AMHERST - There are no bells and whistles left for the University of Massachusetts hockey team. The nonconference slate, the trip to Florida, the game at Fenway Park are all in the rearview mirror. Tonight's game against fourth-ranked Boston College at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center begins a 14-game stretch of Hockey East games that will close out the regular season.

The Minutemen (7-8-5, 3-6-4) are tied with Northeastern (4-7-2) for eighth with 10 points in a league that sends eight teams to its postseason tournament. New Hampshire (5-8-1, 11 points) is a point ahead in seventh.

Because of the high-profile nature of the Fenway win, the UMass players have been receiving congratulations since it happened, but UMass coach Don "Toot" Cahoon said the Minutemen need to put it behind them.

"Our feet better get planted back on the earth very soon because of the quality of the teams coming in," he said. "We only play once this week and once the following week so getting points every single night becomes a critical matter."

Boston College (13-7-1, 9-4-1) will be particularly motivated to play the Minutemen, whose 4-2 win over the Eagles at the Mullins Center on Nov. 5 knocked BC from its No. 1 ranking. The Eagles opened the season 8-1 before falling to the Minutemen. Since then they've gone 5-5-1, although all five losses came against top 15 teams (Boston University twice, UMass-Lowell, Notre Dame and Michigan). The Minutemen are 3-2-1 against ranked teams this season.

BC junior forward Chris Kreider (13 goals, 11 assists) is tied with UMass' T.J. Syner for fourth with 24 points in Hockey East, just ahead of Eagles sophomore Bill Arnold (11 goals, nine assists).

Junior goalie Parker Milner has seen most of the time in goal. He's 10-5-0 with a 2.39 goals against average and a .905 save percentage.

The Minutemen will put their undefeated Mullins Center record (5-0-3) on the line against the Eagles.

"We're not going to win just because we're at home," Cahoon said. "It comes down to execution. We're going to have to play at a high level and do the things we need to do to succeed. Hopefully we're evolving in that regard."

After playing the Minutemen, BC will face Northeastern in a Frozen Fenway game, at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.