Thanks to offensive surges in the first and third periods, the No. 9 Boston University women’s hockey team dominated the University of New Hampshire Sunday afternoon during the Hockey East quarterfinals at Walter Brown Arena with a 9-1 win.
During the course of the game, BU (21-13-1, 14-7 Hockey East) set a program record for most postseason goals and most short-handed goals in the Hockey East Tournament.
Senior captain Jenn Wakefield also scored a hat trick in the process of scoring her 200th point. She is the second Hockey East player to accrue that many points and is only the second person to score a hat trick during tournament play.
“Obviously, the stars lined up a little bit for us,” said BU coach Brian Durocher.
After keeping the puck in their offensive zone for most of the first nine minutes of play, the Terriers opened up the game with four goals, three of which came in a 1:51 spurt of offense, in the middle of the first frame.
Senior forward Jill Cardella started off the offensive barrage with her 10th goal of the season. Cardella picked up a pass from Wakefield that Cardella proceeded to put through the five-hole of UNH (10-22-3, 4-15-2 Hockey East) starting freshman goaltender Jenn Gilligan.
A mere 55 seconds later, junior forward Taylor Holze took a shot that freshman defenseman Shannon Stoneburgh redirected past Gilligan for her second goal of the season.
Another 56 seconds later, Wakefield tallied her team-leading 24th goal, her second point of the game, when the Pickering, Ontario native skated up the ice with the puck, went around two defenders and backhanded it past Gilligan.
Wakefield came back about four minutes later on the power play to torment Gilligan once again. Wakefield put her third point of the game past Gilligan on a shot from the left circle.
While BU had four goals on 10 shots in the first frame, the Terriers only lit the lamp once in the second frame despite putting 15 shots on UNH’s senior goaltender Lindsey Minton, who relieved Gilligan after the first period.
Junior forward Isabel Menard scored the lone BU goal in the second frame when 1:23 into the period she took a pass from senior defenseman Carly Warren and directed it into the net.
New Hampshire responded with its first – and only – goal of the game after the Terriers took their first penalty, a body checking call on red shirt freshman Caroline Campbell.
Sophomore Arielle O’Neill had the power-play tally for the Wildcats, and closed out the scoring for both teams in the period.
Neither team scored for the first half of the third period until the Terriers once again showed off their offensive prowess.
After several attempts to get her fourth point of the game and 200th of her career, Wakefield accomplished both in the form of a short-handed goal 11:58 into the frame.
“It was kind of a blur,” Wakefield said of scoring her 200th point. “Then when I saw [senior defenseman Kasey Boucher] go get the puck I realized it was the 200th.”
The point, which gave Wakefield her second career hat trick, came against Wakefield’s former team. She transferred to BU after playing two seasons with the Wildcats.
“I really didn’t want to get eliminated by my former school,” Wakefield said. “It was only one of us going through, so I’m glad it was me instead of them, for sure.”
Just 24 seconds after the Terriers killed off the penalty that Wakefield scored her goal on, Cardella went into the box for hooking. During the ensuing penalty kill, BU scored two short-handed goals.
Sophomore forward Marie-Philip Poulin made it 7-1 with her short-handed goal when she worked with sophomore forward Louise Warren. Poulin passed to Warren, who then took a shot. Poulin then picked up the rebound for the goal.
Carly Warren earned her second point of the game 30 seconds later when she scored her first goal of the season on a soft shot from the right circle that Minton’s glove missed.
While Durocher was proud of his team’s play, he said at this point of the game he wished the Terriers would stop finding the back of the net.
“Honestly, myself, I’m hoping no more pucks go in because I am very respectful of this game, and respectful of UNH and of [UNH coach] Brian McCloskey,” Durocher said. “When you score short-handed goals, it’s hard to completely turn the faucet off, you keep playing and you keep playing hard, but I didn’t want that to happen.
“But you know short-handed goals, hey that’s a nice compliment to the kids who worked hard, created opportunities and finished off some plays.”
Louise Warren finished off the scoring for BU with a goal 18:12 into the final frame. The goal, her seventh of the season, came off a rebound from a shot by freshman forward Kayla Tutino.
“I think we’ve felt all along that we had the ability to be one of the upper seeds,” Durocher said. “Now we have a chance to go out and play two more good hockey games, and keep pushing forward in our quest to win a Hockey East championship and maybe get back to the NCAA tournament.”
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