It has been a tough week for Boston University hockey against Merrimack College. While the men’s team was swept in their series, the women’s team followed suit, losing 4-1 on Saturday in North Andover.
The Warriors (9-17-3, 5-14 Hockey East) played physical defense and kept offensive pressure on the Terriers (13-9-5, 8-8-4 Hockey East) throughout the entire game.
“The easier answer is that we didn’t take care of business as far as scoring goals, or we weren’t able to score goals,” said BU head coach Brian Durocher. “We had some opportunities, but I felt like we had a lot of crossing passes that didn’t connect [and] maybe some deliveries from the point that didn’t get to the net.”
Freshman Mikyla Grant-Mentis, who has the most points for Merrimack, opened the scoring for the Warriors, as she netted a goal less than six minutes into the first period.
BU responded almost 10 minutes later with a goal of its own.
During BU’s first power play of the game, senior forward Samantha Sutherland passed to senior forward Maddie Elia, who fed it to junior forward Victoria Bach with a quick backhanded pass. Bach was then able to score the team’s lone goal of the game right in front of the crease.
Bach’s power play goal marked the sixth point Bach and Sutherland have registered in their three meetings this season against the Warriors.
“[Victoria Bach] along with [graduate student forward] Mary Parker have been two highly consistent people throughout the year,” Durocher said. “She’s gotta consistently be [an] offensive threat for us along with probably four, five or six other kids on this team, and she has been certainly the last 20-plus games.”
As the game progressed into the final two periods, BU’s offense was shut down by Merrimack goaltender Léa-Kristine Demers, who saved 36 shots to keep the Terriers at just one goal for the night.
Though the first half of the second period included the Terriers’ best play of the night, the second half proved the opposite.
At 10:48, Grant-Mentis got a hold of the puck and scored the first of three unanswered goals.
Exactly 10 seconds later, Grant-Mentis was able to capitalize off a loose puck after a face-off, pushing the Warriors’ lead to 3-1. The three goals gave the freshman the first hat trick of her career.
“It seemed like a harmless situation, and all of the sudden there’s a loose puck,” Durocher said. “So a 1-1 game with us playing our best turns into a 3-1 deficit. We couldn’t get that second goal to really put pressure on them and get ourselves momentum to get back in it.”
Merrimack forward Katelyn Rae sealed the victory in the last minutes of the final frame, as she broke through the Terriers’ power play advantage and scored an empty-net goal.
While the win proved beneficial to Merrimack, as they moved past Maine in the Hockey East rankings, BU still stands in third place. However, University of New Hampshire and University of Vermont are now tied for fourth and just one point behind BU.
One word that Durocher preaches is consistency, yet this game was full of inconsistency.
In order to perform at BU’s best at the upcoming Beanpot Tournament against Boston College, Durocher believes consistency is essential.
“Against Boston College, we’re gonna have to get the puck up quick, not try to walk by people in the middle of the rink, but commit to getting it deep [and] making them go the full length of the rink before they threat,” Durocher said.
