GOAL BY GOAL: BC Women’s Hockey Takes 2-1 Win Late Over UConn To Split Weekend

For a while, Boston College Women’s Hockey’s game on Saturday looked like a carbon copy of Friday’s — an early BC lead in a decent first period, a disappointing second period that saw UConn tie it, and then a strong third period that appeared to be too-little-too-late.

But the Eagles flipped the script on Saturday, keeping UConn out of the net in the third period and finding one of their own very late to escape Storrs with a 2-1 win and salvage a win in the season series with the Huskies.

Boston College Goal #1: 6:10 of the 1st period
Cayla Barnes (Unassisted)

BC 1, UC 0

Boston College started out playing pretty well and scored fairly early in the game thanks to a great individual effort from Cayla Barnes.

The Eagles had held the offensive zone for a bit before Barnes gathered in the puck at the blue line and skated in toward the net where there was space. She was able to cut in toward the slot with an impressive toe-drag to fake out a Huske defender, and rifled the puck past UConn goalie Morgan Fisher for the goal to make it 1-0.

UConn Goal #1: 0:59 of the 2nd period
Danika Pasqua (Danielle Fox)

BC 1, UC 1

But the Eagles didn’t have anything going at all in the second period, thanks in part to an early UConn goal to tie the game.

It was a terrible play from BC, really. The Huskies made a simple dump into the offensive zone, and BC was caught sleeping — really not good. UConn got to the puck first with the BC defender coasting in, and the second UConn player was all alone in front of the net.

Danielle Fox made the quick pass back to Pasqua, and she buried it easily to tie the game.

Boston College Goal #2 (GWG): 18:49 of the 3rd period
Savannah Norcross (Hannah Bilka, Kelly Browne)

BC 2, UC 1 — FINAL

But credit to the Eagles — like Friday, they took total control of the game (at least from a possession standpoint) in the third period to try and get the win. The difference tonight was that the Huskies didn’t score on their first shot of the third period to cause BC to play catch-up the rest of the game.

Instead, it was a gritty effort with just over a minute left that gave BC the potentially season-saving win. A soft shot from the top of the faceoff circle wasn’t cleanly stopped by Fisher, and the puck was loose while she thought it was covered. The Eagles got there first to poke in the garbage goal to make it 2-1 and steal the late win.

So the good news is, the Eagles stemmed the bleeding a bit from the last couple weeks by getting this win. The bad news, though, is that with #1 Minnesota and #2 Wisconsin on deck this coming weekend, the Eagles are going to be big underdogs and will need to come up with their best effort of the season to take any points from the two western juggernauts.

But, it’s a regular-season opportunity that the Eagles have not had in years. The Eagles will play Minnesota at 2pm Friday and Wisconsin at 2pm Saturday down in Nashville.