Northeastern was outclassed by a strong Boston College attack Tuesday night in the Beanpot consolation game, getting hit with four goals on 47 shots by the Eagles and losing 4-1. 

After mounting some early pressure on the Huskies, BC nabbed the first goal thanks to star defender Megan Keller. Keller, Hockey East’s reigning player of the week, took a pass from Kali Flanagan and ripped a wrister past NU goalie Aerin Frankel at the left pipe to make it 1-0 BC early.

The Huskies (21-4-4, 19-2-2 Hockey East) looked to strike back quickly, and had some promising looks on the power play soon after the goal. BC (21-10, 17-7 Hockey East) managed to kill off the penalty, but the Huskies got their best chance after the sides went back even. An NU shot rebounded off BC goalie Maddy McArthur and looked to be sliding toward the goal, but it was cleared off the line by Makenna Newkirk.

The Huskies got another great chance on another power play late in the period, when sophomore forward Veronika Pettey’s shot whipped off the iron and out as Northeastern continued to press. As that power play was ending, Andrea Renner redirected a Skylar Fontaine shot toward the goal, but it was saved brilliantly by McArthur.

At the end of the first, BC led 1-0. Northeastern managed 16 shots on goal, but McArthur was equal to all of them, while Frankel stopped 13 of BC’s 14 shots.

The second period started with NU supplying all the pressure, and eventually Pettey broke through for the tying goal. Two seconds after BC killed off a penalty, Pettey was on hand to tap the puck in after Alina Mueller’s shot was saved.

Pettey’s goal was her 15th of the year, and it looked to strike some life into Northeastern.

BC didn’t wait long to take the lead back though, scoring 1:23 after Pettey equalized. Attacking on the power play, Daryl Watts took a pass from Newkirk on the left wing and had plenty of time to line up a shot. She sniped the top corner with a wrist shot, leaving Frankel rooted to the spot and giving her side the 2-1 advantage.

By the end of the second, both teams had racked up massive amounts of shots, with BC edging NU 30 to 27. Despite having seven power-play opportunities in the first two periods, the Huskies failed to capitalize on any of the BC penalties. BC, meanwhile, struck with a goal on one of its three power plays.

Early in the third BC scored its third, from Kelly Browne. The forward fired it past Frankel after receiving a centering pass from Ryan Little (Little’s second assist of the night).

BC got its fourth tally at 8:27 of the third as Watts struck for her second of the game. Skating down the right wing, Watts had space to take a wrister which she placed past Frankel at the far post.

With about eight minutes left, the Huskies had two good chances to get back into the game through Kasidy Anderson. Her first shot was saved by McArthur before her backhand follow-up missed the net with McArthur out of position.

Aerin Frankel stopped 43 shots for NU, but BC’s attack proved too much as Watts caused them problems all night long with 12 shots on net and two goals.

“I thought it was a pretty good game through two periods and got away from us a little bit in the third,” head coach Dave Flint said. “It felt like we didn’t capitalize on our power-play opportunities, which was a big part of it. I felt like if we could have capitalized on a few of those, it could’ve been a different game.”

A major storyline was the Huskies’ inability to score on the power play — they went 0-8 with the advantage.

“In the second period when we had a bunch of power plays right in a row, we had a couple, we just fanned on the puck or just missed it, we just missed on connecting,” Flint said. “So I think it was a little bit of puck luck, and you know they played hard and they did a good job on the PK, and it just wasn’t working for us today.”

The Huskies will look to regroup when they travel to Providence on Saturday, and then host the Friars at Matthews Arena Sunday. A point from either of those games would clinch the regular season Hockey East title for Northeastern, as they clinched a share of it last weekend against Merrimack.