BC Women’s Hockey Ends Season With Guns Blazing, Falling 3-2 in 2OT to BU

The Eagles were on the wrong end of an instant classic

Let’s make this recap a little more personal than your typical goal-by-goal recap.

I live in southern Connecticut, about a 2.5 hour drive from Boston, and over my many years of supporting both the BC men’s and women’s hockey teams I’ve made the 5 hour round-trip drive more times than I can count. In that time I’ve seen plenty of heartbreaking losses, and after them all I invariably find myself regretting my life choices as I simmer in my angst on the interminable midnight drive through the northeast CT hills on I-84.

Wednesday night’s heartbreaking 3-2 loss in double overtime to Boston University in the Hockey East semifinals is the first time I can remember getting home and not regretting making the trip for a loss.

In yesterday’s game preview, I pointed out that this was likely to be an extremely physical game, and it was all that and more. The Eagles showed up to the rink ready to play in a big way. They immediately jumped on the Terriers, and to their credit, the BU players responded with an intensity of their own. It made for an absolutely ferocious and thrilling contest from the word “Go.”

It was BC who scored the first goal eight minutes into the game, a somewhat lucky deflection off a Terrier skate, but it was the result of the Eagles making a concerted effort to bring pucks right to the goaltender’s doorstep.

Any discussion of this game has to start with Lauren Glaser, and that would have been true whether she scored this goal or not. The freshman was absolutely everywhere in this game. She was the most agile player on the ice on offense, showing a quickness nobody else could keep up with, but it wasn’t just her skating that was on display. She made smart plays on the breakout and even closed out the second period over the final 15 seconds grinding out the puck along the corner boards.

It was BC who held a lead after the first, and after the Terriers tied the game early in the second, a moment of brilliance from Molly Jordan led to a rebound that Katie Pyne send home to give the Eagles the lead heading into the last 20 minutes of regulation.

But the Terriers would tie the game a second time in the third period, and the game would remain tied for a long, long time.

As the game entered the third period, so too did the game enter Felony Time where the referees swallowed their whistles entirely. As the game went on, players were getting away with more and more violence both on and off the puck. Unbelievably, the intensity only picked up in the first and second overtimes despite the fact that every player on both teams surely must have had nothing left in the tank. Both BC and BU had plenty of opportunities, breakaways, hit posts, and missed chances in the extra frames, but unfortunately the Terriers found the back of the net before the Eagles did.

And just like that… we find ourselves in the offseason in heartbreaking fashion.

But despite the loss, this was a game that I, personally, as a fan, was so glad to have been in attendance for. It was a showcase of the young talent — nearly all of BC’s top scorers are freshmen and sophomores — that Coach Crowley has brought in over the last couple season (with more on the way with another strong class for next year). Perhaps more importantly, it was a showcase of just how much fire the team is capable of playing with. It was physical, it was high-energy, it was highly-skilled. It was a thrill to watch.

There were superlatives to go around for a lot of players who may have played their best games of their career. Goaltender Grace Campbell deserves more than a shout for her herculean efforts in the extra sessions. Jade Arnone was a revelation on defense didn’t put a stick or a puck out of place the entire game. Lauren Glaser we’ve already mentioned. Molly Jordan and Alanna Devlin were both jacked up all night. Freshman Trisha Piku was getting under the skin of a player twice her age at every opportunity.

So while the heartbreak of the season ending in such a painful way is going to sting quite a bit. If anything, the game felt more like a prequel to what’s to come. There is a whole lot to be excited about next year and BC’s rise back to the top is clearly underway. October can’t come soon enough.