Ice Hockey, Sports

Women’s hockey swept in weekend series against Vermont

Heading into the weekend, the No. 10/11 Boston University women’s hockey team looked to right the ship, as it had lost its previous two games and three of the last four. Facing off against a University of Vermont team that the Terriers had not lost to since the 2009-10 campaign, it looked like things would start to move in the right direction. Despite not losing to the Catamounts in over four years, BU fell in two contests to Vermont by scores of 4-2 and 5-1.

“Unfortunately in the context of the weekend we continued to find ways to not get the job done,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “Some of the credit certainly goes to UVM and their goaltender. When you’re in a bit of a negative streak or slump, things happen that compound it.”

In the first contest Friday night, neither team had much of an advantage in the first frame. Senior goaltender Kerrin Sperry stopped all six shots that came her way, while her counterpart, netminder Roxanne Douville, saved three Terrier (16-8-1, 9-5-0 Hockey East) chances.

Even with the quiet first period for both squads, the Catamounts (11-12-4, 7-6-1 Hockey East) had no trouble getting on the board in the second, and did so just 1:45 into the frame. Douville made a short pass to defenseman Gina Repaci who in turn fed forward Delia McNally at the other blue line. McNally skated past the BU defense and pushed it across the goal line for the lead.

About 10 minutes later, BU answered back on the strength of senior defenseman Kaleigh Fratkin. Sophomore forward Sarah Lefort carried the puck in and took a shot on Douville, which was stopped, but Fratkin scooped up the rebound and tied things at one.

While neither team scored for the remainder of the period, both teams had ample opportunities to do so, as the Terriers rattled off 14 shots and the Catamounts peppered Sperry with 16 of their own.

With the game all knotted up at one, both teams were gunning for the next goal, and 2:54 into the final frame, the Catamounts found the back of the net. Forward Kellie Dineen scored on a one-timer in the slot to give Vermont a 2-1 advantage.

Although Vermont seized the early advantage in the third, the Terriers fought back and tied the game up three minutes later. Senior captain Louise Warren took a pass from Lefort and skated toward the net, backhanding a shot under Douville.

Both teams battled for the next 13 minutes, as each searched for the illusive third goal. At the 18:30 mark, freshman Sarah Kelly took advantage of a 2-on-1 opportunity and put the puck past a diving Sperry for the lead.

Under a minute later, freshman Victoria Andreakos put the game out of reach with an empty-netter, sealing a 4-2 win for Vermont.

“We put ourselves in good position to get out with a point or maybe try to find a way to win the game in OT,” Durocher said. “Unfortunately we made a little bit of a bad read and an elementary play w turned into a basically a 2-on-0 and UVM capitalized… [UVM] went down and finished the job.

The next night the Terriers made a switch in goal, starting freshman Victoria Hanson in favor of Sperry.

The freshman played admirably in the first, stopping 10 shots. She was not perfect however, as defenseman Megan Dalbec stole a BU pass and then ripped a shot at net, which beat Hanson.

With 48 seconds left in the opening frame, the Terriers tied the game. Fratkin took a shot from the point, which made it by Douville, lighting the lamp for the second time of the weekend and fourth time of the season.

“Overall she had a solid weekend,” Durocher said about Fratkin. “She skated well and she certainly logs a lot of minutes for us and plays as much as anyone in college hockey.”

Even with momentum swinging in the Terriers’ favor heading into the first intermission, things did not go well BU the rest of the way.

At the 5:29 mark in the second, Vermont took a 2-1 lead when Bridget Baker batted in a rebound out of mid-air for the advantage.

About 10 minutes later, freshman Cassidy Campeau notched her first career goal and gave the Catamounts the 3-1 edge.

“We fell behind early, but got a goal to tie,” Durocher said. “But I was really disappointed the way we came out in the second period. We made some mental mistakes, didn’t pick up some people in coverage and all of a sudden [UVM] makes it a 3-1 game.”

The Terriers did not answer in the period despite recording 13 shots. Douville was on top of her game, stopping each shot that came her way.

“She really stood strong,” Durocher said of Vermont’s goaltender. “She made some very nice saves. I don’t know if we made the perfect shots, but she handled it. That’s why she’s a top goalie … She’s in ‘all-star’ form right night.”

Up two goals in the third, Vermont kept up the pressure and added two more before the game finished.

A little over four minutes into the frame, forward Amanda Pelkey wristed a shot top-shelf past Hanson for her 17th goal of the year and with 26 seconds left in the game, McNally added her second goal of the weekend when she deflected the puck past Hanson for the fifth and final goal of the contest.

“Hats off to Vermont’s performance,” Durocher said. “They played with good tempo, good pace and they competed. We’ve got to get back to some of the basic fundamentals to improve ourselves.”

Website | More Articles

This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.

Comments are closed.