Women's Journal: BC, Harvard battle for trip to Frozen Four
Eagles captain Blake Bolden will have to lead her squad past Harvard Saturday if BC hopes to advance to the national semifinals for the third year running. (Photo: John Quackenbos)
For the third straight year, there will be at least one
Eastern Massachusetts-based team in the NCAA Women’s Frozen
Four next week in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and for the first time
since 2010, there very well could be two. Saturday’s NCAA
quarterfinals at both Boston College and Boston University will
determine which Boston based fan bases will be frantically checking
airline websites for not too ridiculous
fares to the Twin Cities for the National Championship.
Either Boston College (26-6-3) or Harvard (24-6-3) will be
headed to the Frozen Four, and will meet Saturday at Conte Forum to
determine which team will make the trip to Minnesota. For both
teams, it’s been an up and down latter part of the season,
but the talent and drive of both make this matchup a dream one for
true fans of the women’s game.
Boston College is entering their NCAA quarterfinal on a down
note, having been bounced out of last weekend’s Hockey East
championship in Hyannis due to a 4-1 loss to a motivated
Northeastern. The Eagles’ high scoring first line of Melissa
Bizzari (Stowe, Vt.), Alex Carpenter (Reading, Mass.) and Haley
Skarupa met their match against the Huskies. Skarupa may have led
her team with eight shots during the game, but that amount was half
of the shot total she lodged the weekend before against the
University of Maine.
Carpenter was limited to a mere three shots, one of her
lowest shot totals of the season. More troublesome than either shot
total was that the Eagles haven’t found a way to capitalize
on power play opportunities as of late. Against Northeastern, they
were a dismal 0-6 on the woman advantage.
For all of Boston College’s power across several
forward lines, defenses are figuring out how to play against them
as the season continues. Their usually stellar defense, led by
senior Blake Bolden, has been hanging back a bit, and falling a
stride behind their opponents, and it lead to their early exit from
the Cape.
But expect a refocused Boston College team on Saturday
afternoon. This team lost in the Frozen Four semis in both 2011 and
2012, and is determined to remedy those exits. “We want to
win a National Championship,” said Bolden in January.
“We’ve won a lot of tournaments, but now it’s
time for a new path.”
Harvard made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since
2010 after defeating Clarkson and hanging on tight against eventual
ECAC champion Cornell in the league tournament last weekend in
Ithaca, NY. Emerance Maschmeyer made 32 saves, but the Crimson lost
2-1 to the Big Red in the championship game despite her best
efforts. The freshman has proven her mettle over the past two
months, showing up big in the Beanpot and through the last leg of
the regular season.
Maschmeyer is cool and collected in net, and it contributes
to the overall play of Harvard’s defense, currently ranked
second in the nation (1.15 goals per game.) The defense is pitching
in to do their part while the Harvard offense seeks contributions
from unexpected places. When Lyndsey Fry and Jillian Dempsey
(Winthrop, Mass.) continue to do the little things correctly, the
goal scoring of late is coming from freshmen Mary Parker (Milton,
Mass.) and Miye D'Oench.
When Boston College and Harvard met in the Beanpot first
round, many said that the tightly contested game was not only one
of the strongest games of women’s college hockey that
Massachusetts had ever seen, but that the game was a surefire NCAA
Frozen Four preview. The shame is that this matchup of strong
defense, freshmen forwards playing beyond their years and several
probable U.S. Olympic team members has to take place in the
quarterfinals, ending one of their seasons. For either the Crimson
or Eagles, 2012-13 will not go down as a disappointment by any
means, but the year that Massachusetts women’s college hockey
reached new heights.
Player of the Week
Kerrin Sperry, Boston University, junior goaltender, North
Reading, Mass.
Sperry earned both tournament MVP, Hockey East Player of the
Week and Defensive Player of the Week honors after a 77 save
weekend at the league tournament in Hyannis. She doesn’t have
the unorthodox but strong goaltending style of Northeastern’s
Chloe Desjardins, nor the the brick wall defense in front of her
that Boston College’s Corinne Boyles does, but she rises to
the occasion in the playoffs and delivers spot-on performances that
will etch her name in the Terrier record books once she
graduates.
D3 Note of the Week
Middlebury College (19-7-2) is the lone New England
representation in the Division 3 Frozen Four. Middlebury will face
SUNY Plattsburgh Friday afternoon in the semifinal. Katie Sullivan
scored a hat trick to lift the Panthers over powerhouse Norwich in
last week’s NCAA quarterfinals. Middlebury will hope that the
third time can be a charm for them, as they fell to Plattsburgh
twice this season already by scores of 3-2 (11/25) and 3-1 (1/30).
But the record books may lend the Panthers an edge - they’ve
won more NCAA Tournament games (15) than any other D III
women’s hockey program.
Game of the Week
Boston University vs. Clarkson, 3pm, Saturday
The second Massachusetts team who could find themselves traveling
to the Frozen Four is Boston University (26-5-3.) The Terriers
parlayed their second straight Hockey East Tournament title to a
3pm date on Saturday hosting Clarkson (28-9-0.) Boston University
finally has gotten their entire game together at the perfect time:
players blocking shots, paying more attention on defense, and
pressuring the opposing net to create more
opportunities.
Clarkson may have found themselves on the losing end of
their ECAC semifinal with Harvard last Saturday, but this Golden
Knights team is lead by the league’s best goaltender, Erica
Howe and the nation’s best freshman offensive defenseman,
Erin Ambrose. Clarkson ran into a rough patch two months back when
Jamie Lee Rattay, the team’s leading scorer, missed several
games due to injury, but she’s back and has scored five goals
and four assists in the Golden Knights’ last six
games.
Power Rankings
1) Boston University (26-5-3 overall, 18-2-1 Hockey East) -
Isabel Menard definitely celebrated her goal in Sunday’s
Hockey East championship game over Northeastern -- not just because
it gave the Terriers a lead, but because it broke the tournament
scoring record. The senior transfer finished her league career with
two goals and 11 assists over just two years of tournament games.
She has points in six of Boston University’s last seven
games.
2) Harvard (24-6-3 overall, 17-3-2 ECAC) - The Crimson have
not had a problem bouncing back from losses this season - they have
not dropped two games in a row. They also have killed all but eight
power play opportunities by opponents this season, another mark of
a stellar and multifaceted defense.
3) Boston College (26-6-3 overall, 17-2-2 Hockey East) - In
their Hockey East semifinal loss to Northeastern, the Eagles
allowed just their first shorthanded goal all season when Casey
Pickett scored in the second period. But previous performances may
work in Boston College’s favor this season - they have won
their last four meetings with Harvard.
4) Northeastern (23-11-2 overall, 13-7-1 Hockey East) -
Despite their strong play down the stretch, the Huskies’
season came to a premature end when they lost to Boston University
in the Hockey East championship game. Casey Pickett finished her
senior campaign scoring seven goals and 13 assists over nine
straight games at the close of the season.
5) Providence (15-16-5 overall, 8-10-3 Hockey East) -
Providence turned on all cylinders right at the tail end of the
season, fighting for their playoff lives. They managed 42 shots on
goal in the Hockey East semifinal. The Friars will look to continue
this momentum to the start of next season, where they will need a
strong effort at the start to keep up in an increasingly strong
league.
Twitter: @sportsgirlkat
Email: feedback@hockeyjournal.com