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It was a one-woman show in the first Hockey East semifinal this afternoon. BC junior Kate Leary scored all three Eagle goals to earn the hat trick and lead Boston College over Vermont 3-1.
It was a strong night all around for BC. Let's get going with the GIFs.
Goal #1 -- 15:23 of the 1st period: Kate Leary (Jackie Young, Dana Trivigno)
BC 1, UVM 0
The game was scoreless through much of the first. After withstanding some early pressure by the Catamounts in which Corinne Boyles had to make a few tough saves, BC went to work and controlled the bulk of the period. Late in the frame, Dana Trivigno wins the draw straight back to Jackie Young at the point to puts the puck on net through traffic.
Kate Leary is right on the doorstep, and pretty well defender, but she manages to get a stick on the puck and deflect it past Roxanne Douville for the first goal.
Douville was spectacular, particularly in the first period where the Eagles had chances in bunches but couldn't get one into the net for a while. 1-0 was the score after 1 with BC leading in shots, 19-10.
Scoring chances slowed down a bit in the second period, but the Eagles comprehensively owned the period even more so than they did in the first. This time, BC was able to break through Douville early on.
Goal #2 (GWG) -- 1:50 of the 2nd period: Kate Leary (Jackie Young, Kaliya Johnson)
BC 2, UVM 0
Another deflection from a shot up high, and poor Douville didn't have a chance. You can kind of see it in the corner of the frame, but Leary does a nice job working past her defender to get into some open space. Douville isn't screened, but she has no shot of stopping the redirection that went right up over her shoulder.
For a while it seemed like deflections up front would be the only way to beat Douville, who was having an excellent night...
Goal #3 (Hat Trick Goal) -- 9:45 of the 2nd period: Kate Leary (Melissa Bizzari, Meagan Mangene)
BC 3, UVM 0
Turns out a good old-fashions snipe could beat her, too.
Really nicely executed 3 on 2 where all three players play a role in the goal. Taylor Wasylk, initially coming in on the far side of the rush, doesn't get a point on the play, but skates hard to the net, clearing out a little bit of extra space for Leary. Bizzari dishes to Leary who is able to delay just a little bit with the extra space and ends up taking the shot right smack in the middle of the slot. Nice goal to complete the hat trick.
Vermont would score one in the third period after a sequence involving a BC penalty, a Vermont timeout, and the Cats pulling their goalie with 9 minutes left, but that was as close as they could get. It looked like BC took their foot off the gas a bit in the third -- which is unfortunately becoming a bit of a pattern, it seems -- but they held on for the win, which is all that matters.
BC will take on the winner of the Northeastern vs. Boston University semifinal taking place this afternoon, before taking to the ice tomorrow to try and claim their second Hockey East title. The game will be shown on tape delay tomorrow at 8pm on NESN, so don't miss it!