-ranked opponents. Against BU and Cornell, the two teams in the Top 15 that Harvard has faced, the Crimson has stumbled, losing both contests by three goals.

Harvard has managed to rebound after every loss with a win, but the true measure of a good team is its ability to win games that it shouldn’t. The Crimson has won all the games it has been favored in, but victories against superior opponents have been hard to come by.

“We’ve put too much emphasis on bigger games,” captain Dominic Moore said. “We’ve gotten too psyched up for them, we’ve put them on a pedestal. We need to approach [BC and Maine] like we approach any game.”

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.