I was wrong, it sucked

I said last week that whatever happened tonight, I would be happy, just to return to the site of BC's triumph over Dartmouth in 2007.

I lied. Tonight sucked. 

We had to change our travel plans a zillion times at the last minute and just barely made it to the game on time; we had to listen to Mike and Grant yap at one another and argue like a 90-year-old married couple all the way there and back; my friend who came with us got his car towed; and he threw a hissy fit (rightfully so, I suppose, as he was given bad parking advice) and made me foot the bill for said tow...

and yeah, BC got beat pretty badly by Dartmouth, 4-0.

I'd really like to see these two teams go at it at full strength in the NCAAs - I think it would be a great, even matchup. Tonight's game was mostly even throughout the first and third periods, although BC seemed incapable of getting out of their own way in the second.

Unfortunately - and I don't mean to beat up on Kingston, as it was her first start and it came against a perennial NCAA team - Dartmouth scored three pretty soft goals that probably should have been stopped.

Now, BC didn't light the lamp, so it doesn't matter who the goalie is - when you don't score, you can't win. But the Eagles were in a pretty big hole quickly, and Darmouth is too good a team to blow very many two-goal leads at home.

Allie Thunstrom and Meghan Fardelmann had great games tonight (Thunstrom had at least 5 outstanding chances and dangled through multiple Dartmouth defenders all night), but beyond that, nobody picked up the slack for Stack's absence. Welch, Zavisza and Restuccia were not entirely on their games tonight and BC just couldn't sustain any offensive pressure; they were totally reliant on individual efforts by #9 and #18.

The defensemen made a number of pretty costly turnovers tonight, and let Dartmouth get three pretty clear breakaway chances (including one that Kingston made a very nice pad save on). Taverna fell down untouched a number of times... actually, come to think of it, a lot of players were falling all over the place on both teams - I wonder if there's something up with the ice? [it's slippery, har har har]

I really do think the game was, generally speaking, more even than the scoreboard would indicate, but I also think it's true that BC probably can't beat Dartmouth without Stack and Schaus.

I'm glad they'll only be missing the one game.