Frozen Four Bound! #4 Boston College Women's Hockey Defeats St. Lawrence, 6-3

What a game! Boston College scored five unanswered goals against the St. Lawrence Saints to win 6-3 and advance to their second consecutive Frozen Four and third and six years. Mini-dynasty? Yeah, you could say that.

The attendance was probably the highest Conte Forum has ever seen for a women's game, with 827 as the official tally. Might not seem like much, but it was a good (and loud!) crowd. Unfortunately, half the fans were for St. Lawrence. But as one BC player tweeted after the game, it's not the quantity of fans, it's the quality.

BC led off the scoring late in the first period on a shorthanded goal by freshman phenom Alex Carpenter. It was kind of a huge deal because, one, we scored, and two, BC women's hockey doesn't really *do* shorthanded goals. It's not our thing. But we figured hey, why not, just this once.

Things got interesting late in the first when BC's Caitlin Walsh trucked a St. Lawrence player while coming out of the BC zone. At the blue line, Walsh turned around, right into the path of the SLU player. Instead of turtling and getting her clock cleaned, she stood her ground, kept her balance, and the result was an SLU player getting leveled with a body check straight out of a Bruins game. It was epic. Unfortunately, body checking isn't legal in women's hockey, so Walsh was slapped with a 2 minute minor.

Now, when I go to BC women's hockey games, I don't like to sit on my hands. Sitting in our perch in section XX, the crew I was with at the game was loud, chanting and singing for the entire game. After Walsh's hit, I felt the need to inform those around me that I thought despite receiving a two minute minor, I was not upset with the turn of events. I did so by yelling "THAT WAS SO WORTH IT!" at the top of my lungs. Well, fast forward to the end of the period, when a drunken SLU parent comes up to us in our seats, grabs me, and, reeking of alcohol, yells to me that that was his daughter and that I had better watch myself. Sorry your daughter got dropped like a ten pin on league night, but why are you plastered at 1pm?

The start of the second period was not pleasant, as SLU promptly scored thrice to take a 3-1 lead, with goals at the 0:20, 0:30 and 3:33 marks. The SLU fans surrounding us made it known that they did not think very much of us, turning and yelling at us after each goal, being sure to sprinkle in an F-bomb here and there. Keep it classy.

Fortunately, that would be the end of the SLU scoring as BC would go on a rampage. First, Emily Field slipped home a greasy goal that got us within one. Then, with just ten seconds left in the second period, Mary "Stooch" Restuccia slid a Gaudreaubian feed over to Blake Bolden for a picture-perfect two-on-one goal to tie the game and give BC all the momentum.

In the third period, the Eagles took care of binniss. Danielle Welch floated one in over MacDonald to give BC the lead for good, but BC got some insurance. With just over four minutes left, Taylor Wasylk came in on a breakaway and raced to get to the puck before MacDonald did. MacDonald hesitated just enough where Wasylk was able to skate around the SLU goaltender and put it home. Ashley Motherwell sealed the deal with an empty-netter to send the drunken SLU masses home disappointed.

It was an excellent game, better than a good number of men's games I've seen, and my voice still hasn't recovered.

I was three for four on first round picks, but unfortunately the one I got wrong is the one we have to face next. Wisconsin topped Mercyhurst 3-1 (ENG) and is now the team standing in the way of the Eagles and its first NCAA Championship Game appearance. Elsewhere, Minnesota torched North Dakota 5-1, and Cornell and BU played a bizarre game with each team blowing a three-goal lead that finally ended with Cornell on top 8-7 with just 10 seconds remaining in triple overtime.

I truly believe BC can beat Wisconsin. As I said in my preview, the Badgers are as vulnerable as I've ever seen them. If BC can come away with the victory, we'll be riding high going into the championship game.

The Frozen Four is Friday and Sunday, next weekend, in Duluth, Minnesota. BC takes on Wisconsin at 6pm eastern time.

Go Eagles!