The Eagles gained some hard-earned momentum and confidence Monday night. Boston College traveled down Commonwealth Avenue to Walter Brown Arena to take on No. 10 Boston University and came away with a 2-1 victory.
The women's hockey team had struggled to find its footing early in the season without graduated seniors and two players who had departed for the U.S. national team. It entered the game 1-2-4 overall, without a conference win. After three long periods of hockey, however, the team had proven its worth.
"That's the best game we played all season," said head coach Katie King. "We played from the first minute to the last second, and I'm really proud of the way our kids played. We came out hard and did a lot of the little things right, which was very exciting."
Play started off slowly, with neither team registering a shot on net until more than halfway into the first period. Despite low shot counts, each side had opportunities. Later in the period, the BC bench erupted in cheers when Laura Hart's shot passed under goaltender Melissa Haber's leg for an apparent goal, but the cheers quieted when Haber managed to reach back and kick the puck into the post and away from the net. Minutes later, BU's Tara Watchorn sent a slap shot straight toward the goal from about 10 feet out. Goaltender Corinne Boyles just got her right leg between the puck and the net to make the save.
"Even though there were not a lot of shots, the other team didn't have a lot of shots either, so that's always good," King said. "I thought we played well after the first two minutes of jitters. I just told them that we're going to get a goal here and we're getting opportunities."
Sure enough, 12:24 into the second period, Allie Thunstrom took the puck from Mary Restuccia and skated down the rink past her own bench. The senior passed in front of Haber and, at the last second, snuck the disc past the goaltender's right foot to record the first goal of the game.
BU responded quickly. Just over a minute later, Jill Cardella evened the score with a shot from Boyles' right side, tying the game at one goal apiece.
The game remained tied for the rest of the frame and much of the third. Restuccia took the puck up the ice entering the zone next to her own bench and sent a centering pass towards Thunstrom, who tipped it out to Ashley Motherwell. The freshman then buried a slap shot past Haber to put the Eagles up 2-1 with 3:11 remaining in regulation. The Terriers made a grand effort in the last few minutes of the game, but Boyles stood strong, securing the BC win.
"That was a great game-winning goal," said King. "Those are the ones we have been looking for and we found a way to do it. All three lines are getting scoring opportunities and that's what we need."
The game-winner was Motherwell's first official goal of her career. She netted one in the shootout against Maine, but that score is not an official goal and did not go down in the books. King, however, expressed hope that Motherwell's shootout performance would act as a confidence boost. Based on the young forward's game-winner against BU, it apparently did.
BC had a long break between the tie against Maine on Oct. 18 and Monday night's game against BU. The respite was a good chance for the Eagles to regroup, and it gave the freshmen a chance to catch their breath after what had been a "baptism by fire" to begin the season.
"We were able to work on some things that we hadn't been able to work on," King said."Playing so many games in the first two or three weeks of the season, you almost feel like you don't have a lot of time to practice in there. For us to regroup and sit back and teach some of the things we really need to focus on helped. Obviously it helped."
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