BC Women’s Hockey Tops UConn In Ugly 3-2 Win

Boston College Women’s Hockey is playing the UConn Huskies for the second weekend in a row, and UConn’s familiarity with the Eagles is starting to show. After needing overtime to down the Huskies last weekend, UConn played well against BC once again at Conte Forum on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles took the 3-2 win, and while you’ll take them any way you can get them, it wasn’t pretty.

This was a pretty weird game. UConn dominated in shots in all three periods, eventually coming away with a whopping 39-19 advantage, but the Huskies never lead in this one. BC actually looked pretty decent in the opening minutes, and they converted on their opportunities when they had them. Kelly Browne scored just three and a half minutes into the game to give BC a 1-0 lead, and Hannah Bilka scored a nice shorthanded goal to make it 2-0 halfway through the frame, and you would be forgiven for thinking this one was going to be easy.

From there, though, it was anything but. After Bilka’s goal, Boston College didn’t get a single shot the entire second half of the first period, and UConn scored a fluky goal on a deflection from a tough angle that floated in over Maddy McArthur’s shoulder to make it 2-1 after one period. And the weirdness continued from there. After Cayla Barnes scored to make it 3-1 BC in the second, the Huskies scored yet another bizarre goal after a wayward puck bounced off a UConn skater’s shoulder and over McArthur once again to make it 3-2 going into the third.

But somehow, the Eagles came away with the win despite UConn’s continued peppering of Maddy McArthur. Aside from the fluky deflection, McArthur played one of her best games of the season and really locked down in the third period. It was a frenetic final few minutes after BC took several poor icing decisions late, but UConn couldn’t find an equalizer, and the Eagles held on for the 3-2 win.

It was just a strange game. UConn’s goals were fluky, but they probably should have had more with how much possession they had. BC really didn’t make good decisions throughout this game and things were pretty disjointed at times, and yet they had enough moments of brilliance to score the goals they needed.

And once again, the Eagles were playing in a game with several players out due (presumably) to COVID protocol. This time, it was So. D Hadley Hartmetz, So. F Caroline DiFiore, So. F Abby Volo, Sr. F Willow Corson, Fr. F Gaby Roy, and Jr. G Abbey Levy who were all off the ice. There are a lot of impact players in that list, and what’s amazing is that despite BC not playing at their best, they once again kept “we’re missing players” from being an excuse for not winning. The Eagles came away with three points against a decent team. You can’t hate it.

BC and UConn will head down I-84 for the return matchup of the home-and-home on Sunday afternoon at 3pm in Storrs.