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A full goal by goal recap? For an exhibition game?
Listen, it’s been over six months since BC women’s hockey fell to Wisconsin in the Frozen Four and BC men’s hockey fell to UMass-Lowell in the Hockey East championship — both within 24 hours of each other. If I want to spend two hours putting together a recap of a meaningless exhibition with grainy highlight GIFs, I’m going to do it.
Boston College Goal #1: 0:53 of the 2nd period
Kenzie Kent (Serena Sommerfield, Toni Ann Miano)
BC 1, LU 0
Wait, that’s not hockey...
Boston College doesn’t stream its exhibition games, so we here at BC Interruption took it upon ourselves to Facebook Live the exhibition game in its entirety.
Unfortunately, Kenzie Kent very rudely did not wait for us to stop fiddling with the camera at the beginning of the second period and scored before we were ready. She’ll have to work on being a little more considerate if she wants to be the BC Interruption Athlete of the Year again.
Anyway, she scored, and it was great, and to celebrate we’re giving you the GIF of all five goals she scored in the lacrosse national championship game which made it all the way to the BC Interruption GIF of the Year Finals.
Boston College Goal #2: 18:44 of the 2nd period
Daryl Watts (Caitrin Lonergan, Toni Ann Miano)
BC 2, LU 0
Did you come here thinking to yourself “I hope I can get some grainy screen rips of poor quality Facebook Live camera work”? Well buckle up, baby birds, because that’s exactly what you’ve got here today.
Freshman Daryl Watts is an extremely highly-touted offensive recruit, and she was the best player on the ice. She scores BC’s second goal with an assist from linemate Caitrin Lonergan, whom she appeared to have a ton of early chemistry with, and she was more than deserving of the goal. Watts was everywhere in the exhibition and created a slew of scoring chances for the Eagles almost every time she touched the ice.
Daryl Watts has a very bright future. She was electric. She shot the lights out. These are all very good “Watt” jokes and you should familiarize yourself with them because you’re going to be seeing them a watt this year.
Moving on.
Boston College Goal #3 (PPG): 11:21 of the 3rd period
Erin Connolly (Makenna Newkirk, Cayla Barnes)
BC 3, LU 0
BC opened the floodgates in the third period, and it all got started on this snipe from Erin Connolly.
Connolly redshirted her first year on the Heights and is not in her RS-Sophomore season, and BC has to be glad they’re going to get her for an extra year of her BC career. She has a great shot, as evidenced by this great turn-around roof job. Connolly, a converted defenseman now playing forward for the Eagles, played important minutes for the BC last year and played admirably. And as solid as she was, we think Connolly is a great candidate for a really nice sophomore jump.
Boston College Goal #4: 15:01 of the 3rd period
Caitrin Lonergan (Daryl Watts, Caroline Ross)
BC 4, LU 0
This is a good, greasy goal for BC, the type of which they actually could have had quite a few more of in this game. Daryl Watts takes a pass across the blue line from Ross and fires the shot in from a low angle, and the rebound is there. Lonergan is there to slide the puck home, and BC has their fourth goal.
The Eagles had plenty of chances on pucks in the crease and rebounds, so even with the score 6-0, it could have been even better — as you might expect in a game where the Eagles outshot their opponent 44-8.
Boston College Goal #5: 15:09 of the 3rd period
Erin Connolly (Makenna Newkirk)
BC 5, LU 0
Just eight seconds later, it’s Connolly again showing off that great shot. She comes in hot across the blue line before rifling home a shot that beats the Laurentian goalie clean for BC’s fifth goal.
But the Eagles weren’t quite finished.
Boston College Goal #6 (TD, PPG) — 17:37 of the 3rd period
Kenzie Kent (Cayla Barnes, Kathleen McNamara)
BC 6, LU 0 — FINAL
Welcome to the Heights, Cayla Barnes!
BC’s freshmen forwards were a little hyped. Cayla Barnes comes in with a lot of hype. Barnes is the only three time IIHF U-18 gold medalist, having played with the team three straight years starting from when she was 15 years old. She also joined the Senior US National Team this past year for the first time, as a high schooler, and was very nearly chosen for the Olympic team out of selection camp — again, while in high school.
She has quite bit of offensive skill, and she showed it off on BC’s game-capping 6th goal. Bad camera work, I know, sorry, but she undressed a poor Canadian girl with a beautiful stickhandling move to plant herself directly on the doorstep of Laurentian goalie — wow, I’m going to have to copy and paste this — Romana Kiapešová (who is, apparently, the Slovakian national team goalie, sick).
Barnes’ shot doesn’t beat Kiapešová, but the rebound lands in a very look-what-I-found fashion onto the stick of Kenzie Kent who has a gaping, wide open net to shoot at. The shot from there is a formality, and that wrapped things up for BC.
So the 6-0 win was nice, but there’s obviously not all that much you can take out of these sorts of games on a macro level. All you’re looking for really is that they don’t come out against a Canadian team they should easily handle and skate to a baffling tie — right BU?
The Eagles have only had about four practices under their belts and haven’t even had an opportunity to practice their power play, according to Coach Crowley, so it was really just an opportunity to throw together some lines and see what works (the top line of Kent-Lonergan-Watts really was electric) and, most importantly, to see how the freshmen fit in. The game ticked off pretty much all the positive boxes you could have hoped for, especially given that all four freshmen looked like they will be full-time contributors right out of the gate — with a couple of them looking like legitimate superstars.
BC has some more time to gel before their first “real” games of the season. They’ll have next weekend off before facing off against the WCHA’s Minnesota-Duluth on Thursday and Friday, October 5th and 6th, at Conte Forum. Both games, as will all BC home games, will be on ESPN3, so be sure to tune in and follow the team. They’re a legitimate national championship contender and will be a ton of fun to watch this season.