By Sara Shaker, News Correspondent
In a rematch of last year’s women’s Beanpot championship, junior goaltender Chloe Desjardins made 27 saves as the two-time defending tournament champion Northeastern Huskies failed to knock off Boston College in a 3-0 loss on Tuesday at Conte Forum.
“Obviously, [I’m] disappointed with the outcome,” head coach Dave Flint said. “I felt like it just wasn’t our night.”
Looking for its third straight Beanpot title, Northeastern came out hungry for another chance at the trophy. BC had near goals throughout the first period, firing shot after shot. Desjardins and the Northeastern defensemen made incredible stops, as BC players were relentlessly shooting rebounds. But BC’s senior Taylor Wasylk, who was named MVP of the tournament, finally put one in with four minutes left in the first period.
“Credit to BC,” Flint said. “They came at us hard. They played hard the whole game. They were opportunistic.”
The Eagles dominated in the Huskies’ defensive zone for the first half of the second period. With a penalty on redshirt-senior forward Kelly Wallace, BC took advantage of the power play firing numerous shots at Desjardins. NU’s goaltender stayed strong, making nine saves total in the second period and stopping BC’s chances at another goal.
“[Desjardins] gave us a chance. She’s making saves. She’s keeping pucks out of the net,” Flint said. “[She’s] giving our team some energy.”
Desjardins was named the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, after countless saves in the last seven-straight conference victories.
“That’s my job,” Desjardins said. “[I] try and do my best and keep [the team] in the game.”
Northeastern picked things up in the second half of the period on two power plays. Freshman forward Hayley Scamurra took a shot through traffic in front of the Eagles’ net, but the puck just hit the post. The Huskies were getting numerous chances, but could not capitalize, ending the second period with BC still leading 1-0.
When the third period began, things were finally going Northeastern’s way. The Huskies came out in the third period looking for one last chance to tie up the game, fighting hard for a goal, constantly shooting and defending well.
“We outshot [BC] in the third,” Flint said. “We changed our forecheck. We went a little more aggressive and created some opportunities. I feel like if we could have popped one of those in, it might have been a little different.”
Even though Northeastern had the momentum on its side, BC’s senior captain Meagan Mangene took a powerful shot that flew over Desjardins and sailed into the back of the net during a BC power play with 9:37 left in the game.
“From the drop of the puck, there were points where we lacked energy,” Flint said. “And then there were times where I felt like we competed. It might have been more of a game if we could have put 60 minutes of that together.”
Five minutes later, BC senior Melissa Bazzari gave the Eagles their third goal of the night, with just minutes remaining in the game.
“[I’m] not really surprised with the score,” Flint said. “[BC is] a pretty explosive team. They can get goals in bunches pretty quick.”
The Beanpot may have marked the end of the Huskies’ seven game winning streak, but the team is looking forward to the end of the season.
“Be upset tonight about it, but tomorrow we move on, it goes behind us,” Flint said to the team with the Hockey East playoffs coming up, “We’ve won a couple Beanpots the last couple years, but we haven’t won a Hockey East Championship yet.”
Northeastern is striving to gain another victory against Connecticut this weekend, Feb. 15 and 16, at 2 p.m. at Matthews Arena.
