Lake Placid, N.Y.--The Boston College women's ice hockey team's run to the NCAA championship ended Friday night when Minnesota-Duluth's Jessica Koizumi tallied the game-winning goal in double overtime in a Frozen Four semifinal match-up. The 4-3 loss to the Bulldogs at the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y. is the first overtime loss this season for the Eagles. Boston College finished the season 24-10-2.
Junior co-captain Deborah Spillane notched the first goal in the first period and sophomore Meghan Fardelmann put Boston College up 2-1 by the first intermission. Sophomore Becky Zavisza scored the third Eagle goal on the power play.
Freshman goalie Molly Schaus stopped 47 shots in 94:19, including 15 in the first overtime period. UMD netminder Riita Schaublin finished the game with 29 saves.
Boston College came out strong and netted the first goal of the semifinal. Freshman Allie Thunstrom started the play in the neutral zone by intercepting a pass between two Bulldogs. Thunstrom got a shot off on goal from the left wing and the rebound sailed to the goal's right. Spillane, waiting on the red goal line lasered a shot perfectly between the back of Schaublin's left skate and the right post for her 13th goal of the season at 6:32.
At 10:03, UMD evened up the score. Noemie Marin, just coming off the bench, received a feed in the left face-off circle from Koizumi and beat Schaus. Bulldog blueliner Suvi Vacker initiated the play and received credit for the second assist.
With the game deadlocked, the pace of play went up a notch, and the first penalty of the game was called on Fardelmann for body checking at 13:07. The Eagle defense allowed just one shot on goal and killed the penalty without any damage being done.
Fardelmann more than made up for the penalty when she scored Boston College's second goal at 16:30. Sophomore Maggie Taverna maneuvered the puck out of the zone before dishing it to Fardelmann in the neutral zone. Fardelmann skated the puck up the rest of the distance before taking a slapshot at the top of the left face-off circle which beat Schaublin high over her left shoulder. The Eagles took the 2-1 lead into the first intermission, but UMD had the slight 10-9 edge in shots
Both teams traded goals to open up the second period. At :52, Koizumi backhanded a shot past Schaus to tie up the score. On Boston College's first power play of the game 1:04 later, sophomore Becky Zavisza redirected a shot taken from the point by junior Erin Blood into the net. Freshman Tracy Johnson also earned an assist on her pass to Blood. Boston College killed off two more consecutive penalties to go into the second intermission hanging on to a one goal lead.
The Bulldogs peppered Schaus with 10 shots throughout the third period trying to net the equalizer. Just as the Eagles seemed to regroup and clear the puck out of their zone, UMD's Sara O'Toole blew past Blood on the left wing and fed the puck to Michaela Lanzl out in front of the cage. Lanzl put home a shot that richoted off both pipes. The officials reviewed the play before calling it a goal, the game-tying tally with 4:20 remaining in regulation to send the game into overtime. Both teams won their quarterfinal match-ups in overtime affairs.
No penalties were whistled in the first overtime period, but both teams played a physical game. In the final minute of the period, Marin skated into the Boston College zone with just Taverna and Schaus in her way of scoring the gamewinner. Marin couldn't get the shot off, but instead ended up crashing into the boards behind the net and being helped to the bench. As she did in the first extra session against Dartmouth the week before, Schaus made 15 saves to carry the game into the second overtime.
The Eagles had several opportunities to put the game away in the second overtime. Freshman Anna McDonald had a breakaway, but a tripping penalty was called on Jill Sales before McDonald could get any shot off on goal. Freshman Kelli Stack also had several scoring chances but her shots were either wide or stopped by Schaublin. The Eagles were not able to capitalize on any of their opportunities before Koizumi put the gamewinner away at 9:12 with the help of Sara O'Toole and Marin, who returned to the game.