Boston College Women’s Hockey Stuns No. 5 Northeastern in Overtime

Grace Campbell stopped all 38 shots and kept the Eagles alive before Ava Thomas scored the only goal of the game midway through overtime.

Ava Thomas celebrates with teammates after overtime goal against Northeastern. | Jim Pierce (bceagles.com)

WALTHAM, Mass. - For the fourth time in four different venues this season, Boston College managed to hang around with No. 5 Northeastern well into the third period. In the final regular season matchup between the two schools, Grace Campbell managed to step her game up another level after she had kept the Eagles in it as long as she could in the first three meetings. 

Through regulation, both Grace Campbell and Northeastern’s Lisa Jönsson proved unbeatable as the pair combined to stop all 67 shots they faced. Included in the scoreless sixty minutes were a total of seven power plays, five for Northeastern and a pair for Boston College, as well as two minutes of four-on-four play after matching penalties were called in the second period.

Early in the final frame, Northeastern came inches away from opening the scoring before Grace Campbell, Madelyn Murphy, and Olivia Maffeo combined for one of the best defensive stands of the season. The play started harmlessly as Campbell turned away a shot from Tristan Thompson, but as the senior returned to her feet looking for a rebound, she didn’t realize it had been under her pads and began trickling towards the goal line once the goaltender moved. Madelyn Murphy wasted no time clearing the puck off the line but in her attempt to send it away from danger sent the puck off Grace Campbell to Lily Brazis, who was waiting on the doorstep of the goal. Olivia Maffeo read the deflection and before Brazis could get the shot off dove to the ice and covered the post to keep the Huskies off the board.

WOW how about this defense?! 🤯#NCAAHockey #SCTop10 x 🎥 ESPN+ / @BC_WHockey pic.twitter.com/J0PZfcJ4ZL

— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) February 15, 2026

In the extra frame, both sides had opportunities early with Maxim Tremblay hitting the post for the Eagles and Kristina Allard missing the net for Northeastern. Midway through the extra frame, Allie Lalonde was called for slashing as she knocked the stick out of Emma Conner’s hand, sending Boston College to a four-on-three power play. With Lalonde, Northeastern’s top face-off taker in the box, Ava Thomas was able to win the draw to let the Eagles’ power play set up immediately. After the Huskies blocked a pair of shots, Thomas collected the puck took a moment to handle the puck and open up a shooting lane and buried the winner by Jönsson. 

AVA THOMAS 🤝 GOALS pic.twitter.com/y4vQfjGXh2

— Boston College Women's Hockey (@BC_WHockey) February 15, 2026

The goal for Ava Thomas brought the freshman level with Northeastern’s Lily Shannon for the most goals by a Hockey East skater with 18 and with Stryker Zablocki for most points in Hockey East play with 30 points in 22 games.

By stopping all 38 shots she faced, Grace Campbell recorded her third shutout of the season and pulled closer in her chase for the program record for saves in both a career and in a single season. The senior will have at a minimum three more games to catch Katie Burt, now an assistant coach at Providence and previously someone who had coached Campbell, for the career mark, needing just 68 saves to match Burt’s 3,180. Grace Campbell sits behind Abigail Levy for the single season mark, just 87 saves away from the program record of 1,143. Campbell backed up Levy in her first season on the heights before taking over as the full-time starter as a sophomore in 2023-24.

With the overtime victory, Boston College moves into the third spot in the Hockey East standings by way of the head-to-head tiebreaker with Holy Cross. The Eagles can finish no lower than fifth in the conference and need either three points from the final two games of the season or any type of victory over New Hampshire next time out to secure a top-four spot and the right to host a quarterfinal on February 28th.

While the loss will not hurt Northeastern in Hockey East play, the Huskies have already secured the regular season championship and top seed in the tournament, it has the potential to significantly impair Northeastern’s national seeding. The Huskies remain in fifth in the NPI, the formula the selection committee uses to rank the field, but the margin for error and potential to host a regional has begun to disappear. The gap between Northeastern and both Penn State and Minnesota, the two schools currently sitting third and fourth, widened significantly. On the other side, Connecticut and Quinnipiac are now within striking distance of catching the Huskies for the fifth spot. 

A fifth-place finish guarantees a spot in a regional final, while the top four spots earn the right to host regionals. In addition, should both Connecticut and Quinnipiac climb above Northeastern it could put the Huskies in danger of missing the tournament if multiple “bid-stealers” win conference tournaments and force higher ranked teams into some of the five at-large bids. 

Boston College improves to 14-7-1 overall and 12-9-1 in Hockey East play. The Eagles return to Conte Forum on Friday to host New Hampshire before facing Boston University the following afternoon for senior day. Northeastern fall to 24-7-1 and pick up just their second Hockey East loss and head into the final weekend with a 19-2-1 record in Hockey East. The Huskies round out the regular season on the road against Connecticut on Friday and Providence on Saturday.