Ice Hockey, Sports

Crimson’s top line puts an end to any hopes of a BU comeback

After the Boston University women’s hockey team fell, 8-0, to Harvard University last night in the opening round of the annual Beanpot Tournament, BU coach Brian Durocher was asked when, precisely, his team’s game plan broke down.

His response was to the point.

‘It failed the minute Harvard hit the ice,’ Durocher said.

Indeed, it took only three minutes after the first faceoff for the Crimson to light the lamp. From then on, senior first-liners Sarah Vaillancourt and Jenny Brine controlled the game for Harvard on the offensive end.

By scoring early and often, Harvard was then able to take advantage of one of BU’s biggest weaknesses this season – the ability to come back after being down early. When the Terriers trail following the final horn of the first, they stand 1-5-2 on the season.

The only time BU was able to successfully come back from such a deficit came against then-No. 5 Mercyhurst College on Oct. 11, a game that took three goals late in the third period for the Terriers to emerge victorious.

Durocher acknowledged that Harvard made it extremely difficult for his team to dig itself out of any hole.

‘I give Harvard a lot of credit,’ Durocher said. ‘They came out flying tonight, put us on our heels out of the gate. Sometimes, you can go seven or eight minutes doing that and have nothing to show for it, which gives us time to catch our breath, but they got the two tough goals early.’

If being down after the first hurt BU’s chances, the outstanding play of Vaillancourt and Brine sealed the Terriers’ fate.

The dominance of the two front-liners was never more evident than on Harvard’s sixth goal of the night. Vaillancourt and Brine entered the offensive zone on a two-on-one break, each flanked on opposite ends of the ice. Already ahead by a whopping five goals, the pair seemed to almost toy with the BU defense, maneuvering a textbook play of four straight tape-to-tape passes before Brine found herself on the doorstep of an empty net and put the biscuit in the basket.

The empty net was a result of BU senior goalie Allyse Wilcox’s attempt to defend Vaillancourt on the strong side, leaving Brine alone on the weak side.

After all was said and done, the dynamic duo both put up hat tricks on the night, Vaillancourt’s second on the season and Brine’s first. Goals came from all possible scenarios ‘-‘- Brine’s three were all even strength, while Vaillancourt had two on the power play and one short-handed. Vaillancourt added four assists for a Gretzky-esque total of seven points on the night.

Perhaps the pair had remembered a lot about the BU defense from last year’s Beanpot. That game saw then-No. 1 Harvard face an upstart BU team. David could not take down Goliath last year, as the Terriers fell 3-1. Vaillancourt and Brine each had an assist in that contest.

After this year’s rematch, it was Vaillancourt that drew accolades from Durocher.

‘She has to be one of the best players we’ve seen this season,’ Durocher said. ‘She’s up there with [Mercyhurst freshman forward] Meghan Agosta. She may not be having as great a season as last year when she won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award [given to the nation’s best player], but she’s still a special player.’

If the Terriers are to bounce back, they will have to do so against another award-winner this weekend, as BU takes on defending Hockey East Player of the Year Dominique Thibault and the University of Connecticut in a home-and-home series.

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