The No. 3/4 Boston University women’s hockey team extended its winning streak to seven games with a 4–2 victory over Northeastern University at Walter Brown Arena Saturday afternoon. The win also marks the 14th consecutive game the Terriers (18–3–3, 13–2–1 Hockey East) played without suffering a loss.
The contest got off to a quick start, as sophomore forward Kayla Tutino and junior forward Louise Warren broke out into a 2-on-1 fast break. Tutino carried the puck into the offensive zone and passed it across the net to Warren. Warren pulled off a nice deke and shot the puck past goaltender Kelsey O’Sullivan to get BU on the board first.
Warren’s goal made her the sixth 10-goal scorer on the team this season. It is the first time in program history that a BU team has six 10-goal scorers in the same season.
“The bottom line is you’ve got real good hockey players here,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “You’ve got some people that are unselfish and you’ve got people that go to the net. I think that a little bit of a juggle in the lines has really put the two top lines together in grand fashion.”
At 7:23 of the first period, forward Paige Savage took a penalty for body checking, putting BU on the power play. About a minute later, junior defenseman Shannon Doyle took a slap shot from the point that deflected off freshman forward Sarah Lefort and squeezed through O’Sullivan’s pads for a power-play goal, giving the Terriers a 2–0 lead.
But the Huskies (14–10–2, 8–7–1 Hockey East) responded quickly. Forward Kelly Wallace was able to get a puck past junior goaltender Kerrin Sperry to cut their deficit to one just 19 seconds later.
The second frame took on a much different pace, with neither team creating many scoring chances. It took a wild play at 13:26 of the period for a puck to find its way into the net.
As Warren skated down the wing and into the offensive zone with the puck, she fell to her knees. From the ground, she managed to send the disc to the front of the net. Despite two NU defensemen lurking in the area, the puck found Tutino’s stick and she was able to get a shot off that found twine. It was yet another display of the connection that the second line has developed this season.
Tutino said she attributes her line’s success to its communication and confidence.
“We communicate really well and we’re not afraid to tell each other some things we should work on and what we can do better,” Tutino said. “We also have a lot of confidence and sometimes if things don’t go well we just keep going and don’t let that get in our way.”
Less than two minutes later, the Terrier offense struck again. Handling the puck in the offensive zone, senior forward Isabel Menard saw senior forward Jenelle Kohanchuk crash to the front of the net. Menard fed Kohanchuk the puck, and the Winnipeg, Manitoba native utilized her quick release to get a shot off that O’Sullivan could not stop.
Menard’s assist on the play brought her two assists away from 100 in her collegiate career.
Down 4–1 late in the second period, forward Kendall Coyne put one past Sperry to cut the Huskies’ deficit to two and give the team some momentum heading into the final frame.
At the 3:09 mark of the third period, freshman forward Dakota Woodworth took a penalty for body checking, giving NU an opportunity to pull within one goal of BU. But the Huskies were not able to cash in.
Moments after the Terriers killed off Woodworth’s penalty, Kohanchuk was called for elbowing, forcing the penalty kill unit to go right back onto the ice. Once again, the Terriers did not allow NU to get a power-play goal. In fact, BU was able to get good scoring chances while shorthanded.
This set the tempo for a third period that saw Northeastern go on five man-advantages but come up with no goals and only five shots in the frame.
Ultimately, the impressive penalty kill was able to finish the job and lead the Terriers to a 4–2 win.
Durocher said although the shorthanded squad did a good job, his team has to start taking fewer penalties.
“We did kill the penalties,” Durocher said. “But again, we have to do a better job of staying out of the box. That gives people too many chances, too much life and any one of those sneaks in and we have problems.”
BU will face Northeastern again on Tuesday in the Beanpot Semifinal. The puck is set to drop at 8 p.m.
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