When Boston University and Wisconsin agreed to their current scheduling pact, they likely viewed the games as a marquee matchup of two high-end teams.

Instead, BU heads out to Madison to play a Wisconsin team with just two wins on the season. The Badgers are in a similar position to BU a year ago, caught in the occasional trap of recruiting talented, albeit young, players and relying on them to win at an early age.

For the Terriers, these have become must-win games in terms of the Pairwise. With just two wins, Wisconsin is 56th in the Pairwise; BU us currently eighth.

The Terriers have NCAA Tournament aspirations, and losses to Wisconsin could out BU in a very tough spot.

Getting Jack Eichel back after a one-game absence caused by World Juniors is a good sign for the Terriers. For last week’s tie against Union, BU welcomed Robbie Baillargeron and Nikolas Olsson back after length spells on the sideline to due to injury.

The Terriers are in good position to pick up a pair of wins this weekend. Wisconsin, however, is a desperate team, trying to get anything it can accomplished before it heads into Big Ten play. BU can’t afford any slip-ups against the Badgers.

BC, Northeastern a tale of two clubs on the up

After some serious problems in the season’s earliest stage, Boston College and Northeastern meet this weekend for two games. The series opens Friday night at Matthews Arena before shifting to Conte Forum on Saturday.

After an 0-8-1 start, Northeastern is 7-2-1 in its last 10 games. Similarly, BC has recovered from a 3-6-0 November to go unbeaten in its last five with four straight wins after a draw against New Hampshire.

Both teams need points badly in Hockey East play to compete for a potential first-round bye or a home series to start the Hockey East Tournament.

For both, the games are a good opportunity to see just how much they’ve really improved from the difficult stretches earlier in the season.

Northeastern has greatly improved its possession numbers and winning games because of it. BC, on the other hand, is just getting more offense from the players it needs to win hockey games.

BC and Northeastern will play three times in the next few weeks, with the third game coming on Feb. 2 in the Beanpot. All of these games are vital for both teams. And they’ve trended the right as the best time to ensure these games will be fantastic.

Hockey East, ECAC fighting for regional supremacy

To this point, Hockey East and ECAC have played 40 games against each other. At 18-18-4, it’s been nearly as even as it could’ve been thus far.

With three games between the leagues this weekend and a couple more down the stretch, the season series likely won’t be decided until the final game ends,

This weekend, Dartmouth and New Hampshire play their annual non-conference game. Providence and Brown a home-and-home pair to decide city bragging rights.

Ultimately, there’s nothing gained or lost no matter what happens in this season series between the two. The improvement of the ECAC in the last few years, though, will likely make the rivalry a bit hotter moving forward.

The last two national champions hail from the ECAC, while Hockey East claimed four between 2008 and 2012. With a couple exceptions, there’s no bad blood between the two leagues. The legacy of Hockey East, forming from a split with the ECAC, though, has always made it interesting.

Enough with the non-conference league games

Realignment forced Hockey East schools into a few frustrating habits. Fewer league games meant more non-conference games, which is generally a good thing,

However, seeing so many Hockey East teams play non-conference games against each other is just kind of boring. There are obviously a number of reasons these games happen. Primarily, programs that aren’t big names struggle to fill schedules unless they’re willing to play certain richer programs from other power conferences without returns guaranteed.

Most have plainly refused to participate in these arrangements. Instead, they’ve chosen to play each other more often.

UMass and Maine meet twice in Amherst this weekend in two games that won’t count toward the Hockey East standings.

Some of these games are part of length rivalry series that schools chose to maintain even after the league went from three games against everyone to two. For example, UMass and UMass-Lowell’s annual battle for the Alumni Cup still exists because the teams have committed to a third game against each other.

UNH and Maine played two non-conference games against each other at neutral sites to give fans more of an important rivalry they care about. UMass and Maine aren’t rivalries any more than they are with any other Hockey East opponent.

The struggles filling schedules is very real, but it’s bad for college hockey to see so many of these games without any meaning.

Friday, January 9th, 2015 - 11:22 am | Hockey East, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings