Following three consecutive games without a win, the No. 7 Boston University women’s hockey team got back on track with back-to-back home victories against Providence College and Harvard University.
After a 7–1 loss and a 5–5 tie against Boston College and a 4–2 loss against the University of New Hampshire, BU coach Brian Durocher said the team was looking to get back in the right direction.
“You don’t want to have slumps, you don’t want to have multiple lost games,” Durocher said. “It’s important as we look at Hockey East points but also the national picture … You’ve got to keep putting together wins, and the best way to do it is get one, and then you can get two and three and so on. We didn’t want to have anything that was a real negative streak going on.”
On Friday night, BU (9–3–1, 4–2–1 Hockey East) defeated Providence College (7–5–3, 5–2–2 Hockey East) at Walter Brown Arena, 7–1.
Senior forward Jenelle Kohanchuk was the star of the game, totaling a career-high five points on two goals and three assists.
“I brought an A-game to the ice,” Kohanchuk said of her performance. “I just played generally very well.”
Junior co-captain Marie-Philip Poulin also had a strong impact in her first game after competing for Team Canada in the Four Nations Cup in Finland. Poulin had four points on two goals and two assists.
“She’s a kid who can make a difference in the game,” Durocher said. “[She is] a world-class player who tonight was finding people, and had two goals herself. She changes the complexion of our team … not only of the line she’s on, but ideally maybe almost every line on the team in some way, because you find another great player in there, it puts an impression on the team.”
Poulin said her teammates helped her out in her return.
“It was a team effort,” Poulin said. “We played as a team, we executed well what the coach said, and we came out with the win … I feel pretty fortunate to play with them.”
Durocher also praised the rest of the team for its solid efforts during the game.
Four other players had multi-point games — freshman forward Sarah Lefort (one goal, two assists), sophomore defenseman Shannon Stoneburgh (one goal, one assist), sophomore forward Kayla Tutino (one goal, two assists) and junior forward Louise Warren (two assists). Junior goalie Kerrin Sperry recorded 19 saves.
“It was nice to see a bunch of people playing well,” Durocher said.
While Durocher said that Friday’s win was a confidence booster, he also noted the strength of the upcoming opponent.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but that’s all it is, is one step, one win,” Durocher said.
“Come Sunday, we’ll play a different team. This is a team that’s big and usually defends hard at their net, goes to the net hard. Harvard is a little more of a skating team, and we’re going to have to be ready for a slightly different pace skating-wise.”
The Terriers kept up with No. 5 Harvard (4–1, 2–0 ECAC), hanging on to beat the Crimson 2–1 on Sunday.
Late in the first period, Kohanchuk scored her sixth point of the weekend by tapping in a shorthanded goal at the 19:09 mark off of a pass from Poulin to give BU a 1–0 lead.
“[She has] tremendous talent, speed, she can shoot the puck,” Durocher said of Kohanchuk. “She can make hockey plays. We’re very lucky to have her here … obviously this weekend, she had a super weekend.”
Warren widened the lead at the 9:45 mark in the second period, scoring on an assist from senior forward Isabel Menard to extend the Terriers’ lead to 2–0.
The Crimson attempted to fight back in the third period, as Harvard freshman Mary Parker scored to cut the Terrier lead in half. But a staunch defensive effort from the Terriers preserved the lead and allowed BU to come away with the 2–1 victory.
“The defense made a couple of long-bodied plays,” Durocher said. “Obviously Kerrin [Sperry] made some wonderful stops for us, but our forwards also played 200 feet tonight. I think everyone was doing their part today.”
The Terriers will resume action after the Thanksgiving break when they face the Russian National Team in an exhibition game on Nov. 26.
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