GOAL BY GOAL: BC Women’s Hockey Back On Track With 6-3 Win Over #8 St. Lawrence

After Friday’s 2-1 loss to St. Lawrence to end the Eagles’ unbeaten streak, it was nice for the Eagles to give us a typical 2017 BC Women’s Hockey game on Saturday. Score a ton of goals? Check. Give up a bunch of goals? Check. A ton of points from Watts and Lonergan? Check and check.

However BC wants to win games is fine be me. So we’ll happily take Saturday’s 6-3 road win over #8 St. Lawrence.

Boston College Goal #1: 3:16 of the 1st period
Caitrin Lonergan (Serena Sommerfield, Daryl Watts)

BC 1, SLU 0

Unlike in Friday’s loss, it was the Eagles who got the scoring started. Lonergan wins the draw cleanly over to Watts, to sends the puck up high to Sommerfield. She blasts one through, and Grace Harrison leaves a juicy rebound.

Lonergan is right there to send the puck back where it came from the give BC the early lead.

Boston College Goal #2: 10:04 of the 1st period
Makenna Newkirk (Kenzie Kent, Grace Bizal)

BC 2, SLU 0

Makenna Newkirk scores a goal from almost the exact same spot a few minutes later to make it 2-0. But instead of a rebound, it’s Kenzie Kent sending the puck across to Newkirk, who slides the puck past Harrison for the 2-0 lead.

St. Lawrence Goal #1: 10:21 of the 1st period
Justine Reyes (6) (Kayla Nielsen, Rachael Smith)

BC 2, SLU 1

But with BC struggling to clamp down on defense this season — the Eagles have allowed fewer than two goals in just 1 out of their 11 games — there aren’t going to be many laughers.

St. Lawrence answered with a goal to pull back within one just 17 seconds later right off the faceoff. It’s a bit of a sloppy turnover from Grace Bizal, who rushes a pass while under pressure. Unfortunately, the pass lands right on the stick of a Saint, who crashes the net leading to SLU’s first goal of the game.

Boston College Goal #3: 15:54 of the 1st period
Willow Corson (Toni Ann Miano, Daryl Watts)

BC 3, SLU 1

But the Eagles were able to regain the two goal lead before the first intermission. Willow Corson gets her first tally of the night from again the exact same spot as the first two BC goals.

Toni Ann Miano fires the puck into traffic, and the puck trickles out to Harrison’s right. Corson gets to it before anyone else does, and the Eagles are up 3-1.

St. Lawrence Goal #2 (SHG): 10:03 of the 2nd period
Nadine Edney (unassisted)

BC 3, SLU 2

But as we’ve learned, nothing’s easy this year. Midway through the 2nd period, the Eagles went on the power play, but it was St. Lawrence who got the goal shorthanded. Nadine Edney comes in on the rush and beats Katie Burt on the breakaway to once again get the Saints to within one.

Boston College Goal #4 (GWG): 15:18 of the 2nd period
Willow Corson (Caitrin Lonergan, Daryl Watts)

BC 4, SLU 2

But BC started to take firmer control of the game as the second period went on. Willow Corson got herself another which stood up as the game-winner with help from Caitrin Lonergan and Daryl Watts.

This is fantastic puck movement from the three underclassmen on the rush. It starts out as a two on two, but Watts & Lonergan’s involvement allows Corson to come in relatively ignored. Lonergan’s got her eye on her linemate though, and she feeds a great pass through to Corson. Corson gets her stick on it for the great team-effort goal.

Boston College Goal #5: 19:16.1 of the 2nd period
Toni Ann Miano (Caitrin Lonergan, Willow Corson)

BC 5, SLU 2

Miano gets into the act in the trailing seconds of the 2nd period to give BC a comfortable lead into the locker room. Lonergan pulls the old Kelli Stack play of circling in a big arc behind the net to get some space to open up out front, and she finds Miano at the top of the slot.

Miano’s got one of the best shots on the team, and she finds a lane to send the puck through to put the Eagles up three right at the end of the period.

St. Lawrence Goal #3: 4:18 of the 3rd period
Skylar Podvey (Rachael Smith, Justine Reyes)

BC 5, SLU 3

But SLU would get one parting blow before the end of this one.

This play is just a disaster all around for BC. They’re probably all pretty glad that the video goes a bit blurry because I doubt anyone wants to be associated with this goal.

First, the Eagles are caught up in a bad change, with one player going off the ice right as SLU is coming across the neutral zone on a rush. Then, the other BC defender, who is now on her own, gets caught completely flat footed across the BC blue line, leading to a completely inexplicable clean breakaway for St. Lawrence.

Katie Burt makes a valiant effort to take away the play, but Podvey gets the puck around her for the score.

Boston College Goal #6 (5v3, TD): 16:13 of the 3rd period
Makenna Newkirk (Kenzie Kent, Daryl Watts)

BC 6, SLU 3 — FINAL

But BC would get the last laugh with another really great goal, this time on the five on three. It’s tic-tac-toe from Watts to Kent to Newkirk, just the way you draw it up, for the slick goal on the two player advantage. That gave BC the touchdown and the solid win over 8th ranked St. Lawrence.

This was a weird weekend for BC. They looked much better on Friday than they did on Saturday — particularly defensively — but ran into a hot goalie in Sonjia Shelly. Then things get sloppy on Saturday, but they pull away with an offensive explosion and another three-goals-allowed defensive effort that we’ve seen too often this year.

Truthfully, BC probably deserved two wins on the weekend given that they were certainly the better team, but such is the game of hockey. The Eagles weren’t going to go undefeated this year, so it’s at least nice that their first loss was to a respectable team.

They’ll need to keep rolling over the next several games though. The top 5 in the Pairwise are starting to separate themselves from the pack, and though it’s early, the difference between finishing 2nd or 3rd, finishing 4th, and finishing 5th will have huge playoff implications.