By: Amanda Devaney and Kathryn Uggerholt, News Correspondents
The women’s hockey team’s six-game winning streak came to an end last night. Despite coming out strong in the first period, the Huskies fell to No. 6 Boston College Eagles 3-1 at Matthews Arena.
“We just got to find a way to put together 60 minutes,” head coach Dave Flint said after the loss.
The Huskies fell to 6-2-2 on the season and 1-1-1 in Hockey East play.
Sophomore forward Brittany Esposito scored the first goal of the game 15:46 into the first period when she got a feed from sophomore forward Rachel Llanes and got the puck past goaltender Molly Schaus. Schaus made 28 saves on the night, while Northeastern junior goaltender Florence Schelling made 24.
The Eagles took advantage of a power play and forward Mary Restuccia scored just 26 seconds into the second period. BC struck again two minutes later on the power play with forward Taylor Wasylk hitting the top corner of the net behind Schelling. Forward Danielle Doherty got the final goal for the Eagles, and the first of her collegiate career, at 12:30 of the period to put her team ahead 3-1.
Flint said he liked how the team played at times but said he admits it was the second period that was the downfall for the Huskies.
“If you start taking penalties, their power play is pretty good,” he said. “They got two quick power play goals there and that kind of changed the tempo of the game for them.”
This past weekend, the Huskies split a weekend series against the University of Vermont Catamounts, winning 4-1 on Saturday and tying 1-1 Friday.
“I think we have come a long way since our first few games, since our first weekend,” Flint said. “We are making a consistent effort. That’s kind of how streaks happen.”
Thirty seconds into the first period of Saturday’s victory, freshman forward Katie MacSorley scored her team-leading sixth goal to put the Huskies up 1-0.
Esposito assisted the Huskies’ second goal six minutes later, when senior forward Alyssa Wohlfeiler scored a power-play goal. Esposito scored a goal of her own with four minutes left in the period, when she ripped a shot past Vermont goalie Kelci Lanthier for her second goal of the season, assisted by senior defenseman Julia Marty.
“Sometimes your games get measured on how many points you get, but if I feel like if I am playing well and I’m working hard, that’s what really matters to me,” Esposito said. “It’s always awesome to get points and wins but if we win and I don’t get any points I’m totally fine with that–as long as I work hard.”
UVM forward Peggy Wakeham scored her second goal of the weekend during the second period for the Catamounts, but senior forward Kristi Kehoe closed the game, giving the Huskies the 4-1 advantage over the Catamounts.
“I feel the biggest difference was we actually put the puck in the net,” Marty said. “I mean, we scored on the first shift so that made a big difference. We had a lot of penalties in the first game.”
During their first game against Vermont, the Huskies dominated the first period, out-shooting the Catamounts 18-7. Esposito dished the puck to sophomore forward Rachel Llanes, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead heading into the second period.
Both teams couldn’t score during the second period, but 9:38 into the third period, Wakeham tied the score 1-1 with her third goal of the season. The Huskies went into overtime and out-shot the Catamounts 2-1, but could not capitalize and ended in a draw.
Schelling helped the team beat Vermont, making 25 saves the first game and 17 saves the second game.
“We know we can rely on her back there,” Esposito said. “She played well both games, we just couldn’t score the first game. We always know we have a good chance of winning when she’s in net, when any of our goalies are in net, really.”
