Familiar Foe Awaits Eagles in HEA Semifinals

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The third-ranked and top-seeded Boston College women's hockey team continues its quest to push its run of Hockey East Tournament titles to three when the Eagles face seventh-seeded Connecticut in Saturday's tournament semifinal round.

Hockey East's championship weekend will be played at Northeastern's Matthews Arena, with the BC-UConn semifinal set for a 1:30 p.m. faceoff on Saturday, March 3. Third-seeded Maine will face fourth-seeded Northeastern in the 4:30 p.m. The two winners will then meet and play for the 2018 Joe Bertagna Trophy on Sunday, March 4, at 1:30 p.m.

BC's semifinal will be streamed live on hockeyeastonline.tv, with NESNPlus following with a tape-delayed broadcast of the game at 10 p.m. The other semifinal and championship games will be televised live on NESNPlus.

Tickets for the games 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. Tickets for the semifinal round include both games played on Saturday.

The two-time defending champion of the event, Boston College (30-3-3, 19-2-3 HEA) meets Connecticut (15-13-9, 7-11-6 HEA) in the Hockey East semifinals for the third time in the last four years. In 2015, BC earned a 3-1 win over the Huskies in Hyannis, Mass., before taking a 4-2 win in 2016 in North Andover, Mass.

This season, Connecticut became the first-ever No. 7 seed to advance to championship weekend, and with its best-of-three series win over second-seeded Providence last weekend in the quarterfinals, earned the biggest upset ever in the league's tournament.

The 2018 Hockey East Goaltender of the Year, Annie Belanger, leads the Huskies on defense, while freshman Natalie Snodgrass – a member of the 2018 Hockey East Pro Ambitions All-Rookie Team – paces the team offensively.

Belanger finished fourth in league games in goals against average with a 2.13 mark, while adding a .931 save percentage, which also ranked fourth in the league. Snodgrass posted 21 points in 24 league games, including 10 goals and 11 assists, which was tied for ninth overall in the conference this season.

BC and UConn met three times in the regular season, with BC taking the series 1-0-2. The teams tied both games played at the Huskies' Freitas Ice Forum: a 2-2 draw on Oct. 18 and a 3-3 game on Nov. 18. Boston College won the lone meeting at Kelley Rink this year, a 3-0 victory on Nov. 17.

In the first tie at UConn, Daryl Watts' second-period goal tied it up and BC out-shot UConn 22-8 in the third period and hit two posts in overtime. In the second tie, BC held a 2-1 lead in the second period before UConn tallied twice to take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission. Watts' second goal of the game early in the third evened the score and BC's Katie Burt made a key save on Snodgrass in OT to preserve the point in league play. Erin Connolly, Caitrin Lonergan and Watts all scored in the 3-0 win in Chestnut Hill as Burt stopped all 22 shots she saw for her first shutout of the season.

The Eagles lead the all-time series against UConn, 31-14-9, including an 11-0-3 mark in the last 14 games. The Huskies, however, have earned ties in three of the last four games between the teams – including two this season in Storrs and one last February at Kelley Rink.

The winner of Saturday's semifinal will meet the winner of the Maine-Northeastern semifinal in the Hockey East Championship on Sunday, March 4, at 1:30 p.m. at Matthews Arena.

Familiar Foe Awaits Eagles in HEA Semifinals

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Players Mentioned

Katie Burt

Erin Connolly

Caitrin Lonergan

Daryl Watts