UVM Up as Hockey East Tourney Opener

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The third-ranked Boston College women's hockey team officially opens the 2018 postseason this weekend when the team hosts Vermont in a best-of-three Hockey East Quarterfinal series.

The teams will play games one and two on Friday, Feb. 23, and Saturday, Feb. 24. If necessary, they will then meet on Sunday, Feb. 25. All games will feature a 2 p.m. puck drop. All games played will also be streamed live on ESPN3, which is available at WatchESPN.com or on the ESPN app.

Tickets for the game are $10 for adults, and $5 for children, seniors and groups of 10 or more. Students from Hockey East institutions will receive free admission with a valid school ID.

The two-time defending champion of the event, Boston College (28-3-3, 19-2-3 HEA) enters the Hockey East Tournament as the event's No. 1 seed after claiming this year's regular-season title by a record-tying 12 points over second-place Providence.

Vermont (10-18-5, 7-13-4 HEA) comes into the weekend as the tournament's No. 8 seed after posting 18 points in league play. Sitting in sixth place coming into the final weekend of play, the Catamounts were hindered by their schedule, having only one game left to sixth-place BU and seventh-place UConn's two each. The Terriers and Huskies both swept their final series, while UVM fell at Northeastern in its final game, shuffling the last few playoff spots in the final days.

BC leads the all-time series between the two programs 41-3-3, but in recent years the series has been close in almost every meeting. The last four meetings combined have been decided by five goals with three one-goal victories and a total of three overtime sessions.

BC and UVM met three times this season with BC sweeping the season meetings. However, all three games were close, forcing the Eagles to rally in every contest. On Oct. 22, Boston College took a 4-2 win in Burlington, but the teams were tied at 1-1 after two periods before Daryl Watts and Caitrin Lonergan scored to extend a two-goal BC lead. The 'Cats chipped into the lead and made it a 3-2 game, but Lonergan's third of the day with under 4:00 to play put the game out of reach.

Vermont traveled to Chestnut Hill for a two-game series in late January, forcing late heroics again from BC. In the first meeting on Jan. 19, UVM used early goals in the second and third periods to negate one-goal Eagle advantages both times and the teams headed to overtime tied at 2-2. BC defenseman Serena Sommerfield's overtime tally claimed the victory for BC as Vermont goaltender Sydney Scobee made 36 saves in defeat.

The next day on Jan. 20, the teams met again and Scobee proved up to the challenge. She made 41 stops as Vermont carried a 1-0 lead into the third period before BC defenseman Toni Ann Miano scored twice in the third – at 4:10 and 10:10 – to seize the 2-1 win.

This year's close meetings follow a pattern from the 2016-17 contests. On Jan. 20, 2018, BC needed an extra-attacker goal from Megan Keller with 46 seconds to play to even the game up at 2-2 at Gutterson Fieldhouse before Makenna Newkirk netted the game-winner 39 seconds into the extra session.

While the next two regular-season meetings saw larger BC margins of victory – a 3-0 shutout in Burlington on Jan. 21 and a 7-2 win at Kelley Rink on Feb. 12 – the teams met again at Walter Brown Arena on March 4 in the semifinals of the Hockey East Tournament. In that game, BC saw leads of 2-0 and 3-1 disappear as the Catamounts scored three power-play goals and forced overtime. Neither team scored in the first 20:00, and needed a second overtime where Andie Anastos ended the contest with a backhand game-winner 3:03 into the second added session.

This weekend's series will be just the third and fourth times the teams meet in the Hockey East Tournament. In addition to last year's semifinal showdown, the program also met in the 2014 semifinals when BC took a 3-1 win in Hyannis, Mass.

The winner of this weekend's series will advance to play in the Hockey East Tournament semifinals on Saturday, March 3. Should BC advance, the Eagles will face the lowest remaining seed at 1:30 p.m. at Northeastern's Matthews Arena. Should Vermont advance, they would face the highest remaining seed, also at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Andie Anastos

Megan Keller

Caitrin Lonergan

Toni Ann Miano

Makenna Newkirk

Serena Sommerfield

Daryl Watts