Ice Hockey, Sports

BU women’s hockey short of wins, plagued by penalties

Senior forward Victoria Bach leads the nation in goals. PHOTO BY MADDIE MALHOTRA/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Saturday’s loss against No. 8 Providence College marked the ninth loss of the season for the Boston University women’s hockey team, and brings into question the team’s outlook going forward.

It is more than halfway through the season for the Terriers (7-9-3, 3-7-3 Hockey East), and despite numerous close matchups and overtime showings, the team has had difficulty translating many of those match ups into wins.

BU got off to a fairly rough start at the beginning of the season, having lost its first four games. The Terriers were able to break their spell with a win against Hockey East conference opponent the University of Connecticut.

The team as a whole has generally been on the uptick since them, but there still exists difficulties with putting wins on the board.

“We put ourselves in a hole early in the season with our over record,” BU head coach Brian Durocher said. “The last 11 to 12 games we have been pretty solid in every game, but we’re still not getting over the hump quite as much as we’d like.”

The Terriers have seen many of their successes out of conference, with four of their seven wins coming from teams outside of Hockey East conference wins.

However, inside the conference BU has struggled to find its footing.

The Terriers currently rank No. 6 in Hockey East, ahead of schools such as the University of Vermont and UConn (4-7-7, 0-6-4 Hockey East), but trailing behind local rivals like Northeastern University and No. 2 Boston College.

Durocher said there are not any glaring areas of weakness that he can pinpoint on the team’s difficulties, believing that the team has been working hard, but has not seen that work reflected in their record.

He did comment that the the team has drawn more penalties over the season than to his liking, and he said that he believes it is an area where the team has to be more disciplined.

The team’s high penalty count, 4.4 per game, has hobbled them throughout the course of the season.

This was especially evident in Saturday’s matchup against Providence (11-5-4, 8-1-2 Hockey East), where the Friars swept the floor in the first period, leaving the ice with three goals under their belt. Of those goals, two came from power plays that had been granted as a result of BU penalties.

“I don’t think we’ve done a great job on penalties this year, and that’s simple stuff we can get better at,” Durocher said.

Freshman Corinne Schroeder strong in first season between the pipes

Starting goaltender Corinne Schroeder, despite being only a freshman, has shown to be formidable in the net.

She has started 12 games throughout the season, and in those games has made many saves and has a goal save percentage of .923.
On more than one occasion, Schroeder’s performance has directly affected the outcome of the game. Such was the case in the Terriers’ matchup against the University of New Hampshire, where Schroeder clocked in a total of 42 saves.

The game ended in a 2-2 tie, but the outcome would have been much less favorable for BU if not for Schroeder’s performance.

Several stand out players help elevate the team

Just as much talent has come on the other side of the ice as well. Two players that come to mind are senior forwards Victoria Bach and Rebecca Leslie.
Throughout the year, Bach and Leslie have proven to be a force to be reckoned with, as both players lead the team in goals by far, each boasting 23 and 15 goals, respectively. With this high goal count comes some impressive streaks.

The Providence game marked the 10th game in a row in which both players put points on the board. During this streak, Bach put up 18 goals and nine assists while Leslie collected nine goals and 16 assists.

Bach not only leads the Terriers in goals, but also leads the team in hat-tricks with three, which she obtained in the team’s matchups against Yale University, Minnesota State University and Vermont (5-12-3, 3-8-2 Hockey East).

Bach would then go on to score an additional goal and notch an assist in the first Vermont game, scoring a total of four goals in that matchup.

“Rebecca Leslie and Victoria Bach had tremendous first halves here,” Durocher said. “They always play hard, fight hard.”

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