BC Women’s Hockey Stumbles To 3-3 Draw At New Hampshire, Hockey East Tournament Awaits

Boston College Women’s Hockey was hoping to carry the momentum from their recent 10-1-0 run into the Hockey East tournament, but they’ll need to reset after finishing off the regular season on a one game “Tie” streak. Despite a strong start, BC needed a third period comeback just to salvage a 3-3 draw at the Whittemore Center — an arena quickly turning into a house of horrors for the Eagles.

Things started out so well for the Eagles. Just 49 seconds into the game, Makenna Newkirk and Lindsay Agnew came in on a shorthanded 2 on 1 (in true BC form, the Eagles took a penalty 16 seconds into the game) and converted to take a very early 1-0 lead on the Wildcats. Kali Flanagan scored later in the period to make it 2-0, and you would have been forgiven for thinking that the Eagles were probably going to run away with this one.

But things started to go very awry before the first period was even over. Another BC penalty put the Wildcats on the power play, and a redirection off the skate of a BC defender sent the puck bouncing past goaltender Maddy McArthur to make it 2-1 BC heading into the locker room.

But the second period was the real disaster. New Hampshire scored twice on odd-player rushes — one early, and one technically even strength though effectively shorthanded with under a minute to go in the period — that made it three unanswered tallies for the Wildcats and put UNH up 3-2 into the final period.

Fortunately, the Eagles managed to keep their composure and found a tying goal midway through the third period of the stick of Erin Connolly, but that was all they could manage despite getting a few good looks at the end of regulation and overtime, making it a disappointing 3-3 final.

Upsets all over the place in women’s hockey mean the Eagles end the day pretty much where they started it — BC has a decent chance to make the NCAA tournament, and can make it a near certainty if they can at least make it to the Hockey East championship game. BC also has a reasonable chance to get home ice in the national quarterfinals if some things go their way — you can play around with our Pairwise Predictor to see where things might end up — but for now the focus is on the conference tournament. The Eagles will take on UConn in the friendly confines of Conte Forum this weekend in a best-2-of-3 series, with the games taking place Friday through Sunday at 2pm, 2pm, and 7:30pm (if necessary).