The Boston University women’s hockey team secured a 6-1 victory over Merrimack College on Saturday afternoon, completing its home-and-home series sweep. During the matchup, senior forward Victoria Bach collected her 184th career point, breaking the BU program record.
The Terriers (10-13-6, 6-10-5 Hockey East), clad in pink jerseys for their Skating Strides Against Breast Cancer game, trounced the Warriors’ (9-17-3, 4-13-2 Hockey East) penalty kill in the first period.
BU scored goals on both of its power play opportunities, the first coming from Bach 2:04 into the contest and the other from freshman forward Nara Elia, following a hooking call midway through the period.
To the Terriers’ head coach Brian Durocher, the key to BU profiting off the power plays was outnumbering Merrimack’s defense at the net.
“You move the puck around the perimeter, and if the puck is on the right side, that means the left side is the weak side, so you should be getting to the net to give you least three there, and I think on both goals we did that,” Durocher said.
A power-play goal was not the only thing Bach will be celebrating following the Terriers’ win.
After tallying two goals and one assist on the night, Bach now has 185 career points and is officially the record-holder for most points ever scored by a BU women’s hockey player in the program’s history.
This comes on the heels of Thursday night’s win at Merrimack, where Bach scored two goals to brought her total for the season to 30.
Durocher attributes Bach’s success to more than mere talent.
“When you have that type of good fortune, the right type of bounces and the right teammates and line mates, it’s a great credit to her and the talent and work ethic she has,” Durocher said.
BU’s two power-play goals provided the beginnings of a six-goal onslaught, interrupted by the Warriors’ lone goal, scored by forward Paige Voight during the team’s second power play of the game.
The Terriers’ dominant play kept the puck in the team’s possession for the majority of the game, giving Merrimack little room to gain a foothold.
BU’s 41 shots on net dwarfed Merrimack’s 18 shots that it was able to get at BU freshman goaltender Corinne Schroeder.
Schroeder earned her 10th career win for the Terriers, and in the last six games Schroeder has started for the Terriers, she has only suffered one loss.
Adding a goal to each of their counts for the season were sophomore defenseman Abbey Stanley, senior forward Rebecca Leslie and sophomore defenseman Abby Cook. Freshman forward Kristina Schuler added three assists to bring her total to eight for the season.
Durocher said he was not surprised by his team’s success.
“We made a nice team look pretty average this weekend, and that’s what you need to do sometimes if you’re going to be a championship team and if you’re going to continue to have success,” Durocher said. “I, all along, have told people I believe in this team. I know we’re maybe not as talented as we’ve been in some of the past years, but there’s still plenty of talent here, and there’s been a good leadership group in the seniors.”
BU only has five games left in the regular season: two Beanpot games and three Hockey East matchups.
According to Durocher, the Terriers are focused on working hard both in practice and during their last handful of games, in order to maintain momentum to help them perform well as the season nears its end.
Durocher said he believes his team headed in the right direction.
“I think with the injuries, people getting healthy and little adjustments made here and there, we’re starting to be hard to play against,” Durocher said.
