Shot after shot, junior netminder Kerrin Sperry turned away the No. 8 Northeastern University women’s hockey team’s attempts, just as she has done against Hockey East opponents for the No. 3 Boston University women’s hockey team since her freshman year.
This time, however, her efforts put her in BU’s history book as Sperry earned her 44th career victory, the most wins by a women’s hockey goaltender in the program’s existence, as the Terriers defeated Northeastern 4–1.
“Obviously it’s a great feeling,” Sperry said. “Breaking records is great, but I definitely think it’s a demonstration and the culmination of the entire program’s progress from the last two or three years, and you can see it from the coaching staff, the strength and conditioning, our recruits — the program is only going forward. I like to say that goalies can’t win games by themselves, so it’s definitely a program effort.”
With the win, Sperry took the record from Allyse Wilcox, who graduated with 43 wins in 2009.
“She’s the kid who almost every night gives us a chance to win,” said BU coach Brian Durocher of Sperry. “We know the fight in her. It’s off the charts. If it was a scale of one to 10 she’s a 10 1/2 in her competitiveness, her fight, to the point where I think people know we have to dial it down once in a while … I know her teammates like to play for her because she is somebody who competes so hard.”
Sperry held the Huskies (4–1) scoreless until the middle of the third period. Up until that point, however, the North Reading native kept her team in the game as the Terriers (4–0) and Northeastern battled for the lead.
BU ultimately took that lead with just 36 seconds left in the second period after a tightly contested start to the game. Junior co-captain Marie-Philip Poulin took a shot from the point while the Terriers were on the power play. Sophomore forward Kayla Tutino redirected the shot into the net for her third goal of the season to give the Terriers the 1–0 advantage.
Freshman phenom forward Sarah Lefort extended the Terriers lead just 47 seconds into the third period when senior co-captain Jill Cardella sent a pass to the right circle that Lefort wristed into the back of the net. The goal was Lefort’s team-leading sixth goal of the season.
Cardella scored a goal of her own on a pass from Poulin. The Terriers’ third goal was Cardella’s first of the season.
Northeastern finally found a way to get a shot past Sperry with about eight minutes left in the contest. Senior captain Casey Pickett picked up the rebound off a shot by sophomore Ann Doherty to cut the Terriers lead down to two.
With less than three minutes left in the game, however, senior forward Taylor Holze, in her first game of the season, scored to make it a 4–1 contest. Holze had yet to play in a game this season as she has been recovering from an ACL injury that she played with for the final two months of the 2011–12 season.
“For somebody last year who played the last two months with a brace on and no ACL, she could have opted for surgery right then, but she showed her true colors and knew that she could be an important part to that team because we were a little bit thin last year at times,” Durocher said. “She really gave it up for her teammates and maybe got rewarded tonight for playing that way.”
Last season, the Terriers dropped both of the games that they played at Matthews Arena. According to Durocher, last season’s struggles remained on the team’s mind when they entered into Tuesday’s game against the Huskies.
“I don’t think we want to come to any building and lose three in a row,” Durocher said. “To get back here and get a win tonight was certainly on our mind, and the last thing I said getting off the bus was that a Tuesday win was just as important as a Saturday-Sunday win … This is a top-10 team, this is a highly talented opponent, and this is a big win for a lot of reasons.”
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