Stingy defense, timely offense, and solid goaltending allowed the No. 4 Boston College women's hockey team to wrap up its regular season with two wins and send the senior class out on a high note. The Eagles swept Vermont in a weekend series with wins of 4-0 on Saturday and 2-0 on Friday, ensuring themselves a first-round bye in the upcoming Hockey East Tournament.
Head coach Katie King Crowley was very pleased with her team's effort over the series, and was happy to end the regular season on such a high note.
"I thought they did a great job," Crowley said. "It's tough to come into the last weekend because it's so emotional for the seniors, but I thought the kids played great. It was really a great way to end our regular season."
The Eagles dominated Vermont in Saturday's matchup, controlling the puck for long stretches of time and winning the shot battle by a margin of 56-19. Emily Field scored first for BC, Alex Carpenter had two goals, and Kate Leary had a goal and two assists as the Eagles defeated the Catamounts 4-0 in the second game of the series.
The win came on the Eagles' senior day, which saw eight seniors play their final game at Kelley Rink as the second winningest class of all time. Crowley spoke very highly of the senior class, and admitted she was happy to be able to send them out with a win.
"They're the second most successful group we've had at our program," Crowley said. "They've won two Beanpots, so far they've gone to two national tournaments, and they've just done tremendous things for the growth of our program and for where we're at today. I give them a lot of credit. They've worked extremely hard to get to this point, and they're good representatives of where we are now."
Friday's game was much of the same story. The Eagles outclassed Vermont for large stretches of the game, but were unable to break through in the first period. Midway through the second, senior Danielle Welch scored the eventual game-winner off a big rebound before Ashley Motherwell doubled the lead with just 10 minutes left in the third.
Once again, the Eagles held a significant advantage in terms of shots with a 63-20 edge. Corinne Boyles made all the stops en route to her fifth shutout of the season in a win that guaranteed the Eagles a first-round bye in the upcoming Hockey East Tournament.
"We told them that it's important to make sure you take care of the puck, whether you're in the defensive zone or even gaining the offensive zone," Crowley said. "Make sure it gets deep, make sure you chip it and get to pucks before them and I thought we did a really good job of that. They took Vermont's six away from in front of the net and made sure they couldn't get a second shot on. That's something we were focused on a couple games ago and it's been one of our focuses, so to take away the second shot and their second rebounds was great."
The two wins gave BC a total of 15 in Hockey East play on the season, the most the program has ever had under Crowley. With their regular season over, the Eagles will be off until the Hockey East quarterfinals. They will be either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the tournament and will be looking to defend their title after defeating Northeastern in the championship game last year.
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