The BC women’s hockey team finished a historic season today on a disappointing note, losing to defending champion and #3 Minnesota, 3-1, in the NCAA Championship game in Durham, N.H.

The Eagles were ranked #1 with a 40-0 record coming into the game. Minnesota opened the scoring just 13 seconds in and added two more before freshman Makenna Newkirk (photo below) scored to deny the Gophers a shutout. Minnesota finishes its season 35-4-1.

BC’s 40-1 record was the best in team history and the Eagles became only the second college women’s hockey team to win 40 games (the other being Minnesota, which was 41-0, winning the national title, in 2013.) Today’s game was the Eagles’ first national championship contest. Minnesota has won the national title in four of the last five years, losing the 2014 title game to Clarkson.

Six seniors, including Alex Carpenter, BC’s most honored women’s hockey player, leave the Eagles. Of the remaining 17 players on the team, freshmen and sophomores number seven each. Newkirk, who scored BC’s only goal today, was the nation’s leader in goals among freshmen, with 22.

Men play Friday in NCAAs
The BC men’s team has its own path to the national title, and it starts in Worcester on Friday. The Eagles play Harvard at 5 pm PT, with Providence and Minnesota-Duluth meeting in the earlier game. It seems surprising, but while BC and Harvard will play each other for the 124th time Friday, it will be the first time they do so in the NCAA tournament. BC beat Harvard, 3-2, in the opening round of this year’s Beanpot.

All four Beanpot teams made the field of 16 in the national tournament. Six teams from Hockey East, the most of any conference, are in the tournament.

Overcoming a two-goal deficit and entering the third period behind in the score for the first time all season, the BC women’s hockey team continued a season of possible destiny by scoring goals in the second and third periods and one in overtime to defeat Clarkson, 3-2, in a Frozen Four semifinal game this afternoon.

As the headline on the photo says, senior forward Haley Skarupa scored the game-winning goal early in overtime to send BC to the national championship game Sunday. This will be the first women’s hockey national championship game for the Eagles, and today was its first win ever in the Frozen Four, despite its success in recent years. BC, 40-0 and ranked #1 in the nation, will play either Minnesota or Wisconsin, who play in the other semifinal today.

Clarkson led 2-0 until Skarupa scored her first goal in the second period. Senior defenseman Kaliya Johnson scored only the seventh goal of her career with only 3:53 remaining in the third period to tie the game. BC played nearly the last two minutes of regulation short-handed.

BC men’s hockey team is playing Northeastern later today in the semifinals of the Hockey East Tournament. Their game has been delayed because the earlier semifinal between UMass-Lowell and Providence is in its second overtime period. (UPDATE: Northeastern, considered the hottest team in college hockey with an 18-1-2 record to conclude its season, beat BC 5-4.)