Boston College women’s hockey suffered a hefty loss Friday night as it hosted the Northeastern Huskies for part one of its Hockey East weekend series. The No. 3 ranked Huskies (17-3-1, 14-2-0 Hockey East) were able to shut the Eagles down entirely by a final score of 6-0, playing a much faster paced game across all areas of the ice.
The Eagles had a chance to redeem themselves against the Hockey East powerhouse Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, that same Friday night narrative repeated itself during round two, as BC extended its losing streak to a six-game stretch after falling by a final score of 3-0.
After starting their season 9-0-1, the Eagles (11-9-2, 10-7-1) are heading into the home stretch of their season looking to bounce back from the disheartening skid that knocked them out of the national rankings. The team has struggled to find the back of the net recently, only mustering up five goals throughout the past six contests and allowing a worrying 29.
Nonetheless, the Huskies wasted no time proving their worth as one of the top offenses in the nation, lighting the lamp just 70 seconds after the opening faceoff. Matti Hartman crossed the blue line with ease and fired a hard slap shot that beat BC goaltender Kelly Pickreign in the upper right corner. That early goal proved to be a rare occasion for the remainder of the night.
The rest of the first period passed without much ceremony, and the Eagles went into the break down by just one goal.
While the following frame was a scoreless one, the goal tally was not reflective of the Huskies’ dominant play. Had it not been for a strong performance in between the pipes by Pickreign, it might have dug the Eagles into a much deeper deficit. Her 17 saves during the period marked a single-period career best, and her 32 total stoppages proved crucial in keeping her squad in the game throughout the entire contest. The Eagles offense, on the other hand, was only able to generate four total shots in that period.
Northeastern capitalized on a late BC penalty at the conclusion of the second period, as its power play unit netted the Huskies’ second goal of the night just 10 seconds into the final frame. Alina Mueller sent a pass across the slot that found Katy Knoll on the right dot, and she fired a wrister that landed the puck just inside the right post.
Four minutes later came the game-sealing goal for the Huskies, with a similar pass from Chloe Aurard that set up Skylar Fontaine’s wrister that found its way past the far post. That wrapped up the scoring with much credit to Huskies goaltender Aerin Frankel, who was able to post a 25-save shutout against the Eagles. BC found itself scoreless on the entire weekend, with Frankel stopping all 50 tests that the Eagles presented.
The Eagles failed to match their opponents on the special teams battle––despite being given four power play opportunities, they weren’t able to generate a shot on half of them. On one of the Eagles’ power plays on Sunday, the Huskies even managed to produce an equal amount of opportunities. On a front where the game could have been tilted in favor of the Eagles, they were unable to capitalize.
With playoffs looming, the squad will need to return to the win column heading into the month of February.
Featured Image by Ikram Ali / Heights Editor
