GOAL BY GOAL: BC Women’s Hockey Earns First Shutout Of The Season, Wins 3-0 Over Vermont

For the second straight day, Boston College Women’s Hockey punched in and punched out against a weak conference opponent. After a ho-hum 3-1 win over Merrimack on Friday night, the Eagles coasted to another Hockey East win on Saturday, winning 3-0 over Vermont.

Boston College Goal #1 (PPG, GWG): 5:20 of the 2nd period
Daryl Watts (Cayla Barnes, Makenna Newkirk)

BC 1, MC 0

Unlike against Merrimack, where the Eagles had a jump in their step pretty much from the drop of the puck, BC took a little while to get going against Vermont. The Eagles didn’t do much at all in the opening twenty minutes and were actually outshot 8-5.

After that, though, they realized that they needed to score a goal to actually win, and really picked up the pace in the second period with a blistering attack.

Daryl Watts scored BC’s first goal a few minutes in with a good effort on a scramble in front of the net. The Eagles threw the puck on target and the Warriors couldn’t clear the puck, and Watts found it just outside the crease. A quick move around the stick of goaltender Melissa Black and a little flip into the net from no angle later, the Eagles had the lead 1-0, which would turn out to be all they needed.

Boston College Goal #2: 12:13 of the 2nd period
Makenna Newkirk (Lindsay Agnew, Megan Keller)

BC 2, MC 0

The Eagles got some insurance a handful of minutes later. Megan Keller started the play with a backward pass to Agnew, giving the Minnesota transfer plenty of space to move in on goal and take the shot. The first shot was saved, but Newkirk was there to pick up the deflected puck and throw it in off Black to make it 2-0 BC.

Boston College Goal #3 (ENG): 18:19 of the 3rd period
Caitrin Lonergan (Daryl Watts, Delaney Belinskas)

BC 3, MC 0 — FINAL

The Eagles set things to autopilot in the third period — not really what you want to see, regardless of the weak opponent, but whatever — but managed to get an empty net goal late to seal the deal. Lonergan and Watts played a little “no, you take it” no, you, I insist” across the neutral zone, and in the end it was Lonergan who was forced to take the goal herself to make it 3-0, for the final score.

It wasn’t the most thrilling or well-played weekend of hockey for BC, but they were able to sweep the weekend and take four league points pretty much locked into second gear. Most importantly, the Eagles finally found that first shutout of the season — the first of freshman Maddy McArthur’s career. They also suddenly find themselves with a pretty strong 1.43 goals allowed per game, a significant improvement on last year’s 2.00 number.

Next up for the Eagles are a pair of road games — first against Hockey East newcomer Holy Cross on Friday, which will not be pretty, and then a tough road game up in Orono on Sunday against a 5-1-0 Maine team that actually came into this weekend ranked at #10 in the country. BC will probably need to play better next Sunday than they did today to get a comfortable win, but they certainly had more in the tank than they showed this afternoon.