Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, January 28, 2015: Albany at Vermont

Albany at Vermont, 7:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at catamounTV.com

The UTR Game of the Day returns to the shores of Lake Champlain tonight for the biggest game of the season to date in the America East conference.  The Albany Great Danes, currently sitting at 7-0 in conference and 12-7 overall, will be heading to Burlington to take on the Vermont Catamounts, who sit in second place at 6-1 in conference at 11-9 overall.

UAlbany enters tonight’s game having won 10 of their last 11 games, with only a somewhat inexplicable loss to Niagara on December 30 during that stretch.  They are coming off what looked like a huge road win at Hartford last Thursday night, though Hartford did follow up that loss with a home loss to the lowly Maine Black Bears as well.  UAlbany has also already picked up a road win at Stony Brook, the one other team we thought would contend in the America East this season.  As a result, a win tonight would complete a sweep of the toughest conference road games for the Great Danes, and put them in prime position to win the regular season title and the reward of home court advantage throughout the AEC tournament that comes with it.

Vermont should probably be entering this game undefeated in conference play as well.  However, they suffered an upset loss at New Hampshire last week, their only blemish to date in conference play (and it should be noted that UNH is having one of its best seasons in years).  With a win tonight, Vermont can send a statement to the entire conference that they intend to be in contention for the regular season title throughout the rest of the year.  However, a loss will knock the Catamounts two games back in the standings and could leave them fighting it out with New Hampshire, Hartford and Stony Brook for second place.