In what was her final regular season start inside of Conte Forum, Grace Campbell ensured that she and the rest of Boston College women’s hockey’s seniors would go out with a win.
BC (16–17–1, 14–9–1 Hockey East) wrapped up its regular season with a dominant 4–0 Senior Day win over Boston University (10–20–3, 8–14–2) to sweep the season series. Campbell recorded 24 saves en route to her fourth shutout of the season while BC’s penalty kill went 6 of 6.
Both teams entered Saturday’s matinee coming off wins, with BC beating New Hampshire 5–2 on Friday night and BU taking down Providence.
“I’ve liked our last couple games, and we’re playing really well,” said BC head coach Katie Crowley. “That’s good timing for us going into the playoffs.”
It took a few minutes for BC to find its legs, recording only one shot on goal in the first five minutes. Some bench confusion 4:26 into the period led to a too-many-skaters-on-the-ice penalty, giving BU a prime opportunity on the power play, but it wouldn’t be the Terriers who cashed in.
Campbell made three straight saves to kick off the penalty kill, which sprung a shorthanded 2-on-1 for Sammy Taber and Ava Thomas. Taber slid a saucer pass over to Ava Thomas for a partial breakaway, and Thomas put the puck through BU goalie Michelle Pasiechnyk’s five-hole for her first career shorthanded goal and 19th goal of the season.
Five minutes later, BU’s Hockey East–worst power play had a chance to redeem themselves after Maxim Tremblay hit the sin bin for body checking, but Campbell had other plans.
Clara Yuhn’s wrist shot was stopped point-blank as the prime scoring opportunity on the 5-on-4, and Campbell and the Eagles killed their second penalty of the day to keep BU scoreless.
“Playing for Grace is huge,” said Thomas. “Her work every day is definitely motivational for someone like me.”
BC got a power play of its own with three and a half minutes to go, but Pasiechnyk and the Terriers were able to prevent BC’s offensive threats from generating much of anything as the frame closed with BC leading 1–0.
The second period opened with back-and-forth rush chances for both squads, but both goalies stood strong, including Campbell stonewalling Lola Reid on a 2-on-1 and Emma Conner missing a wide-open net.
A neutral zone turnover by the Terriers with just over nine minutes left in the period would give BC fans a reason to rise again. Thomas corralled the puck and cruised down the right wing on a 2-on-1, waiting out a sliding BU defender before dishing the puck over to Conner. Conner wasn’t going to miss an open net twice and buried the puck home to double BC’s lead.
“Building on our success has been huge for us,” said Thomas. “I think we’re all kind of buying into the common goal and working together.”
The Eagles continued their momentum with another quick strike less than two minutes later, as Alanna Devlin sniped a rebound through Pasiechnyk’s arm for an insurance tally.
BC continued to press for the rest of the period, but Pasiechnyk was able to keep the game within reach by making numerous grade-A saves, sending both teams into the locker room with the score at 3–0 after 40 minutes.
BU opened the third on the power play after a tripping call was made on Olivia Maffeo late in the second, but Campbell and the BC penalty kill shut down any BU hopes of kickstarting a comeback by killing off its third penalty of the day.
The Eagles continued to bend, but didn’t break. After Cailin Flynn headed off for cross-checking 4:54 into the third, Campbell turned away a pair of high-quality shots, improving BC’s sturdy penalty kill to 4 of 4 on the day.
Shortly after, Tremblay pickpocketed BU captain Maeve Carey in the neutral zone while the Terriers made a change. Tremblay cruised in on a breakaway, where she roofed a backhand while getting tripped to put the game out of reach with 10:02 to go.
BC held down the fort for the final 10 minutes, killing off two more penalties. When the final horn sounded, the scoreboard read 4–0 BC as the Eagles swarmed their senior goalie.
“The good thing is we’ve been through the hard,” said Crowley. “So, I don’t think we are gonna see any harder.”
