By: Matthew Martin and Nicole Havens
The last time the Boston University women’s hockey team skated off of the ice after a game at the Walter Brown Arena, it was coming off a 2-1 loss to Northeastern University in the Hockey East Semifinal. This weekend the Terriers (0-1, 0-1 Hockey East) kicked off their 2017-18 season with an exhibition game against Concordia College and a loss against Merrimack College in the season opener.
Despite the exhibition game ending in a draw, BU head coach Brian Durocher said it was important for his team to get on the ice in a game situation.
“The kids got a chance to certainly welcome the new kids, get all three goalies to play [and] have an opportunity to sort of shake off the cobwebs,” Durocher said. “Now we’re going to turn right around and play for real tomorrow, but that was a real nice test.”
The Terriers found themselves behind on the scoreboard in the first period when Concordia’s (3-0) Devon Thompson got a shot past BU senior goaltender and assistant captain Erin O’Neil.
After a scoreless second period, senior forward and assistant captain Victoria Bach knotted the game up after converting on a power play just eight seconds into the third period. Senior forward and captain Rebecca Leslie found Bach after sophomore forward Natasza Tarnowski forced a turnover.
Later on in the period, senior forward Nina Rodgers found the back of the net to give BU a 2-1 lead at the 9:18 mark.
The Terriers lead was short lived as Concordia’s Sophie Gagnon snuck a shot past senior goaltender Ashlyn Aiello to even the score with less than eight minutes left in regulation for the game’s final score.
Durocher said that there are adjustments that would need to be made before starting the regular season.
“In the perfect world you’d like to have eliminated some of the real highs and lows,” Durocher said. “We gave up goals. We come out pretty good for seven [to] eight minutes, we go offside three times, those are mental errors and all of a sudden there and is no momentum anymore. Now they get a little bit of positive vibes and score a goal … we’ve got to eliminate those.”
The following afternoon against Merrimack (1-0, 1-0 Hockey East), BU started its first Hockey East game off strong.
After numerous shots at the net, junior transfer defenseman Reagan Rust scored her first goal of the season with 19 seconds remaining in the Terriers’ first power play.
Rust previously played for the Rochester Institute of Technology and was named a College Hockey America All-Rookie her freshman season.
“Reagan’s calling card is that she’s very competitive and she’s very athletic,” Durocher said. “She’s a kid who played a lot of forward in her life that I saw and then spent a couple years at defense in college hockey. So she comes here with experience.”
Penalties and increased pressure from the Warriors severely hurt BU as the second period ensued.
While the Terriers were unable to convert on their two power play chances, Merrimack forward Katelyn Rae found the back of the net halfway through the period to even the score.
After two penalties minutes apart, BU couldn’t survive a five-on-three as forward Megan Fergusson scored and gave Merrimack a 2-1 lead that it wouldn’t relinquish.
Despite having a lone power play chance in the final frame and putting up 11 shots, the Terriers were unable to tie up the game and went 1-for-4 on the power play for the contest.
Durocher said that the special teams especially the penalty kill is still a work in progress.
“On our end we, I think, worked pretty hard,” Durocher said. “We got a power play goal last night, we got a power play goal tonight and both nights had plenty of opportunities, loose pucks by the net and just didn’t get that one to go in.”
The Terriers will have 12 days off before they play rival Northeastern in a home-and-home series. Durocher said in that time his team will need to focus on its conditioning.
“We had a couple of captains’ practices and five skates and we played so we couldn’t really focus on conditioning,” Durocher said. “We were trying to be ready for this game. Now we’ve got a chance to work on conditioning, we’ve got a chance to get more people involved in penalty killing, power play, and just maybe look around at some different lines… [The break will] give us some time to do that.”
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