Boston College women’s hockey seemed to have rebounded from its loss in the Beanpot when it beat New Hampshire 4–1 on Friday night, but the Eagles’ struggles returned with a vengeance less than 24 hours later as they fell to the Wildcats 6–2 at home to split the series.
Nina Rossi scored two goals for New Hampshire (12–11–3, 6–8–2 Hockey East) and, despite leading in shots on goal 42–30, BC (11–14–1, 9–6–1) suffered its eighth loss in 10 games.
The Eagles started the first period strong, putting offensive pressure on the Wildcats and looking to deny New Hampshire any opportunity to split the series. Eight minutes into the first, though, Addison Spitz stormed into the crease and fired a rebound shot past Campbell to give the Wildcats an early 1–0 lead.
Two minutes later, Alaina Dunn got called for hooking as she tried to avoid a Wildcats breakaway. New Hampshire took just 16 seconds to capitalize on its power-play opportunity, as Rossi landed her 10th goal of the season with help from Alyson Hush and Kristen Hartman to put the Wildcats up 2–0 just 10:22 into play.
Disaster struck again at the 12:41 mark when Tricia Piku got called for roughing. Once again, it took less than 20 seconds for New Hampshire to score on the advantage. Sadie Makokis got the puck from Hush and shot it from beyond the right circle, giving her team a 3–0 lead.
At the beginning of the second period, trailing 3–0, the Eagles focused on creating opportunities for themselves to work on closing the score gap.
“We have to try to stay aggressive, but make sure that our forwards are coming back to help. BC head coach Katie Crowley said. “Battling on the back check is so important to help out our [defense], and we just got to be a little bit better than we were today.”
After a hooking penalty on New Hampshire, BC got a power-play opportunity 5:28 into the frame. And at the 6:47 mark, Kate Ham got the Eagles their first goal.
After two close misses from Madelyn Murphy, Ham collected the rebound and got the puck past Blair Sedona, putting BC on the board and cutting its deficit to two.
Riding on the momentum from Ham’s goal, Murphy created more opportunities for the Eagles. During a 4-on-4 stint at the 13:09 mark, Murphy got a pass from Ava Thomas and fired a zippy one-timer past Blair to cut the lead to one.
Just like that, it seemed as though the Eagles could slowly work their way back to even. And with two unanswered goals from BC, New Hampshire needed to respond.
Twenty-five seconds after Murphy’s shot, the Wildcats did just that. Still in a 4-on-4 situation, Danika Botterill broke away and received the puck in stride, then scored on Campbell 1-on-1 as BC defenders tried to catch her.
“We were hunting them, and then I feel like once [they] got that fourth goal we started to sit back a little bit and not be as aggressive, and kind of play a little bit afraid,” Crowley said. “We can’t do that. We’re going to play aggressive and that’s what we need to do to be successful.”
New Hampshire’s two-goal lead followed it for the rest of the second and into the third period. And as the clock dwindled down, the deficit loomed over the Eagles’ heads.
Ten minutes into the final period, Maxim Tremblay was called for hitting from behind, a major penalty. Once again, it was the Eagles’ penalties that got them in trouble as Kelly Harty landed a fifth goal for the Wildcats.
BC went on the power play after an interference penalty on Makokis, but Rossi found a way to score, even while short-handed.
Campbell tried to send the puck down the ice but it was quickly intercepted by Rossi, who shot it right back into the Eagles’ net to finish off scoring and lead her team to a 6–2 win.