By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff
The women’s hockey team has brought home 14 Beanpot titles to Matthews Arena, and next Tuesday they get to take on the Boston University Terriers in hopes of another.
Tuesday night’s semifinal round of the 34th Annual Women’s Beanpot between the United States College Hockey Organization (USCHO) No. 7 Huskies and the No. 4 Boston College Eagles had to be decided by a shootout, after 1-1 tie at Walter Brown Arena.
“Such a good hockey game, such a fast pass game, you hate to see it have to end with a shootout,” head coach Dave Flint said. “[We had] a lot of chances, goal-tending was great. It was a fun game to watch, a little stressful for me a the end, but it was a fun game to be part of.”
The shootout played out short and sweet for the Huskies after roughly 27 minutes of scoreless hockey once BC tied the game, 1-1, at 17:53 in the second.
“The coaching staff [and I were talking about what to tell the team] and I said, ‘I’m not saying a word to any of them because I don’t want to be in their heads,’” Flint said of the moments just before the shootout. “I trust in their ability that they know what they need to do.”
Eagles senior forward Mary Restuccia was up first and shot hard onto senior goalie Florence Schelling, who was there for the save. Northeastern sent junior forward Rachel Llanes with a successful shot past junior goalie Corinne Boyles into the far corner of the net.
“I just go in there and know that if I score, it’s for the seniors, it’s not for me, it’s for the team,” Llanes said. “I just put it all on myself that I have to score.”
A miss by BC’s junior defender Blake Bolden paved the way for a Husky win when junior forward Brittany Espositio went around to Boyles’ left for the winning goal.
“As soon as Rachel [Llanes] score that first goal, it calmed my mind a little bit, and Flo[rence Schelling] with those two big saves, so going in I was nervous because you always want to score,” Esposito said. “But, I was thinking ‘just be loose, if you don’t score Kendall [Coyne] is going to score next.’… luckily I was able to put the puck in there.”
Before the game began, questions of if it could be played arose as spots of melting ice formed in front of each bench as warm up skating ended. Zambonis were brought out to resurface the ice in normal pre-game proceedings but the issue continued and caused a 20 minute delay. After ice crews used a fire extinguisher to help refreeze the ice, officials concluded that the game could go on.
Once the puck dropped, the first period ended scoreless despite both teams putting up double digit shots on goal. Two Northeastern penalties put the USCHO No. 1 penalty kill unit in action, living up to the ranking by prevent the Eagles from scoring.
As the second period began, both lines came out of their dressing room ready to put a tally on the board, but it took 11:29 for Northeastern to do so.
Llanes picked up a rebound from sophomore defener Katie MacSorley for her eighth goal of the season. Minutes earlier, Schelling came up with a huge save off an Eagle stick that could have easily found its way into the cage, but didn’t.
The Huskies lasted only six minutes as BC’s freshman forward Emily Field was able to get a puck past USCHO’s No. 3 goaltender nationwide in similar to fashion to Northeastern’s goal minutes earlier by sinking a rebound from linemate Alex Carpenter.
“We started off the [second] period really fast,” Schelling said. “Once we scored, I felt our team was wanting more but forgetting about the [defense] … [BC’s goal] was going to happen the way we played. It was a good wake-up call because after we got scored on we were able to get back on track right away.”
The buzzer for the second frame sounded with the score locked at 1-1, but with Northeastern up 27 to 23 in shots on goal.
“If you have that many shots and only two goals produced, with that caliber of hockey players on the ice, some of the best players in the country on the ice, that tells you how good the goal tending was,” Flint said.
The battle of the goalies continued driving the third period through power plays and an additional 20 scoring attempts. Northeastern’s special teams killed both of BC’s power plays but couldn’t break the tie on either of their two man-advantages.
This season, the Huskies have only allowed 10 power play goals in 107 opportunities, for a killing percentage of 90.7, which ranks No. 1 in the country. University of Connecticut, their opponent on Saturday, is in second, having allowed 11 of 112 power play chances.
By the time the five-minute sudden-death overtime had expired, Schelling and Boyles had stopped a combined 76 pucks on the evening, but were headed to a shootout, that would ultimately send Northeastern onward.
“It was a really tight game. It was a thrill until the last seconds,” Schelling said. “We [fought] for 65 minutes and in the shootout it was really a team effort.”
Officially, the win goes into the books as a 1-1, but for the sake of the Beanpot tournament, the shootout victory sends the Huskies to face Boston University Tuesday at Walter Brown Arena, on BU’s campus as they are this year’s tournament host. The Huskies dropped a 3-2 decision to the Terriers Jan. 28 at Agganis Arena.
Video via Northeastern
