Boston College vs. North Dakota: Top 5 Tilt

We are only two games into the season, and already, we’ve got a matchup between two Top 5 teams. In the Ice Breaker Tournament championship on Saturday evening, the #5 Boston College Eagles will meet the #3 North Dakota Fighting Sioux on their home ice. The Eagles have previously won the Ice Breaker Tournament twice in three appearances.

To get to this game, the Eagles had to beat Michigan State (5-2) yesterday. All five of the Boston College goals were scored by a different player: Brown, Alber, Kreider, Whitney, and Almeida. Bill Arnold gained two points in this opening game, both on assists.

North Dakota played a close game as well, having defeated Air Force (4-3) in the nightcap. They had trailed 3-2 late in the third period, but sophomore Brock Nelson scored two goals in less than two minutes to put the Fighting Sioux back on top for good.

The last time these two teams met was in the 2008 Frozen Four, when the Eagles won 6-1 and advanced to the national championship game against Notre Dame, which, of course, they won. Not much has changed since then: these two teams remain elite college hockey programs and are looking to be legitimate contenders in the 2012 postseason.

With all of that said, there is only so much one can read into the second game of the season in October when, presumably, much hockey will be played well into March and possibly into April. Still, it should make for an interesting contest and a very good early gauge of where Boston College stands. The same goes for North Dakota, who themselves are looking for a trophy at the end of the season.

This game will also be on FCS (DirecTV 623 this time, according to North Dakota’s website), and hopefully, will be visible today. Puck drop is expected at 8:37pm ET (7:37 local).