#6 BC Women's Hockey Drops BU 3-2 In Thrilling Last-Second Victory

With the women's hockey regular season rapidly coming to a close, the Eagles are in a battle to stay solidly above the NCAA tournament bubble and are taking aim for an outside shot at moving up to 5th in the Pairwise Rankings.

After falling behind to BU twice, the Eagles were able to keep both of those goals alive with a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Terriers with a final score of 3-2.

Despite dominating pretty much every minute of the game, BC would go down 1-0 early, 4 minutes into the first. The Eagles went on to outshoot the Terriers 15-8 in the first period but still couldn't break through.

Midway through the second period, freshman Andie Anastos would finally get BC on the board.

Goal #1 -- 9:19 of the 2nd period: Andie Anastos (Emily Pfalzer)
BC 1, BU 1

The best part about this was that BU took a penalty that directly resulted in the BC tally.

BU's Maddie Elia crosschecks Emily Field right into her own goaltender, Kerrin Sperry. On the delayed call, Pfalzer throws the puck in front of the net on a wraparound. Sperry isn't able to get up in time (or is staying down trying to draw a call) and Anastos has a wide open net to shoot at.

BC wouldn't be able to convert on the ensuing power play, but the Terriers took advantage of one of their own late, pulling back in front 2-1 on a goal with less than a minute remaining in the period.

It was another BU goal against the run of play, and it seemed like it would be a night of frustration.

In the second period, BC nearly tied the game when Sperry (who deserved an Academy Award for her antics in this game) faked an injury in order to get a whistle, which ended up negating an Eagle goal.

Pretty pathetic display by the Terrier goaltender, who does a really nice, exaggerated flop right behind the goal line. With BC gathering the puck, she stays down and plays dead, earning a whistle right as BC is taking a shot.

I'm happy to say that Sperry was not, in fact, dead, and she was up and happily flipping the puck around in her glove seconds later after the next BC shot.

Karma bit her right in the ass, though.

Goal #2 -- 8:14 of the 3rd period: Lexi Bender (Emily Field, Haley McLean)
BC 2, BU 2

BC scored just a couple minutes later to tie the game right back up. Emily Field makes a really nice play cutting behind the net and throwing the puck out to the top of the faceoff circle where Lexi Bender fires the tying goal.

The Eagles would comprehensively dominate the third period. The third period shots were 23-7 BC. It was a relentless attack. And with just 5 seconds remaining, on their 50th shot of the game, the Eagles would make the 2014 Senior Night a memorable one.

Goal #3 (GWG) -- 19:55 of the 3rd period: Andie Anastos (Emily Field)
BC 3, BU 2 -- FINAL

Anastos scores the goal, but I'm sure she would be the first person to shower praise upon Emily Field, who is simply playing the best hockey of her career this season. Here, with just a few seconds left, she wins a battle with BU's #24 Taylor Holze, but knows how much time she has and doesn't rush a play.

She cuts straight to the net and gives a subtle little shimmy which gets BU's #13 Kaleigh Fratkin to sell out on a block and gives Field space to make a pass right smack in the middle of the slot. Anastos takes the shot and the celebration is on.

It was a critical Pairwise win, keeping BC in line for a shot at 5th place and even an outside shot at hosting a quarterfinal with 4th place, and just about puts BC in a position where they should be very nearly assured of a spot in the NCAA tournament.

BC and BU wrap up the regular season tomorrow afternoon at Walter Brown Arena before kicking off the Hockey East tournament next week.