BOSTON — If forced to pick a turning point for Tuesday afternoon’s matchup between No. 1 Boston College and Harvard, one might have to seriously consider the pregame national anthem performed by the Harvard band.
From puck drop, the end result was all too obvious, as the Eagles, from wire to wire, dominated the defending Beanpot champions 8-0, chasing starting goalie Emerance Maschmeyer after one period.
“I can’t say enough about how well our team played today,” BC coach Katie Crowley said. “I think we put a full 60 minutes together. I was really happy with that full 60 minutes.”
The win for the Eagles was the second straight against the Crimson. It also resembled a bit of revenge for BC, as the Eagles advanced to the championship round by beating the team that ended BC’s title hopes in the 2015 Beanpot tournament (and the Frozen Four tournament, for good measure).
The Eagles tattooed the Crimson with five goals in the first period, the first of which coming from Tori Sullivan. Grace Bizal fired a shot from the blue line that was turned aside by Maschmeyer. Sullivan, at the top of the crease, put the puck home to give the Eagles the first lead of the game.
The next goal came quickly after the Sullivan goal. Kaliya Johnson rifled a shot from the blue line through traffic. Maschmeyer never picked the puck up and the puck went right by her to give the Eagles the 2-0 lead.
Sullivan struck again moments after the Johnson goal, burying a shot from in between the faceoff circle.
A period of no scoring activity ensued, though the Crimson were never able to regain their footing offensively. Harvard only registered four shots on goal in the period, and much of the frame was spent in the Harvard defensive zone.
Eventually, the Eagles notched another goal, with Megan Keller taking advantage of some daylight in the BC offensive zone. On a breakaway, she ripped a wrist shot over Maschmeyer’s glove, making the score 4-0.
The Eagles put the icing on top of the first period cake when Alex Carpenter notched her 33rd of the season, with assists coming from linemates Kenzie Kent and Haley Skarupa.
At that point, the writing was on the wall for Maschmeyer.
“[Maschmeyer] has been unbelievable for us all year,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “There was no way I was going to pull her during the period because I don’t think she deserved that by any means. A lot of those goals were not her fault. She has kept us in ballgames all year long. It was an opportunity for us to play [Brianna Laing], but it had nothing to do with [Maschmeyer] other than to make a very respectful decision.”
“[Maschmeyer] is a tremendous goalie,” Crowley added. “She was one of the things we talked about a lot leading up to both Harvard games. She’s a tremendous player, she works her tail off back there. We were just able today to get a lot of pressure on her, but it was 2-0 two weeks ago. I thought we were able to get to her a little bit early and keep it going, but she’s a tremendous goalie, she’s had an unbelievable career at Harvard and I have a lot of respect for her.”
Even after Laing came into the game, the Eagles still added three goals to their tally.
The Eagles advance to the Beanpot championship on Tuesday, Feb., 9 and will play the winner of Boston University-Northeastern later tonight. The Crimson will play the loser of that game.
