The No. 3 Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team (5-1) takes on the No. 6 Boston College Eagles (3-2-1) for a home-and-home series this weekend. The Bobcats travel up to Boston College for the first game at 2 p.m. on Friday before hosting the Eagles at 3 p.m. at High Point Solutions Arena on Saturday.
Quinnipiac split a series at Mercyhurst University last weekend, losing the first game against the Lakers 3-2 but winning the second game by a score of 1-0.
Both teams traded goals back and forth, with senior forward Emma Woods and sophomore forward Miranda Lantz scoring for the Bobcats. The goals were the first of the season for Woods and Lantz.
Lakers sophomore forward Rachael Smith scored the game-winning goal with 13:34 left, just 2:18 after Lantz had tied it at 2-2.
“They played the game with a pace we haven’t seen yet,” Bobcats head coach Cassandra Turner said. “I think that was really good for our team to be exposed to that, to see what that looks like, to be in a position where I think we got out-battled, I think, on Friday night.”
The Bobcats bounced back in the second game with a 1-0 overtime win.
“We really rebounded on Saturday,” Turner said. “We were the team that out-battled them. It was nice to see our team rise to that occasion so quickly and make that change.”
Junior forward T.T. Cianfarano scored the game-winning goal in Saturday’s overtime win. She now has six goals this season and was named ECAC Player of the Week for her performance last weekend.
Senior goaltender Sydney Rossman recorded her fourth shutout of the season on Saturday. She holds a 1.16 goals against average and a .934 save percentage going into the weekend.
Even though the Bobcats outshot the Lakers on Saturday, 26-9, Turner had faith in her team to close it out.
“We play a lot of 0-0 games here,” Turner said. “Last year, we had 21 one-goal games. We had people who are really confident in that situation.”
Boston College won their first 40 games last season before losing to the University of Minnesota in the National Championship. The Eagles are coming off a weekend in which they beat the University of New Hampshire on Friday and lost to the University of Maine on Saturday.
“They’re a good hockey team,” Turner said. “They’re not the same team from last year. They graduated a ton of their talent. They have a lot of freshmen in their lineup. With that said, they still have some very skilled hockey players.”
Freshman forward Delaney Belinskas leads the Eagles this season with five goals. Junior defenseman Megan Keller has a team-high seven points this season. Junior goaltender Katie Burt has started every game for the Eagles this season and has a 2.44 goals against average and an .897 save percentage.
Even with the talent the Eagles have, Turner believes her team can perform well this weekend.
“For us to understand that they’re different than what they were really helps our team in terms of our confidence and our thought on whether we can win these games or not,” Turner said.
