By Marisa Ingemi BU News Service
The Boston University men’s hockey team will wrap up its regular season this weekend when it travels to Indiana to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a two game series. The Terriers, if they win both games, could have a bye week in the Hockey East playoffs. A loss would mean they would need some help with other games in the conference. The Terriers are winless in their last seven games in South Bend.
BU split with the University of New Hampshire last weekend, and the team has run into injury troubles for the first time in the second half of the season. Goaltender Sean Maguire, who had started every game between the pipes since December 11th, missed the two contests with an injury, and is a game time decision on Friday night. Forward Robbie Bailargeon and defenseman Brandon Hickey are also game time decisions after missing last Saturday’s game.
The Terriers are currently tied for fourth place in Hockey East with UMass Lowell and are four points behind Notre Dame for third place, making this two game series all the more important. BU owns the tiebreaker with the Riverhawks as well. If BU can split, the Terriers should still be able to claim a bye week.
Notre Dame is coming off two straight losses at Providence last week. The Fighting Irish are led by Boston Bruins prospect Anders Bjork and sophomore Jake Evans, who each have over 30 points on the season. Cal Peterson leads the Irish in the crease and has played in every game this season.
The last time BU faced the Fighting Irish was last season and Notre Dame won 3-2. The Irish are stuck in third place with no ability to advance, so BU has the opportunity to take advantage of that and come out of South Bend with some points and a bye week. A lot of this weekend will be determined by the health of the Terriers, which, as of now, is still up in the air. The first game is at 7:30 on NBC Sports Network on Friday night.
