Goaltender battle continues for women’s hockey

Throughout the the Boston University women’s hockey team’s ups and downs this year, one constant has been the battle between sophomore goaltender Erin O’Neil and junior goaltender Victoria Hanson for the starting role.

The former has compiled a 9-3-2 record, while the latter has a 5-5 record, showcasing head coach Brian Durocher’s tendency to ride the hot hand between the pipes. A further statistical breakdown shows there’s not much separating BU’s (14-8-2, 11-4-2 Hockey East) netminders.

O’Neil saves 90.5 percent of shots and boasts a 2.80 goals against average, while Hanson owns a 88.5 save percentage and a 3.36 goals against average. Truth be told, there’s not  much separating them, and Durocher stressed that the duo push each other in practice to reach even higher levels of play.

To get to that point, BU is keeping faith in O’Neil and Hanson, confident that those in front of them will ease the need for big plays.

“We’re trying to be that much better on the defensive end,” Durocher said. “I’m talking our back checking, I’m talking our D, I’m talking the play of our goaltenders. Now it’s just a matter of implementing another save here, an extra save there, a little bit more relaxation and not trying too hard. With that, the pieces will hopefully fall into place.”

Newton thriving in defensive corps

Sophomore defenseman Savannah Newton was part of a seven-person recruiting class for the Boston University women’s hockey team, but she hadn’t staked her claim until this year.

Durocher described her first season as a “learning curve” in terms of intensity, focus, technical aspects and structural aspects, and that largely explains her 10 games played throughout the 2014-15 season.

Now, Newton has started 23 of BU’s 24 games on the year, skates alongside junior Alexis Crossley in the top defensive pairing and routinely kills penalties. However, this stark improvement is not a result of happenstance.

Newton spent much of last year training with Darcy Gould, a strength and conditioning coach, and is reaping the rewards of hard work and patience.

“She was around our environment and all the teaching that was done last year has been put into play and she certainly embraced it,” Durocher said. “Getting the confidence was the last thing that needed to be done, and I can’t hand confidence to people, but when they get ice time and do well, we reward them with more ice time.”

Northeastern mixes up the Hockey East pecking order

Come playoff time last year, BU and No. 1 Boston College were firmly cemented as Hockey East’s top two seeds, with Northeastern University slotting into a distant third seed.

The Huskies (currently 20-4-1, 15-2 Hockey East) were promptly swept aside by the Terriers in the semifinal round, but the script has been reversed somewhat this year. As things stand, Northeastern sits in second place with 30 points and BU sits in third place with 24 points, shifting the status quo.

However, Durocher stressed that Northeastern’s stark improvement shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as the Huskies were a shell of themselves down the stretch. Forwards Hayley Scamurra, Paige Savage and Denisa Krizova all missed large chunks of time, but are now playing integral roles alongside senior Kendall Coyne.

With those components in mind, BU now has a six-point gap to make up down the stretch and is in danger of falling behind its crosstown rival.

“We knew last year they probably belonged up with the top three teams in this league, but maybe faded a little bit behind,” Durocher said. “But this year, everyone is healthy, they have a good team in place and it’s good for Hockey East. It’s good for them and certainly is a huge challenge for us coming up in the next number of games.”