By Madeline Sattler, News Staff
In the first conference game of the year, the Northeastern women’s ice hockey team was defeated by the Boston College Eagles 6-2 last night at Matthews Arena.
Despite the lopsided score, the Huskies matched the Eagles’ speed and style of play until the third period when BC began to dominate.
“Obviously it’s a tough loss,” assistant coach Linda Lundrigan said. “I wish we could start that third period over again.”
The opening frame saw a lot of action and the Eagles came out fast with a few early shots.
“We’ve been focusing quite a bit on trying to come out with a faster start,” Lundrigan said.
The Eagles broke the scoreless tie early as junior forward Meagan Mangene notched her first score of the season. Husky freshman forward Paige Savage lost the puck in the defensive zone and the Eagles took advantage.
Just two minutes and 11 seconds later, the Eagles went up by two while sophomore defender Colleen Murphy was sitting in the penalty box on a holding penalty.
After a scramble in front of the net sophomore goaltender Chloe Desjardins was laying on her stomach and the puck was sitting in the back of the net. Sophomore forward Alex Carpenter had the tally for the Eagles.
“We can’t put ourselves in a position where we’re going down two or three goals at a time because of defensive errors,” Lundrigan said.
Despite being down by two goals, the Huskies did not stop fighting.
Sophomore forward Lucie Povova put the Huskies on the board with her first goal of the season. Junior forward Brittany Esposito and sophomore forward Chelsea Goll had the assists on the score.
“I saw the puck, so I was just trying to put it in there,” Povova said. “I was just happy we scored as a team.”
Junior forward Kelly Wallace tied the game up later in the opening frame as she sent the puck into the lower right corner of the net. Esposito added her second assist of the game.
Less than two minutes into the middle period, the Eagles broke the tie and went ahead for good. Sophomore forward Kate Leary had the third Eagle goal, which appeared to bounce off a Husky.
“The third goal was a little bit of a flukey goal,” Lundrigan said. “To us it was still a pretty even game at that point.”
As the period continued, Desjardins was tested. She had seven of her 26 saves in the middle frame stopping several Eagle opportunities.
In the third period Leary added her second goal of the game as the puck bounced over Desjardins stick and into the net.
“Third period really shows what type of character [the team has] and we just didn’t bring it in the third period,” Wallace said.
Savage had a great opportunity for a goal as the puck was dancing in front of the Eagle net, but her shot was blocked.
Boston College would add two more goals within two minutes of each other before the game ended.
“I don’t know what happened in the third period,” Povova said. “I guess we needed a little wake up call to realize it’s not only two periods we play, it’s the whole game.”
The Huskies were coming off a 1-1 trip to New York where they lost to St. Lawrence University 6-0 and came from behind to beat Clarkson University 4-3.
The Huskies now own an 11-7-2 record on the season. They take on Cornell University at home Saturday at 2 p.m.
