The Boston University women’s hockey team found itself down 1-0 in the best-of-three series to the University of New Hampshire, but bounced back and came out victorious to advance to the Hockey East semi-finals.
It was a scoreless first period in the opening game Friday night for both the Terriers (19-11-6, 12-8-4 Hockey East) and the Wildcats (14-19-2, 11-11-2 Hockey East), but New Hampshire took the lead at the start of the second period with a goal scored by junior Amy Schlagel, who managed to sneak the puck past the Terriers’ senior goalie Victoria Hanson.
Schlagel tallied her second goal of the evening at 12:45, placing the Terriers at a two-goal deficit heading into the final period.
“I [tip] my cap to the University of New Hampshire,” BU head coach Brian Durocher said. “They got themselves a couple of goals that were off of hard work.”
New Hampshire extended their lead once more to kick off the third period, as freshman Nicole Dunbar tallied a goal to set the score to 3-0.
With eight minutes left of play in the final period, graduate student forward Mary Parker scored the Terriers’ first goal with assists from freshman forward Deziray De Sousa and sophomore defenseman Connor Galway. This was followed by a goal from senior defenseman Alexis Crossley, assisted by senior forward Maddie Elia to narrow the deficit to one.
Hope was lost for the Terriers to tie up the game with the Wildcats’ fourth goal, securing the win for New Hampshire. With 41 seconds remaining in regulation, UNH converted a power play goal to bring the final score to 4-2.
“Shots were pretty even, but I thought [New Hampshire] was the more determined team,” Durocher said.
The Terriers sought revenge going into the second game of the series Saturday afternoon at Walter Brown Arena, and came out with a win to propel BU into the third and final round of the quarterfinal series scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
New Hampshire had the first goal at 5:40 as junior Carlee Toews opened the scoring.
Elia tied the game shortly after with a goal, but the Wildcats closed out the first period when Pelletier found the back of the net. BU had three times as many shots attempted as the Wildcats, yet fell behind at the end of the period with an extra puck in its net.
“Both games, at the beginning of the game, we outshot them,” Durocher said. “Sometimes you’ve got to get rewarded for all your hard work, and I don’t think that happened in this series very well up to this point.”
New Hampshire increased its lead on the Terriers just four minutes into the second period with a goal scored by Schlagel on a power play.
The Terriers returned with a goal of their own, with junior forward Rebecca Leslie capitalizing on a power play opportunity to bring the score to 3-2.
The Terriers tied up the game with a goal from Crossley. Just three minutes later, senior forward Samantha Sutherland scored a shorthanded goal, as Breanna Scarpaci and sophomore forward Sammy Davis paved the way for the forward to wrap up the game with a 4-3 victory over the Wildcats.
“I think we played a pretty sound period,” Durocher said. “I’d probably rate the first, the second and the third in that order even though we scored two goals [in the third period], but that’s how it happens sometimes when you’re fighting and scratching to play another game.”
The teams met for the third and final time Sunday afternoon, looking to secure the second victory needed to win the Hockey East quarterfinal series.
The Wildcats got the scoring underway just 17 seconds into the first period. Sutherland then got the momentum back on BU’s side, tying up the score on a power play.
Leslie stole the lead for the Terriers with help from Elia and Crossley 30 seconds later, wrapping up the scoring for the first period.
“The first goal they got was not one that we’re used to giving up,” Durocher said. “It all of a sudden put us on our heels, but we answered.”
Pelletier scored her second goal of the game quickly into the second period to knot up the score. The period was characterized by a series of power plays for New Hampshire, yet the Terriers stood strong and successfully killed all three penalties.
BU took the lead for the last time when Leslie scored on a power play to win the game for the Terriers and complete the comeback.
“It was a really long time coming,” Leslie said. “We worked really hard this series, and it didn’t go our way the first [few games]. It was about time that our power play was successful.”
