About Us
Boston College Women’s Hockey fell short in their quest to win the 44th annual Beanpot, losing 2-1 to no.5 Northeastern on Tuesday. Despite 27 shots, the Eagles couldn’t crack the Northeastern defense nor could they slow down their offense. It was all Huskies through three on their way to winning their 18th Beanpot.
Northeastern found the back of the net with 9:20 left in the first period with a powerplay goal by Mia Brown. Skylar Irving started the play by wrapping around the net and feeding a pass to Megan Carter at the left-side faceoff dot. Carter wristed off a shot that Brown, lurking near the front of the net, tipped past Eagles goaltender Abigail Levy to give the Huskies a 1-0 advantage. Both Irving and Brown received assists on the goal.
A goal by Maureen Murphy with 13 minutes left in the second would make the score 2-0 in favor of the Huskies. The play started with Alina Müller feeding Jules Constantinople the puck near the blue line. Constantinople skated in before rifling off a shot from just above the face-off dot. Murphy tipped the puck home on Levy’s stick side. Directly before the play, Levy had lost her stick, unable to pick it up in the sustained pressure of Northeastern’s offense.
Hannah Bilka saved the Eagles from the shutout with a little over a minute remaining in the third period, redirecting home a shot from Alexie Guay. Guay received the puck from Cayla Barnes near the blue line and sent her shot in on the net. In the chaos, with three Eagles crashing the net, Bilka found the puck and slotted it home, giving the Eagles hope that maybe they could find another goal.
The fast-paced puck movement of the Huskies troubled the Eagles throughout the first period, especially the lateral cross-ice pass that usually sprung a Huskie forward to charge toward the net as the Eagles' defense scrambled. Like Harvard the week before, the Huskies found ways to sneak inside of the Eagles' defense, allowing for unnecessary moments of brilliance for goaltender Levy. By cycling the puck around the net or from low to high, the Huskies could usually find the shot they wanted.
Scrambled is another word that could describe the Eagles' offense in the first period. Restricted mostly to isolated breakaways, BC couldn’t find the passing lanes they wanted and rarely had someone on the at post ready to capitalize on any rebound that Huskies goaltender Gwyneth Philips might have given up. The second period saw stretches of more sustained pressure, but immediately after the most promising, Northeastern scored. Plagued by just-off-the-mark passes and shots that went wide, the Eagles struggled to put dangerous chances on net.
The third period is the one the Eagles will want to remember from the game, with the team finally managing to consistently pressure Northeastern goaltender Philips. Sustained pressure allowed the Eagles to take more shots from closer to the net and get better positioning on the Huskies' defense, making the chances created more lethal. Although it took the Eagles pulling their goalie to find the back of the net. Despite improvement, the Eagles never solved Northeastern’s smothering defense and seemingly instant pressure release valves.
Not helping the chaos and Eagles' frustration as the game continued was the loud and sustained cheering of the Northeastern fan section. The first Eagles chant broke out with about eight minutes left in the first and the deafening response by Northeastern’s fans quickly drowned it out. As the first period ended, the Huskies men’s hockey team showed up—with their newly earned men’s Beanpot Trophy. The noise from Northeastern was deafening and constant. Eagles fans didn’t have a chance. The game might have been played at Conte Forum, but it wasn’t a home game for the Eagles.
The Eagles (18-13-1) finish out their regular season with games against no.13 Providence College (19-9-4) this Friday and Saturday. The Eagles will be away on Friday at 2 pm and home on Saturday at 2 pm for a matinee home finish to the regular season.
Making mountains out of molehills and facts out of printers since the turn of the century
