Entering Friday’s matinee between Boston College women’s hockey and Merrimack, both teams had a ship to right. With only a week left in each team’s regular season, the Warriors were looking for their first win since Nov. 24, and BC was looking to bounce back from its loss in the Beanpot final.
The Eagles got their way, as BC (18–12, 15–8 Hockey East) came back from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Warriors (5–22–1, 4–18–1) by a final score of 6–4.
The Eagles continuously turned the puck over in the first period, and Merrimack held the Eagles to just five shots on goal in the first 20 minutes.
After a scoreless first, Ally Qualley netted a bouncing puck in the second period to put Merrimack on the board. Merrimack continued its onslaught with two more goals—a one-timer from Courtney Maud and a Teghan Inglis slap shot—within the next four minutes.
Down by three, BC head coach Katie Crowley called a timeout for the Eagles to regroup.
“Let’s go back to playing like we have been playing for pretty much the second semester and get back to basics,” Crowley said she told her team during the timeout. “Get back to basics and not try to do it all on our own. … Work with each other, not against each other.”
Less than a minute later, Merrimack goaltender Emma Gorski let a shot from Maddie Crowley-Cahill slip through her five hole.
Hanna Bilka—who assisted on Crowley-Cahill’s goal—dominated the Warriors for the rest of the game, scoring three goals. First, she snuck one past Gorski on a one-on-one play for a shorthanded goal. Then, Bilka played a two-woman game behind the net with Caroline Goffredo, and Bilka found the back of the net to tie the game at 3–3.
After another goal from Crowley-Cahill to open the third period, Bilka scored again to complete her hat trick. Merrimack scored once more four minutes after Bilka’s third of the game, but the effort was too little, too late, and a Goffredo power-play goal in the 12th minute closed things out for BC.
“We found a way to win, and right now, those three points are huge for us, and we need to get as many as we can,” Crowley said after the game. “And I was proud of the way that we fought back and battled for the full 60 minutes so we were able to get the win.”
Featured Image by Chris Ticas / Heights Staff
