BC women's hockey takes UNH to a shootout, but loses

BC took a 2-1 lead after the first period, but a disputed late goal gave UNH the tie. In the first shootout in women's Hockey East history, UNH topped BC 1-0 in five rounds on a Kacey Bellamy backhander. My take, on USCHO:

"Well, when I said that I hated the idea of shootouts in college hockey, this wasEXACTLY the scenario I had in mind: a tough, hard-fought draw on the road against the best team in the league. Instead of leaving with a good feeling, we left feeling disappointed. In the big picture, it counts as a tie in the PWR - but it's hard to think that in the heat of the moment.

The game never should have made it to overtime; UNH's 2nd goal was clearly illegal, the net was knocked off the moorings before the puck crossed the line. 

But them is the breaks - sometimes they go for you, sometimes they go against you - and it's undeniable that UNH was the better team on the day. BC spent too much time sitting in the shell in the 2nd + 3rd periods and if you do that you're bound to give up goals.

There's a lot of good for BC to take from this game and it's an effort they should be proud of. The team defense was solid, they took fewer penalties (but not enough fewer penalties), and both goals were pretty sweet. UNH's first goal simply came off a broken play - a stupid turnover at the blue line on the PP. Outside of that BC played really well. I cannot wait until Jan. 30 when we get UNH at home - I am confident that BC will win that game.

Today's Alexei Kovalev star of the game award goes to Paton for "Best Imitation of the Montreal Canadiens," for falling down as a result of a Maggie Taverna putting one hand on her shoulder. I had no idea it was possible to become a Division I athlete and not be able to keep your balance when someone puts a hand on your shoulder, but I guess that shows how much I know.

On a side note, I'm glad that this year's version of the Litterbox - "Lean and Mean," presumably to match this year's team theme - dropped any pretense of class and stopped acting like they weren't going to make classless signs or chants about the Mutch situation. I remember at one point some of the 'Box denizens pretended to be classy, so I'm glad that there's no longer any confusion.

I can only assume that these immature chants were a result of one of two things - either fear that UNH was actually being pushed for once at home, or the ringleader's attempts to warm up for making jokes about Cho Seung-Hui on EagleInsider in advance of next week's BC-Virginia Tech football game.

I hate analyzing shootout strategy, as it gives legitimacy to a garbage way to settle a game, but why did two straight BC shooters rip it right at Herman's pads, as if they were trying to Zdeno Chara it into the net? Make her move, eh? Oh well - lesson learned for next time.

Well played Eagles - I'm proud of the effort and am excited for the rest of the season. Now let's hope they can get over any hangover effect from this one and get ready for a solid RPI team on Saturday."