It's a critical weekend for BC women's hockey, with the puck dropping on a 2-game home series against the 5th-ranked Cornell Big Red at Conte Forum this afternoon. Between now and the end of November, the 3rd ranked BC women's hockey team will probably have 10 consecutive games against unranked opponents.
Game one of the weekend went about as well as anyone could have hoped--after falling behind briefly, the Eagles opened the floodgates on Cornell, outshooting the Big Red 43-21 on their way to a dominating 6-2 win.
Boston College Goal #1 (PPG): 0:42 of the 2nd period
Emily Pfalzer (Lexi Bender, Alex Carpenter)
BC 1, Cornell 0
BC came out firing right out of the gate but couldn't beat Cornell goalie Paula Voorheis until a power play at the beginning of the second period. The Eagles peppered Voorheis and a huge rebound slid right out into the slot. Pfalzer has all the space and time in the world to skate in a blast a slapshot in on goal.
Voorheis makes a good effort, and even gets a piece of the puck, but that's in the back of the net for a 1-0 BC lead.
Cornell Goal #1 (PPG): 8:39 of the 2nd period
Brianne Jenner (Cassandra Poudrier, Emily Fulton)
BC 1, Cornell 1
It wasn't smooth sailing in the middle of the second period. A BC penalty on Dana Trivigno put Cornell on the power play and they were able to convert.
It's tough to tell on the GIF, but Burt had absolutely no chance on this goal. #11 for Cornell, Brianne Jenner, makes an unstoppable tip on the slap-pass from Poudrier. That's getting by any goalie.
And Cornell wasn't done...
Cornell Goal #2: 15:31 of the 2nd period
Emily Fulton (Jillian Saulnier)
Cornell 2, BC 1
Another really quality goal by Cornell. Can't put either of these on the freshman goaltender Katie Burt. Not much to say about this one, really well played one-timer. It was against the run of play, which was pretty frustrating for the Eagles, but never fear--the floodgates would open.
Boston College Goal #2: 16:33 of the 2nd period
Haley Skarupa (Kali Flanagan, Alex Carpenter)
BC 2, Cornell 2
And here we have the start of a a slew of BC goals.
Here's the first one to tie the game. Freshman defenseman Kali Flanagan skates all the way in behind the net--BC D absolutely love to skate in deep--and dishes the puck right out in front of the crease. Skarupa does a good job of putting good wood on the fluttering puck and Voorheis is beaten.
Boston College Goal #3 (GWG): 19:52 of the 2nd period
Dana Trivigno (Tori Sullivan, Kate Leary)
BC 3, Cornell 2
Hey now! Early candidate for goal of the year right here out of BC. With just 8 seconds to go in the 2nd period, BC shows its high skill to take a lead into the 2nd intermission. Kate Leary dishes a backhand over to Sullivan (who was an absolute monster in this game, by the way).
Trivigno gets in behind the Cornell defense and is all alone right in front of Voorheis. One move opens up the back door and Trivigno has a whole lot of space to shoot at.
And with that, consider the floodgates fully opened.
Boston College Goal #4: 0:49 of the 3rd period
Alex Carpenter (Haley Skarupa, Megan Keller)
BC 4, Cornell 2
This is unfair.
This is really unfair, for opposing teams to have to face a line consisting of Olympic Snub Haley Skarupa, Olympic First Liner Alex Carpenter, and [literally pick any other BC player here].
Part of the problem for Cornell on this play is that BC is operating at a speed that the Big Red just can't match. Skarupa is fed the puck across the blue line and takes a few strides in toward the net. Right at that moment, Erin O'Connor (Cornell #2) leaves Carpenter to be defended by her teammates, but before she can affect Skarupa, Skarupa feeds the puck over to Carpenter.
Carpenter finds the puck and gets a stick on it to get it past Voorheis before plowing through the crease. The goal was briefly reviewed but would stand.
BC Goal #5: 2:20 of the 3rd period
Kate Leary (Lexi Bender)
BC 5, Cornell 2
This goal is all Kate Leary.
Leary has been an under appreciated part of the lineup, but then you see her rack up point totals and all of a sudden she's one of the highest scorers on the team. She's the team's 4th highest returning scorer, after all.
Nice work to gather in the puck across the blue line and dish over to Bender. Unfortunately for Cornell, the defender is left in a bit of no-man's-land as Leary has already beaten the trailing Cornell defender before she'd even gotten rid of the puck. Once Sarah Knee (Cornell #24) abandons Leary to play Bender, Leary hits the gas and make sure she stays in the clear.
Then it's just a matter of Bender finding Leary for the one timer and boom, there's the goal. Quick, quick, quick.
That's 4 goals in 5:47 (and 3 in 2:28), for those of you keeping track.
Let's wrap this up.
Boston College Goal #6: 9:34 of the 3rd period
Dana Trivigno (Kate Leary, Toni Ann Miano)
BC 6, Cornell 2 -- FINAL
Turn out the lights, this one's over. Nice little centering feed to Leary who takes a shot from point blank range. Voorheis makes the save but Trivigno is in the right place at the right time to smack home the rebound.
Touchdown Eagles.
That's all she wrote in this one--despite Cornell's two really nice goals, BC comprehensively dominated the game, particularly with time of possession, and it was only a matter of time until BC started scoring.
The Eagles won't have much time to celebrate the win--Game #2 against Cornell is Saturday afternoon at 2pm. A weekend sweep might be enough to see BC sitting atop the Pairwise Rankings for the first time in program history.