Eagles Get Sweep At Maine

In two exciting one-goal games, the No. 4 Boston College women's hockey team pulled off a sweep of Maine in Alford Arena this weekend, defeating the Black Bears by scores of 4-3 (overtime) and 1-0.

"It was very important," head coach Katie King Crowley said of the weekend sweep. "It's tough to win on the road, so two great wins for us on the road."

On Sunday, the two teams were held scoreless for two periods until the Eagles finally got on the scoreboard with 1:28 left in the third period. After Mary Restuccia won a faceoff in the Maine zone, the puck went into the corner where Blake Bolden rushed to gain possession. Bolden dished the puck to Restuccia, who then sent it over to Meagan Mangene. Mangene unloaded a shot from the point that was redirected by Bolden past the Maine goaltender for the win.

"Blake was playing really confident and doing her job and she was playing really aggressive and she got a nice tip," Crowley said. "It ended up being a tip on Meagan Mangene's shot. Nice shot, and a nice tip by Blake, and it just redirected it enough to get by the goalie."

BC outshot Maine 47-18 in the game, but the Black Bears were bolstered by the outstanding play of their goaltender, Brittany Ott.

"As you get going into the second half of the year, you run into goalies that keep their team in games," Crowley said. "We ran into a situation like that Sunday and Saturday. I thought our kids continued to make nice plays and get some shots on net. We finally slipped one by [Ott]."

In Saturday's game, three periods were not enough to decide the outcome of the game, and the two teams were forced to play a four-on-four overtime period. Caitlin Walsh set up the winning goal, as she won a battle behind the net and slipped the puck to her teammate, Melissa Bizzari. The sophomore one-timed the pass by Ott's left side and into the back of the net for the victory.

Before the overtime period, it was a back-and-forth game between the two teams for all of regulation.

Jackie Young put the Eagles on the board first at 1:01 in the first period, marking the quickest time BC has scored in a game all year. Ashley Motherwell and Alex Carpenter assisted on the goal, which was Young's fifth of the season.

Maine responded by scoring twice before the end of the period, thanks to Kelly McDonald, who notched her first two goals of the year in a span of under two minutes.

The Eagles battled back in the second period, when Carpenter scored her 10th goal of the season. Fellow freshman Emily Field set up the tally, when she brought the puck up the ice before drawing defensemen and dishing off the puck to Carpenter.

Carpenter now has a seven-game point-streak, which places 10th in program history.

In the third period, Kate Leary scored her first collegiate goal for BC to put her team back in the lead, 3-2. Leary scooped up the rebound of a Bolden shot and found the back of the net 3:27 into the final frame of regulation.

But the Black Bears did not back down. With 2:52 left in the third, Brittany Dougherty fired a puck on net, and it deflected off a BC defender to get past goaltender Corinne Boyles.

"One fluke goal and now they tie it up," Crowley said of the equalizer. "It deflected off one of us."

The Eagles displayed their resiliency, however, pulling off the overtime victory  with a finalizing shot off the stick of Bizzari.

"It was great," Crowley said of the win. "We had worked extremely hard and got a lot of shots on net. To be able to come back, and we have a lot of young kids on our team that are working hard and haven't been in a lot of situations and whatnot. So we were able to come back and score in overtime. It was a great win for us."