No. 2 Boston College (20-0-0) was tied with Syracuse (8-10-2) for all of 2 minutes and 1 second before senior center Alex Carpenter, silver medalist in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics with the US, opened the scoring for the Eagles. Carpenter ended up putting the puck in the net 3 more times during the contest, netting 4 in total, in what was a dominant performance.
Prior to the match, Carpenter led the nation in points (23-22-45), now (27-22-49), and won the Hockey East Player of the Week award on December 7.
“She’s arguably one of the best female players in the world”, Syracuse head coach Paul Flanagan raved about Carpenter following the defeat. “She’s an Olympian, but at the same time you got to play with some emotion. We didn’t get pucks on net and we weren’t doing what we wanted to do, and the next thing you know we’re down at our end and they can execute.”
The Orange went down 3-0 after the first period. Senior goaltender Jenn Gilligan made only 5 saves on 8 shots. After giving up 2 more goals and seeing the deficit grow to 5-0, Flanagan pulled Gilligan and sent out freshman goalie Maddie Welch. Her only collegiate appearance was a start against the UConn Huskies on October 17, a 4-3 loss.
“Coach came up to me and told me to be ready”, Welch commented after the match. “Anything could happen, the game could turn around. I definitely thought our team started playing better after I got in there. I think my game against UConn wasn’t my strongest, and to get back out there against BC and really show what I can do, it was huge.”
Welch made 23 saves on 25 shots in relief, including 17 in the second period, a strong outing by the rookie backup.
Flanagan, however, wasn’t satisfied in the team’s performance.
“To me, the only people from Syracuse that performed tonight were the band. We as coaches, it’s our responsibility to do a little soul searching and figure out things that are going to make us a more competitive team on a regular basis.”
The Orange doesn’t suit up again until January 4, when the Colgate Raiders come to town.
