The regular season is rapidly coming to a close. With this weekend's set of games against Maine in the books, all that remains is a home and home set against Boston University next week before tournament time.
BC accomplished some good things this weekend: Friday afternoon, they clinched the Hockey East regular season title with their 6-0 win over Maine, and Saturday, Alex Carpenter snapped her scoreless streak with 2 goals and BC mathematically clinched home ice in the NCAA quarterfinals with their 4-1 win over the Black Bears.
Boston College Goal #1: 7:57 of the 2nd period
Kate Leary (Dana Trivigno, Megan Keller)
BC 1, Maine 0
Just like Friday, it took BC a little while to find their scoring groove, but they were in firm control of the game from the drop of the puck.
Leary and Trivigno make Maine look silly on this play. It's Keller with the long range pass from her own goal line in an attempt to catch the Black Bears off guard, but they aren't fooled. Trivigno totally undressed her defender with a toe drag creating a 2 on 1 right on the doorstep. Leary is there for the finish with her stick down on the ice, and BC finally took the lead more than halfway through the game.
Boston College Goal #2 (GWG): 9:47 of the 2nd period
Alex Carpenter (Haley Skarupa, Kenzie Kent)
BC 2, Maine 0
Alex Carpenter had definitely been quite until last night's 3-assist night against Maine. It's been a while since she'd scored a goal—January 30th against Providence, in fact, which is totally out of character for one of the best players in the world.
Carpenter was a big factor this weekend. This is the first of her two goals, and there's nothing fancy to it, just being in the right place in front of the net after Maine's defender fails miserably at clearing the garbage out of the crease. But aside from this and her second goal, she could have had so much more, with a couple breakaways either missing the net or being saves by Maine's Meghann Treacy.
The wild 2nd period was only half over, though.
Boston College Goal #3: 16:29 of the 2nd period
Andie Anastos (Kaliya Johnson, Megan Keller)
BC 3, Maine 0
Now this is a screen. There are seven players in between Kaliya Johnson and the net. Treacy had a tough go of it seeing through everybody, but she had no chance on this one Anastos got a stick on it and deflected the puck in.
That put BC up 3-0, which was pretty good, but the floodgates never would open.
Maine Goal #1: 18:23 of the 2nd period
Brooke Stacey (Katy Massey)
BC 3, Maine 1
BC's primary goaltender Katie Burt had a rest day in this game—her first one of the year, really—and Taylor Blake and Gabri Switaj split time in goal. Tough break for Switaj here as BC's skater got tripped up in front of the net (no call, for some reason), giving Maine the puck right on the door step.
Switaj makes a nice save on the initial shot, but it's a brutal rebound right onto the stick of Stacey giving the Black Bears their only goal of the weekend.
Boston College Goal #4: 15:45 of the 3rd period
Alex Carpenter (Kenzie Kent, Emily Pfalzer)
BC 4, Maine 1 -- FINAL
More Alex Carpenter, and another example of her using her strength on the puck to create a goal.
Kent makes the initial pass back to Carpenter and she fights her way through three black bears on her way out front. She eventually gets the shot through for the goal, giving BC the 4-1 lead and wrapping up the scoring.
BC put together 91 shots on the weekend, which may be a season high, and did a better job of creating offensive chances. They could have had a few more goals but actually shot a ton of pucks high and wide over the course of the night, perhaps in an effort to stop shooting it right into the goalie's pads, but nonetheless, they scored a lot less goals than they could have based on how well they played.
And now BC looks ahead to BU. They might want to get well acquainted with the Terriers, as they might be seeing a lot of them in the next few weeks. First, there's the two-game set next week, then two weeks later they will likely meet for the Hockey East championship, and the following weekend, they are likely to be BC's NCAA quarterfinal opponent.
Get ready, because it should be a fun few weeks.