It is tough for any team to succeed while its top player is absent from the lineup. For the No. 5 Boston University women’s hockey team, playing without four of its top players on Saturday against No. 6 Boston College served as a major reason for its 3-1 loss.
The Terriers were missing senior forwards Jenn Wakefield and Jenelle Kohanchuk, as well as senior defenseman Kasey Boucher and sophomore center Marie-Philip Poulin on Saturday.
“Any time you [lose] four world-class players, those are huge losses to have,” said BU coach Brian Durocher.
The trio of Wakefield, Kohanchuk and Poulin entered the year as the top-three scorers returning from last season. The three accounted for exactly half of the team’s goals a year ago, and are certainly key offensive producers this season.
Wakefield, who is the team’s leading scorer this season with nine goals and seven assists through only 10 games, missed Saturday’s game while representing Canada in the Four Nation’s Cup. Wakefield had three points in the Terriers’ win over BC last Wednesday, one of which was her 100th career goal.
While Poulin has been gone since early in the season, her absence has certainly impacted the depth of the team. The Olympic gold medal-winner was second on the team in points last season, and would certainly be a significant asset to the team’s offense. An abdominal injury is keeping Poulin sidelined until January.
One player who stepped up with the absence of Poulin was Kohanchuk, who scored seven of her nine points in the five games she played without Poulin in the lineup. A mild concussion has forced Kohanchuk out of the lineup for the past four games, but Durocher is optimistic about her return soon.
“She got dinged up with one of the concussions that seem to be showing up all over the place, which is bad luck on our front,” Durocher said. “Jenelle was obviously out for one more game. Some of the cards we know where they are going, and others we will wait and see.”
A concussion has knocked Boucher out of the lineup as well, which puts the Terriers’ defensive depth to the test. Boucher is one of the top defensemen on the team, and has is tied for second on the team with a plus-1 plus-minus rating.
The defense, while it has not been bad, has been surrendering more shots on goal than usual over the past few games. Durocher noted that without the key offensive players in the lineup, the puck does not remain away from the BU goal as long.
“Sometimes your best defense is good offense,” Durocher said. “When you are carrying the puck and they are forced to deal with people like Jenelle or Marie-Philip; that gets us out of the defensive end and puts more pressure and energy on them.”
Having any of these four players would have helped BU on Saturday, who went up against the No. 6 team in the country in BC. With Wakefield and Boucher in the lineup on Wednesday the Terriers were able to skate to a 4-1 victory. Without them though, the Eagles controlled the tempo of the game and gave BU its third loss in four games.
With so many holes left in the team’s offense, Durocher mixed up the lines and played the top three units pretty equally.
If there was one player who stood out for the Terriers, though, it was junior center Isabel Menard. Menard created many chances in the game, including a two-on-one chance at the end of a shift that was broken up by a BC defenseman.
“Had that happened earlier in the shift, she probably would have been shooting a 20-foot wrist shot instead of a 40-foot slapshot – those are things that are out of our control,” Durocher said. “I thought Isabel Menard really played well as the game went along.”
Despite the loss, Durocher was pleased with the effort the team displayed on Wednesday. The score was within reach for most of the game, which is a solid performance for a team so shorthanded.
“People stepped up in the absence of some world class players that aren’t in our lineup right now,” Durocher said. “It’s not one or two, it is four. That is a great compliment to those people that stepped up and hopefully will carry us down the road.”
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