#5 Boston College Women's Hockey Trounces Northeastern 6-1

After watching the BC men's team dominate Army to the tune of an 11-0 victory this afternoon, the women's team must have felt the pressure not to disappoint. It wasn't 11-0, but the ladies put together a very solid effort to put away Northeastern by an impressive 6-1 final score.

Three eagles were multi-goal scorers in this one, with Emily Field, Dana Trivigno, and BC's Patty Kazmaier candidate Haley Skarupa each potting a pair.

Field's second goal was particularly impressive, going coast to coast and roasting a Northeastern defender on her way to a beauty of a finish:

Special teams have really started to pick up the pace, which has done a lot to take the pressure off 5-on-5. Said Coach Crowley after the game, "Our powerplay is finally getting some production, which is great because they're talented enough to do it."

It's true; with all of BC's firepower, their struggles on the powerplay have left many scratching their head. But BC was an impressive 3 for 7 on the powerplay tonight.

And it's been more than that -- BC leads the nation with 8 shorthanded goals, and has killed its last 13 penalties since a terrible 4-for-8 game against Providence.

Haley Skarupa scored her 11th and 12th goals of the season, far and away the most in the country with second place at just 9 and third place at just 8. She is the Johnny Gaudreau of the women's hockey team, dominating the opponent's focus when she's on the ice and yet still making incredible plays. She has quickly become the early favorite to take home the Patty Kazmaier award, given annually to the best player in women's college hockey.

After my criticism of the goaltending last week, Corinne Boyles has really locked down and become the goalie we knew she was, giving up one goal in each of the last 3 games on 79 shots for a spectacular .962 save percentage.

Once again BC did give up a pretty high number of shots -- the third in the last four games in which we gave up at least 30. I asked Coach Crowley after the game what that could be attributed to, especially given that the last four games have all been wins:

We tell our defense to keep the other team to outside shots and I do think they're doing a good job with that. We're still working on our defensive zone and cleaning things up back there, but I do like our progress so far this season from our whole team.

BC faces its most critical weekend of the young season next week with its first two games against top 10 opponents in RPI. Quinnipiac sits at a surprising #7 and Princeton has had a solid start to sit at #10. Both games are on the road and will go a long way toward giving BC some momentum into their pair of games against #2 Cornell in a couple weeks.