After finishing five games below .500 in 2002, the women's hockey team is undergoing a transition with new coach Tom Mutch. Serving as team assistant to the 1998 gold medal-winning national team in Nagano, Japan, Mutch has a new goal for the 2003 women: to be competitive in every game.
While the women split their two games this past week, holding a 2-1-0 overall record, Mutch knows that it might take some time before his goal is fully reached. "All I ask them is to stay disciplined and work hard," said Mutch. "If they can do that, those are the things they can control."
Entering Sunday's game against Union College (1-2-1), BC had been successful on killing off all six of its penalties in previous match-ups against Quinnipiac and the University of Vermont. Facing three Union power plays in the first period alone, the Eagles continued their consistent penalty killing. Gaining momentum from the special teams, senior forward Alaina Clark fed a pass to sophomore forward Kristin Blundo, who drove the puck home for an early 1-0 advantage with 1:35 remaining in the period.
Early in the second period, the Eagles continued to muster opportunities. Just 13 seconds in, the Eagle offense caught the Union defense off-guard as junior Lindsey Bazzone made a nice backhanded pass to linemate Heidi Seidewand in the slot. Seidewand's quick wrist shot then beat Union freshman goaltender Lauren Carlson.
Unfortunately, the Eagles had difficulty staying out of the penalty box in the second period. With 5:40 remaining, Union was given a two-man advantage and an opportunity to get back into the game. The Dutchwomen entered the period 0-13 on the power play all season, but were able to convert at 4:25 when leading scorer freshman Kelly Lannan's shot from the point cut the lead to one.
Luckily for BC, the penalties did not prove too costly. Just 20 seconds into the third period, junior forward Kerri Sanders gave the Eagles an insurance goal, extending the lead to 3-1. Sophomore forward Megan Scully pounded home a Carlson kick save to assure the 4-1 victory.
"We're really working on getting down low and really cycling pucks," said Mutch. "What we're really trying to work on is getting pucks to the net and getting second-effort shots."
After the game Mutch was disappointed with his team's level of competitiveness, which was not as high as had hoped, and may have possibly been due to Thursday's 3-1 loss to Vermont.
The Catamounts entered the game with a 0-5-1 record, and only three wins against Division 1 opponents all-time. One of those wins came in the form of a 3-2 overtime victory in 2002 against the Eagles, so for Mutch's squad, this game had special significance. "We tried to put last year behind us as much as we can," said Bazzone. "It is a brand new slate for us ... but going into the game, I know we were pumped up. We came off a win. We were ready to play."
For BC, they proved they were ready to play by peppering UVM goalie Kami Cote with 27 shots. Cote had been coming off some solid performances in net, including a 66-save game against the University of Wisconsin earlier in the season.
"We tried to get her to move laterally a little bit, we tried to get the screens [and] get pucks to the net," said Mutch. "The big thing is we didn't get second shots ... they did a good job of clearing us out."
The lone goal of the game came from Bazzone at 2:07 of the first period. Driving to the net, she was able to receive a feed from junior linemate Heidi Seidewand and then tipped the puck past Cote. "I got a great pass from Heidi on the side," said Bazzone. "It took a lot of effort on everybody's part."
For the first two periods it seemed to be all Eagles, as they outshot the Catamounts 20-5, but were shutdown by the goaltending of Cote. Her saves seemed to boost her teammates, who came out hard in the third period and put in two goals in the period's first six minutes. Sophomore Hilary Johnson, who was tied for second on the team in scoring in 2002, scored the game-winner past junior goaltender Lisa Davis (12 saves).
An empty net goal in the game's final minute sealed UVM's first victory of the season. BC outplayed its opponent for most of the game, but with defensive breakdowns late, in addition to strong goaltending by Cote, which was the main caused BC's first loss.
"We have to learn to put teams away. I don't think our players played all that well in the first and second period. [We have to] come, compete for 60 minutes, not just the third," said Mutch after Sunday's win.
"I am very happy with the win, don't get me wrong. It's a whole team effort in the sense of when you come to play and how you come to play. We're still a little young on how to do those little things."
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