BC Women’s Hockey Sweeps Holy Cross & Maine, Win Streak At 7 Games

Boston College Women’s Hockey still has some work to do figuring out its offensive woes, but they continue to do what they need to win games. After another couple slow starts, the Eagles took over and controlled both of their games against Holy Cross and Maine, coming away with easy 5-1 and 4-1 wins on the road.

Despite the 5-1 final, Friday night’s win over Holy Cross was much more concerning for BC as the Crusaders are in their first full season playing D-I competition and are still putting together a roster for this level of play. The Eagles were expected to completely dominate the game, but BC was only up 1-0 after the first period. Things really opened up for the Eagles in the 2nd period, though, with four goals hitting the back of the net for BC. They coasted from there, but not before putting up a whopping 28 shots in the third period — although of course it was Holy Cross finding the only goal of the period on only 7 shots.

The 5-1 final was good enough for the win, but there was plenty of concern that the effort put forth on Friday wouldn’t be good enough for Sunday’s matchup at Maine, an early-season surprise that found themselves at 4th in KRACH after a not-all-that-tiny sample size with a 6-1-0 record heading into the game. With the game at Alfond Arena, a rink that has given BC plenty of problems in the past, this was one that had IT’S A TRAP in Sharpie on the calendar.

But after yet another slow start and scoreless first, BC took control of the game in the second with a pair of goals to go up 2-0 into the final frame. After an early Maine goal made it 2-1, the Eagles responded with one of their own to double the lead and finished it off with an empty netter from Daryl Watts in the final second. That made it a 4-1 final, which was certainly a good-enough result given Maine’s hot start to the season.

Still, it’s been very clear that the BC offense has been totally out of sync pretty much since the season has started. A team that put up 4.00 goals per game last year is down to 3.00, even with the 9 goals put up this weekend, despite having a roster that’s even better than last year’s on paper. It comes down to the fact that the team has looked very sloppy, with passes way off target and the Eagles unable to keep the puck on their sticks once it gets there.

Some of that credit goes to BC’s opponents, who have collapsed on the BC puck carriers with gusto early in the season, but crisp passing and better puck handling from a team with elite talent like the Eagles would be able to overcome that and open up more opportunities to advance the puck into the offensive zone.

Next up for the Eagles is an interesting Thursday-Saturday weekend against two more league opponents, with UConn coming to Conte Forum and the Eagles headed down to Providence for a game with the Friars. Saturday’s game in particular is going to be one to watch for, as the Eagles will be down four of their best players due to Team USA’s practice for the Four Nations Cup tournament. “Get Two Points No Matter The Score” will be the goal in that one. UConn at BC is Thursday at 7pm, with BC at Providence on Saturday at 3pm.