The fourth-seeded Boston College women’s hockey team scored four goals in the second period — including two shorthanded goals — to defeated sixth-ranked St. Lawrence University 6-0 in an NCAA National Collegiate Women’s Hockey Tournament quarterfinal game on Saturday afternoon at Kelley Rink.
The loss ends an historic season for the Saints (26-6-4), who opened the season with a program record 17-game unbeaten streak. Boston College advanced to the Frozen Four and will face the winner of the Wisconsin/Robert Morris game on Friday, March 17.
“Most of the first period was pretty even,” said head coach Chris Wells ’92. “We had a couple pucks go wide, but in these games you’ve got to get those bounces early on to get the momentum.”
BC’s top-ranked power play scored on the Eagles’ first power play opportunity late in the first period. Makenna Newkirk set up the play with a pass from the right circle to Kenzie Kent right in the slot, and Kent fired a wrist shot into the top left corner with just 17 seconds remaining in the power play.
“We did such a good job on that penalty kill,” said Wells. “We had an offensive zone faceoff, killed a minute and a half off, and 15 seconds later it’s in the back of our net.”
Less than two minutes into the second period, Kristyn Capizzano doubled the Eagles’ lead. St. Lawrence goaltender Grace Harrison stopped a shot by Caitrin Lonergan and thought she had the puck frozen under her glove, but Capizzano found it at the top of the crease and flipped a shot into the open net.
Four minutes later, Andie Anastos scored a shorthanded goal in transition off a feed by Kent, and Haley McLean added another shorthanded goal after a St. Lawrence turnover in their own defensive end with a wrist shot the whistled into the top left corner with five minutes to play in the second.
“It was 2-0 and we had two or three really good chances on the power play and then they go down and score shorthanded on that back end of that power play,” said Wells. “If you think of the back end of the power plays, for and against, those were a tough last 30 seconds for their power play goal, and then for us to try to make it 2-1 and give up a shorthanded goal to make it 3-0.”
Women’s Hockey East Association Player of the Year Megan Keller capped the scoring in the four-goal second period, lifting a rebound over the right shoulder of St. Lawrence goaltender Sonjia Shelly, who came on in relief after BC’s fourth goal.
Newkirk added an insurance goal halfway through the third period, taking a feed from Kent right in front and making a move to get around Shelly before tucking it into the net.
Despite the disappointing ending, the 2016-17 season was one of the best in St. Lawrence program history. The 26 wins is the most for the program since the 2007-08 team was 28-10-1. The team’s .722 winning percentage is the program’s best since the 2006-07 team had a .763 winning percentage. St. Lawrence had a program record 11 shutouts, including nine for Harrison, which also established a program record. And the Saints’ top line of Hannah Miller, Brooke Webster and Kennedy Marchment was the top-scoring trio in the country.
The team’s three seniors (Webster, Kirsten Padalis and Alex Moore) capped their careers with the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012 and posted 75 wins over the last four seasons.
“Their first year, we scratched and clawed and barely got through a playoff series at Quinnipiac,” said Wells. “Their sophomore year we had a great playoff series with Cornell that could have gone either way, and then last year, we made it to the league (semifinals) with a great playoff win down at Princeton. When we got on that bus down in Princeton last year after winning that playoff series, it was like winning a championship.
“We picked up right where we left off at the end of the year last year,” Wells continued. “That group of seniors went from scratching and clawing to barely make it through a playoff series their freshman year to playing in the NCAA Tournament. And now, everybody underneath them has had this great experience. We have a lot of good players coming back and I’m pretty excited about where next year can go.”
