The college hockey season starts to sizzle in January and the two hottest teams in the country are situated at opposite ends of Commonwealth Ave.

Boston College (13-3-1) begins the second half of the campaign ranked No. 1 in the USCHO poll that was updated on Jan. 2 while the Eagles’ arch-rival, the Terriers of Boston University (12-4-1), are second.

The long Christmas break is over, the big guns are back from the IIHF World Junior Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the end of season objectives fall into a clear and defined focus in the coming stretch.

“This is definitely a key stretch,” said BC second-year head coach Greg Brown. “Everything seems to get smaller and every team has played together enough by this part of the season with their structures and their systems and where everybody is dialed in.

“The games just seem to get heavier after Christmas and these are games where there is not a lot of room for error. It just keeps getting tighter and tighter as you head toward the Beanpot and the (Hockey East) playoffs.”

The Beanpot, the NCAA’s crown jewel of regular season hockey tournaments, is less than a month away and a circle-your-calendar event for the four participating programs, BU, BC, Northeastern and Harvard. Former BC coach Jerry York famously dubbed the Beanpot as the “start of Trophy Season.”

“This is a big stretch for us coming off a break where you don’t play for almost a month,” said BU head coach Jay Pandolfo. “Now it gets going pretty good with two games this week and getting back into playing back-to-backs leading up to the Beanpot.

“It is going to be a tough stretch and this is where the season really gets going. Having a decent first half you expect your team to learn and grow from what we did in the first half and that’s our expectation.”

BC sent a record seven players to the World Junior Championships and Brown will begin the process of reintegrating them in practice on Wednesday.

The BC contingent on the U.S. squad consisted of forwards Cutter Gauthier, Gabe Perreault, Will Smith and Ryan Leonard, defensemen Drew Fortescue and Aram Minnetian and goalie Jacob Fowler, a 6-2, 214-pound, true freshman from Melbourne, Fla.

The U.S. captured the gold medal with a 6-2 win over Sweden in the title game. BC resumes Hockey East play this weekend with a home-and-home against No. 9 Providence College.

“Obviously they have to be happy with the way the tournament turned out,” said Brown. “A lot of them got significant playing time and were major factors in helping the team and you love to see that.

“Jacob played very well in the games he got to play in net. Just being a part of the whole team and seeing that level of hockey and being a part of it. Everybody that has come back from that in the past has a more mature game because they got to witness their age group at the highest level.”

BU didn’t hit the World Junior jackpot like BC, but the Terriers were well represented in the title game. Defenseman Lane Hutson, a member of the all-tournament team, won gold with the U.S. while freshman Tom Willander captured silver with Sweden.

Freshman phenomenon center Macklin Celebrini, who is expected to be a top five pick in the 2024 NHL SuperDraft, had a strong showing for Team Canada with four goals and four assists. BU resumes Hockey East play at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Northeastern at Agganis Arena.

“When you play in that tournament on a huge stage and all of them played well and you can gain some confidence off it,” said Pandolfo. “I expect them to come back and a have a great second half and I know they expect the same thing.

“I think Macklin is as advertised. I thought he played great and it seemed like every time he was on the ice, he was making things happen.

“I thought overall whenever he was on the ice you noticed him making an impact as an underage in a very difficult tournament. He was disappointed they didn’t get to the medal rounds but overall, I thought he was happy with the way he played.”

The January run in Hockey East will go out with a bang. The Eagles and the Terriers will play a home and home on Jan. 27 and 28. The Terriers will host the first game at Agganis and play the rematch at Conte Forum. The two teams will square off again on Monday, Feb. 5, in the nightcap of the Beanpot twinbill at the TD Garden. Northeastern will play Harvard in the opener.

“I don’t think that rivalry ever cools down,” said Brown. “I’m sure it will get a lot more attention from outside with the two teams both having a lot of early success this year.

“We will get a good dose of each other in that stretch.”