Two Overtime Victories Earn BC Women’s Hockey Weekend Sweep of Maine

Boston College Women’s Hockey isn’t quite back to their early season form, but they were able to stop the bleeding this weekend thanks to a pair of overtime wins over the Maine Black Bears. The Eagles took Friday afternoon’s overtime contest 4-3 before pulling out a late tying goal and winning in OT on Saturday by a score of 2-1.

After losing 7 of their last 9 games, BC really needed to find a way to get back into the win column however possible. Playing Maine up in Orono was a tough way to do it, as despite the Black Bears’ sub-.500 record, Maine has been playing better of late and doing so against some pretty tough competition.

The Eagles did control the game on Friday for the most part, taking a 2-0 lead in the first period and a 3-2 lead in the third after Maine tied the game midway through the contest. But the Black Bears tied it up again with about six minutes left to play in regulation, forcing the Eagles to regroup in overtime.

Fortunately, Hannah Bilka was there with a great individual effort to earn the victory for BC just 27 seconds into the extra frame.

The Eagles outshot Maine 37-27 on Friday, one of their better shot differentials in a few weeks, but Saturday afternoon’s game didn’t quite go as well for BC as Maine turned the tables to put up a 40-27 shot count on the Eagles. The Black Bears scored early in the first period to take a 1-0 lead, and that’s how the game would stay for about 59 minutes. Bilka played the hero again to tie the game up at 1-1 with just a minute and change to play, sending a rebound over the sprawling Maine goaltender for the score.

In overtime the Eagles found a winner once again — their fourth winner in as many overtime attempts this season — this time off the stick of Kelly Browne. Browne rifled the puck into the corner from the faceoff dot for the winner, and the Eagles took the 2-1 victory.

The Eagles have one game left before they enter the winter break. Boston College will hit the road one more time, this time heading up to Burlington to take on the Vermont Catamounts on 2pm this Friday.