GOAL BY GOAL: BC Women’s Hockey Guts Out 4-3 Win Over Syracuse

The Boston College women’s hockey team has been fortunate over the last few years to not have too many players miss playing time. It seems to be catching up to them this year.

With Tori Sullivan already out for the season on a leave of absence, the Eagles kicked off the second half with the news that top scoring defenseman Toni Ann Miano would miss the rest of the year for a violation of team rules. In addition, freshman superstar Caitrin Lonergan missed Wednesday’s game against the Orange with an injury.

Altogether, that’s three key players off the ice for Boston College against Syracuse, and it looked like it might cost the Eagles a win. The Orange, with a 5-8-5 record coming into the game, jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period and seemed to keep BC from getting a lot of good chances on net. But whatever coaches Katie Crowley and Courtney Kennedy said to the team during the first intermission seemed to have worked like a charm.

Boston College Goal #1 (PPG): 3:58 of the 2nd period
Kristyn Capizzano (Kali Flanagan, Grace Bizal)

SU 2, BC 1

Senior Kristyn Capizzano got the Eagles back into the game with a perfect deflection in the slot. Kali Flanagan blasted a low slapshot along the ice that Capizzano was able get a stick on, and the puck exploded over the shoulder of Syracuse’s Abbey Miller for the goal.

Capizzano was a frequent flyer in this game.

Boston College Goal #2: 9:08 of the 2nd period
Kristyn Capizzano (Megan Keller, Haley McLean)

BC 2, SU 2

Capizzano can burn — she’s had more than a few breakaway goals this season — and she blew past an Orange defender for this goal just a few minutes after her first. Nothing too complicated here. Capizzano just turned on the jets, got clear, and took the five hole opening given to her to tie the score at 2.

Boston College Goal #3 (PPG): 12:43 of the 2nd period
Kenzie Kent (Andie Anastos, Makenna Newkirk)

BC 3, SU 2

Another goal on the power play for BC, which has been a strength for the Eagles this year. Syracuse’s #4 Lindsay Eastwood makes the mistake of over pursuing Anastos in the corner, and there was really no need for it. Anastos wasn’t a threat from that position.

Anastos sees Eastwood go down to a knee and takes advantage of the space to go around her. As a result, Anastos has a few different options available to her. She has a very good shooting angle, though there are so many bodies it may not have made it through. She had Erin Connolly on the doorstep for a deflection option to go around the traffic. But she also has Kenzie Kent left all alone on the back side for a wide open shot.

The pass is just a hair in on Kent, but she’s able to get a good stick on it for the one timer, ripping the shot past Miller to put BC on top after being behind 2-0 not too long before.

Boston College Goal #4 (GWG, HTG): 15:57 of the 2nd period
Kristyn Capizzano (Kenzie Kent, Bridget McCarthy)

BC 4, SU 2

With so many critical players off the ice for BC, the Eagles needed someone to come up big. Senior leader Kristyn Capizzano was the one who played hero, earning the hat trick and the game-winning goal in BC’s comeback win.

This is a really, really nice play. Capizzano drops the puck back to Kenzie Kent and goes right to the front of the net. The Syracuse defender, once again, over commits like crazy to the puck carrier, and that leaves Capizzano all alone on the doorstep.

The puck coasts over to Capizzano at underhand speed, and all she needs to do is wind up and blast. The shot beats Miller for BC’s fourth goal of the period, and after a whirlwind 16 minutes of the second frame, the Eagles went from two down to two ahead before the Orange knew what happened.

Syracuse scored one on the power play in the third period to cut the lead in half, but they didn’t have enough left to play spoiler, falling 4-3 to BC in the end.

While Miano and Sullivan won’t be back for BC for the rest of the season, the Eagles will really hope to see Caitrin Lonergan back on the ice this weekend. BC takes on Boston University on Saturday afternoon in their final league game against their Comm. Ave rivals, before heading to Fenway Park next Wednesday to take on Harvard.

BC is hanging tough in the Pairwise just below a home ice position for the NCAA quarterfinals, and they’ll need to go on a run in the second half to jump up into that spot.