Jessica Sibley tilted her head back as her skating slowed to a halt at mid-ice. Three Boston College goals in two minutes and 18 seconds added to what was already a 3-0 BC advantage. Midway through the second period, the Eagles had Syracuse looking confused, and Orange head coach Paul Flanagan was forced to call a timeout to, unsuccessfully, end the run.

“Speed, skill and smarts,” Flanagan said of BC. “They have excellent team speed, they’re very skilled. They needed (just) eight or 10 shots to score four or five goals … and they know where each other’s gonna be.”

Syracuse’s (8-10-2, 5-1-2 College Hockey America) hopes of playing spoiler to a national powerhouse’s perfect season took a hit just two minutes in. That’s all that No. 2 Boston College’s (20-0, 13-0 Hockey East) high-octane offense needed to score the game’s first goal, and all that the Eagles needed to set a tone SU couldn’t replicate in a match that quickly turned into a decisive 7-2 blowout.

The Orange defense struggled to contain U.S. Olympian Alex Carpenter, gave up open passing lanes and failed to pressure the puck. Carpenter scored four goals, including three in a row, as BC clobbered Syracuse Thursday afternoon at Tennity Ice Pavillion.

“When you’re not angling and checking well,” Flanagan said. “And they’re just freewheeling with it and then our defense backpedaled … they controlled the puck.”

Flanagan had emphasized the importance of using angles to push BC’s forwards off the puck on Tuesday, but for much of the game, the Eagles asserted their will. One of the more effective angling exhibitions came midway through the second period, when Dakota Derrer’s stick snapped in half.

As the two shards laid on the ice, Derrer proceeded to skate for the next minute, stepping in front of BC forwards and using her body to push them off the puck.

But stick or no stick, it didn’t matter. Boston College was too big, too quick and too strong.

“Our angling was pathetic tonight,” a visibly frustrated Sibley said after the game. “We let them come right at us and they went around us every time.”

For a full 60 minutes, the Eagles kept the puck on a string. SU’s defense posed no threat as the Eagles did what they pleased, dumping off the puck for trailers and flicking it off and around the wall.

With 9:20 remaining in the first period, Carpenter stood behind the net before muscling her way through three Syracuse defenders and around the goalpost, flicking the puck into the back of the net with ease.

Just under eight minutes later, Carpenter snuck in front of the net and pushed another shot between Gilligan’s legs.

“She’s got a tremendous amount of individual skill,” Syracuse goalkeeper Jenn Gilligan said. “She’s got a quick release. She’s probably one of the best — one of the better hockey players in the nation. (But) is she impossible to stop? No.”

Yet for much of the night, Carpenter looked like it. She notched her third goal just minutes into the second period, and another goal 56 seconds later from Dana Trivigno made it 5-0 Boston College. With his team reeling, Flanagan pulled Gilligan in favor of freshman Maddi Welch, but even she went on to surrender two more goals, including one more from Carpenter.

Sibley criticized the team’s effort, while Flanagan took it a step further, questioning the desire of Syracuse to be on the ice. With an opportunity to make a statement heading into December break, SU took a big swing and miss.

“Altogether it was just inconsistency,” Gilligan said. “In all aspects … as a team we were just inconsistent throughout the entire game. And it’s frustrating.”

Published on December 10, 2015 at 8:49 pm

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