GOAL BY GOAL: BC Women’s Hockey Stomps Harvard 8-1

BC Women’s Hockey’s last outing featured a frustrating 3-3 tie against the UConn Huskies, in yet another game where the Eagles defense let them down.

Wednesday night, the Eagles changed around their lines dramatically, splitting up the dynamic duo of Caitrin Lonergan and Daryl Watts in an apparent attempt to get two “first lines” worth of production. At least in its first go-around, that seems to have paid off. The Eagles blitzed Harvard with a touchdown and two point conversion on their way to a dominating 8-1 win against the Crimson.

Boston College Goal #1: 1:27 of the 1st period
Makenna Newkirk (Daryl Watts)

BC 1, HU 0

BC got rolling pretty much immediately. Just over a minute into the game, Makenna Newkirk scored a tap-in goal after Daryl Watts toe dragged a Harvard defender off her skates before nearly slipping the puck under the arm of Harvard goaltender Beth Larcom.

Larcom keeps the puck out, but only briefly — the puck lands right at the goal line, and Newkirk is able to get a stick on it before Larcom notices she doesn’t have the puck.

Boston College Goal #2 (GWG): 18:24 of the 1st period
Caitrin Lonergan (Unassisted)

BC 2, HU 0

We’re pretty early on here, but the Watts-Lonergan split up seems to be working just fine. We’re two goals into the game, and each player has toe dragged a player down to the ice on their way to a goal.

Lonergan’s, however, leaves her with a better angle than Watts had, and she’s in a better position for the shot. She fires the puck cleanly through Larcom, and BC’s up 2-0.

Boston College Goal #3 (PPG): 19:43 of the 1st period
Caitrin Lonergan (Serena Sommerfield, Delaney Belinskas)

BC 3, HU 0

The Eagles were handed a late period power play, and it was at this point that Harvard probably should have just packed it in and conceded the game.

Lonergan’s got her second of the game, this time in a less disrespectful manner — she winds and fires from the point on the power play, going post-and-in to beat Larcom for BC’s third goal.

Boston College Goal #4 (HT): 0:29 of the 2nd period
Caitrin Lonergan (Unassisted)

BC 4, HU 0

Here is a quote from USCHO’s “Wednesday Women” feature from two weeks ago, discussing which of BC’s star forwards would be more deserving of the Patty Kazmaier Award:

Candace: It’d be pretty hard to pick between Lonergan and Watts, but I would probably pick the latter, simply based on how much Lonergan’s point production has gone up since Watts became her linemate. Lonergan had a great season last year, and I felt she deserved to be on the USCHO All-Rookie team, but with Watts out there now Lonergan has a new gear to tap into.

It seems to me that Ms. Candace may have been mistaken. In one game without Daryl Watts to “tap into,” Caitrin Lonergan now has a natural hat trick. To me, at least, it has seemed that both Watts and Lonergan have both been next-level good. Watts has come in as a freshman and set the world on fire, but Lonergan reportedly put in an insane amount of work in the offseason, which has clearly paid off for the sophomore.

Anyway, of Lonergan’s three goals, two of them came unassisted. With or without Watts, she’s proven to be pretty difficult to keep up with.

Harvard Goal #1 (PPG): 11:16 of the 2nd period
Haley Mullins (Kaitlin Tse, Ali Peper)

BC 4, HU 1

Harvard did not come away from this game empty handed, thanks to a power play goal midway through the 2nd period.

A shot from Kaitlin Tse at the top of the faceoff circle finds its way through the skates of two Eagles all the way to Katie Burt, with a bit of a deflection from Mullins along the way. The combination of the screen plus the tip out front means Burt can’t corral the puck on the way in, and it bounces out back to Mullins.

She finds just enough room to backhand the rebound past Burt, and it’s 4-1.

Boston College Goal #5: 13:25 of the 2nd period
Makenna Newkirk (Daryl Watts, Grace Bizal)

BC 5, HU 1

But BC would get their goal right back, thanks to another great individual effort — this time from Makenna Newkirk.

Newkirk takes the outlet pass from Watts and burns her way through the neutral zone and across the Harvard blue line. Her score is pretty similar to Lonergan’s third goal — she crosses the blue line at speed, cuts right around two defenders, and fires the puck. Larcom’s beaten again, and the rout is back on for BC.

Boston College Goal #6 (TD): 14:55 of the 2nd period
Toni Ann Miano (Makenna Newkirk, Kathleen McNamara)

BC 6, HU 1

BC’s top defenseman Toni Ann Miano got into the action for BC’s touchdown goal. This is a very “BC Women’s Hockey” play, with a defenseman joining the play to create offense.

Newkirk takes the pass and Miano just streaks into the slot, awaiting the pass from Newkirk. Newkirk saucers it to Miano, but it’s too high for Miano to do much of anything with except axe-chop at it. It turns out to work well enough to score, as the puck superballs through Larcom, putting the Eagles up by 5 goals.

This goal meant that Watts and Lonergan’s lines were both on the ice for three scores. I’d say splitting them up might just work out pretty well for BC’s overall offense.

Boston College Goal #7 (PAT): 17:43 of the 2nd period
Ryan Little (Erin Connolly)

BC 7, HU 1

As the second period wound down with the Eagles now posting a touchdown on the scoreboard, Head Coach Katie Crowley really started to call off the dogs. BC’s third line got in on the scoring, thanks in part to a rebound from Larcom that sent the puck careening back onto the stick of Ryan Little. Little gets enough onto the puck to send it back where it came from to make it 7-1.

That was the end of Larcom’s night, as she was replaced in net by Becky Dutton between periods.

Boston College Goal #8 (PPG, 2PC): 18:46 of the 3rd period
Kate Annese (Rachel Moore, Grace Bizal)

BC 8, HU 1 — FINAL

With the game well in hand, the fourth line got a ton of work in the third period. In fact, with BC going up on the power play with just a couple minutes left, Crowley sent the fourth line out as the top power play unit to give them a goal scoring opportunity.

Almost right off the draw, the fourth liners cashed in. Kate Annese scored her first goal of the season with this chip-in goal over the shoulder of Dutton, and Moore scored the first point of her career with the primary assist after she took the initial shot.

That just about did it for the game, mercifully so for the Crimson. BC looked just okay in the first period (despite scoring three goals) while they got acquainted with their new linemates, but they really exploded in the second period and dominated the Crimson.

The Eagles will now get a short Thanksgiving break before returning to league play with a game against Northeastern on Tuesday at Conte. The following weekend pits the Eagles against Boston University for a big home-and-home series, before ending the first half with a home-and-home against Merrimack heading into the winter break.