In the sport of boxing, historically, matches between two heavyweights last nine to 12 rounds.
In the college hockey conference known as Women’s Hockey East, battles between heavyweights go three.
Three times will the No. 2 Boston College Eagles and the No. 5 Northeastern Huskies face each other this season, with the possibility for a fourth in the playoffs in March.
The first round went to the Eagles Friday night, thanks to a Kaliya Johnson goal sent between Brittany Bugalski’s leg pads. Powered by Johnson’s goal, and two goals from Tori Sullivan, the Eagles out-slugged the Huskies, 4-2.
“I think we played a good game,” BC coach Katie Crowley said. “I don’t think it was our best, but I also think we were in positions that we haven’t been in all year, and I thought our players did a great job of, when they scored, we scored.”
The back and forth began early in the game, and it was the Huskies who went on the board first. Denisa Krížová fired a shot from the blue line. The shot was tipped by Kendall Coyne, and the Huskies jumped out on front 1-0 on Coyne’s 19th goal of the season.
Like a boxer who absorbs the first punch, the Eagles fired one right back. Sullivan scored her third goal of the season, and the two teams went into the locker room tied at one.
The second period passed without incident. The third period, however, would not.
Halfway through the third, Meghan Grieves found the puck on the stick on a breakout into the offensive zone. She fired a wrist shot from the faceoff circle, and it screamed past Bugalski to give the Eagles the lead.
“I think she just put it in the right spot,” Crowley said. “Literally it hit the post and went in. Half an inch out and it would have gone back into play, but I thought Grieves put it in a good spot.”
The Huskies, however, would not throw in the towel. In fact, it took a mere 17 seconds for Hayley Scamurra to rifle a shot from the faceoff circle that trickled past Burt, tying the game up.
“I thought we competed really well,” Northeastern coach Dave Flint said. “They gave 60 minutes of good effort.”
The go-ahead goal did not take long to come, and it came courtesy of Johnson, who had yet to score a goal all year. Just moments after Scamurra’s goal, Johnson fired a shot from a similar spot to Scamurra’s goal, and the puck, like on Scamurra’s goal, trickled past Bugalski, and the Eagles had the lead.
“Kaliya’s one of those kids that steps up in big games when we need her,” Crowley said.
Sullivan snuck a buzzer-beater into the empty net to pick up her fourth goal of the season, and the Eagles, while not getting a knockout punch, did win the first battle between the two teams. The war, however, is very much up for grabs. The two teams play each other a mere eight days from Friday night on Nov. 28 at Matthews Arena.
