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First the good news: BC looked really good! The Eagles came out like gangbusters against a ranked St. Lawrence team and dominated the game nearly from start to finish with quality possession, crisp passing, and quick decision-making. And they won!
The bad news, though, is that the Eagles trailed once again and needed a ludicrous Caitrin Lonergan equalizer and Lindsay Agnew overtime tally to come away with the 2-1 win over the Saints. And unfortunately, the new Pairwise rules mean that an overtime goal is only worth 90% of a win.
Still, an overtime win is better than not winning at all!
Saint Lawrence Goal #1 (4:46 of the 2nd period)
Charlea Pedersen (Steph Keryluk)
SLU 1, BC 0
The Eagles dominated the game in the first period and probably should have come away with a couple goals. The shots after 1 were 13-4 BC, but it felt like much more than that. The second was more of the same, so naturally that meant that Saint Lawrence would open the scoring.
It was a pretty bizarre turnover at the blue line that led to the breakaway and the goal. BC defender Cayla Barnes cleared the blue line in the shadow of two Saints, but couldn’t maintain possession. Center Maegan Beres tries to disrupt the loose puck to prevent Saint Lawrence from skating away with it, and the puck bounced through a couple pairs of skates right onto the waiting stick of Pedersen.
The bounce allowed her to skate in all alone as the other Eagle in the defensive end was following the play, and Pedersen beat McArthur for the 1-0 lead.
Boston College Goal #1 (15:02 of the 2nd period)
Caitrin Lonergan (Cayla Barnes)
BC 1, SLU 1
SLU’s goal came solidly against the run of play — it was their first and only shot of the first dozen minutes or so of the 2nd period — so it seemed like just a matter of time before BC would finally find a way to beat Saints goaltender Grace Harrison. It took a bit of a superhuman effort, but they got there eventually.
Caitrin Lonergan was easily the best player on the ice on Thursday, which is all the more impressive when you consider that she went down with a potentially serious lower body injury just two weeks ago at Duluth. You’d never know it based on the speed she shows on this goal.
Lonergan skated right around a St. Lawrence defender like she was standing still to go one on one with defender number two. Defender number two probably would rather have had the fate of defender number one rather than the toe-drag nutmegging Lonergan put her through, but she’ll just have to swaller her pride.
The through-the-legs shot tied the game up for BC with plenty of time left to play in regulation, but BC couldn’t find the game-winner before the final whistle of the third period. Fortunately, thanks to your favorite Minnesota transfer and mine, the Eagles were able to come away with at least a partial win.
Boston College Goal #2 (GWG): 1:21 of Overtime
Lindsay Agnew (Makenna Newkirk, Grace Bizal)
BC 2, SLU 1 — FINAL (OT)
Lindsay Agnew saved the day with a shot from distance, using the SLU defender as a screen and rifling a shot off the post and in for the game winner, giving her a nice 2-2—4 line and a thrilling overtime winner in her first four games as an Eagle. It salvaged the day in a game that Boston College really deserved to win, even if they only got 90% of it from a Pairwise perspective.
The Eagles and Saints will be right back at it on Friday afternoon at 2pm. The game will be shown, as always, on ESPN3. Hopefully BC can come away with a bit of an easier win.