GOAL BY GOAL: BC Women's Hockey Coasts To Win Over Dartmouth

It wasn't BC's best effort of the season, but the result was the same. The Eagles average 6 goals per game and 1 allowed, and that's exactly what we saw Wednesday night at Thompson Arena as the undefeated and #1 ranked Eagles coasted to a 6-1 win over Dartmouth.

Boston College Goal #1: 2:56 of the 1st period
Alex Carpenter (Haley Skarupa, Kenzie Kent)

BC 1, Dartmouth 0

Even though the result was exactly the same as every game, this wasn't your typical night for BC. The Eagles tend to come out a little sloppy and turn it on later in the game, but that wasn't the case this time. BC came out firing and capitalized early on with a goal from Alex Carpenter.

Carpenter is about more than just speed -- her year off training with Team USA has made her one of the strongest players in the country, and she shows it off on this goal. She is able to gain an advantage on the Dartmouth defender but needs to use a bit of muscle to keep it. A hard backhand gets through Dartmouth goaltender Robyn Chemago, and Boston College takes the early 1-0 lead.

Boston College Goal #2 (GWG): 13:16 of the 1st period
Haley Skarupa (Megan Keller, Alex Carpenter)

BC 2, Dartmouth 0

Now how's this for a shot-pass? Megan Keller is a freshman but she has a national team pedigree. She sees a Dartmouth defender in her shooting lane, but she also sees Skarupa all by her lonesome at the edge of the faceoff dot. Keller throws a shot intentionally wide and Skarupa gets good wood on the deflection.

Chemago doesn't have a chance on this goal.

Boston College Goal #3 (PPG): 15:35 of the 1st period
Kate Leary (Haley Skarupa, Alex Carpenter)

BC 3, Dartmouth 0

Another deflection for BC, this time on the power play, puts the Eagles up 3-0.

BC puts a ton of pucks in the net, and they do it with an absurd shot percentage -- .147, to be exact, tops in the country and by a considerable margin. A complaint of past BC teams was that they took too many shots and didn't create enough chances. That has changed this season.

You'll notice that a huge number of BC's goals come from right on the doorstep or in the slot, two very high-percentage scoring areas. They get the puck to the net, but they make sure that they do it with purpose. Here, Skarupa isn't just taking a low-angle shot -- she knows she has not one, but two Eagles perfectly positioned to bat home a goal in front of the net.

Honestly, Leary didn't even have the best chance at scoring this goal -- the Eagle behind her is totally unmarked.

Dartmouth Goal #1 (PPG): 4:09 of the 2nd period
Morgan Illikainen (Laura Stacey, Eleni Tebano)

BC 3, Dartmouth 1

I said this game went a bit against BC's usual M.O. and the 2nd period was a big part of that. The Eagles score more goals in the 2nd period than any other, but they came out flat and Dartmouth capitalized. A penalty on Megan Keller put the Big Green on the power play and they were able to convert.

Freshman Katie Burt has been a big reason for BC's success this year, but unfortunately you kind of have to put this goal on her. She gets way too aggressive playing a Dartmouth player who realistically doesn't have much of a chance to corral the puck, leaving the net gaping for Illikainen's shot.

No worries, though. Burt is only 17 years old, but she's very technically sound. We can give her a pass for a brain freeze every now and again.

Boston College Goal #4: 6:15 of the 2nd period
Dana Trivigno (Kate Leary, Tori Sullivan)

BC 4, Dartmouth 1

BC would get it back pretty quickly, though.

Kind of a funny play on this goal -- just before the GIF starts, Dana Trivigno loses her glove and it goes flying about 10 feet into the goal. But seconds later, she finds the puck on her stick and wrists a goal off her own glove in the net. Her 8th of the year regains BC's three goal lead.

Boston College Goal #5: 6:57 of the 3rd period
Emily Pfalzer (Unassisted)

BC 5, Dartmouth 1

As I type this, the official scoring on this goal is Pfalzer (Unassisted) but Alex Carpenter should clearly be given a primary assist on this goal. She wins a battle to the puck and somehow, I have no idea how given her position on the ice, she sees Pfalzer streaking across the blue line in space.

Carpenter fires the puck all the way across the ice, tape-to-tape, in a beauty of a pass to Pfalzer who skates in and wrists a puck in. Poor Chemago has no idea what's going on and the puck takes an odd deflection off her and barely across the line. Dartmouth can't clear it out in time, and it's 5-1 BC.

Boston College Goal #6 (PPG): 18:37 of the 3rd period
Dana Trivigno (Andie Anastos, Emily Pfalzer)

BC 6, Dartmouth 1 -- FINAL

BC gets a pretty goal to wrap things up. Anastos gathers the puck from the corner and Trivigno is skating through the slot (See? What'd I tell you about us taking shots from the slot?). Perfect pass from Anastos, a roof job deflection from Trivigno, touchdown Eagles, and that's your hockey game.

It was really not BC's best effort. You have to give Dartmouth credit, because they did a good job of disrupting BC, but the Eagles did enough to slow themselves down on their own. BC started out crisp but some sloppy passes off skates and a lifting off the throttle after just 20 minutes gave BC a pretty poor 33-30 shot advantage on the Big Green. Other than the one mistake from Burt, she did an excellent job of shutting Dartmouth down.

Despite the relatively nonchalant effort from BC, you look up at the end of the game and they score another touchdown and hold a very good offensive team in Dartmouth -- a top ten offense -- to just one goal. That's been the way things have gone for the Eagles this season.

That wraps up the first half for BC, and the Eagles won't have another game until January 7th against BU. They hold the nation's only undefeated record, the top spot in the Pairwise, and a unanimous #1 ranking in both polls.

It's hard to imagine the half going any better.