The hump hasn’t gotten any easier to get over for the Boston University women’s ice hockey team.
Beating nationally-ranked teams is not easy, especially for a program that’s three years-old and has two seniors on its roster, but the Terriers (12-15-3, 8-8-1 Hockey East) put a conference playoff spot in jeopardy with two more losses this weekend. BU fell to the No. 8 University of Connecticut (20-5-5, 11-3-3) at Freitas Ice Forum, 2-1, in the final seconds of overtime Saturday and lost again at Walter Brown Arena on Sunday, 4-2.
Saturday’s game was a bitter loss for the Terriers. The Huskies opened the scoring on a power play at 10:08 of the second period, when junior Samantha Reid scored with assists from sophomore forward Dominique Thibault (six points this weekend) and junior Nicole Tritter. Nearly a minute later, BU tied the game with another power-play goal. Junior Laurel Koller netted the equalizer, with assists from junior Amanda Shaw and senior Julie Poulin.
“I feel like we gave a point away,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “No disrespect to the University of Connecticut, but it was a fairly elementary situation that we just completely disintegrated on and allowed them to have someone standing right in front of the net with 35 seconds left.”
“We took them to overtime; we were looking for at least one point in that,” said junior co-captain Gina Kearns. “A breakdown defensively and they get an overtime goal. We would have liked to get that one back. We kind of gave them those two points.”
Saturday was a defensive game, and the teams kept the score tied until overtime. The scoring drought ended, however, with 36 seconds left in the extra session, when sophomore Amy Hollenstien scored for the Huskies with assists from senior Jaclyn Hawkins and Thibault.
The Terriers needed to regroup in preparation for Sunday’s game. Both teams came out of the gate strong. The first period went back and forth, with each team swapping chances and extended possessions in the offensive zone. But despite playing well in the first, BU fell in an early two-goal hole.
The first goal came off a rebound when Thibault had an open shot in the slot. Junior goaltender Allyse Wilcox made the initial save, but the rebound ended up in front of the net and Hawkins banged it home. Two minutes later, Thibault slid the puck to Hawkins in the back of net and then she made a wraparound bid that beat Wilcox five-hole.
“I felt like we were playing pretty well,” Durocher said about the first period. “But then we find a way to not quite clear a puck, not quite clear the zone on the back part of a power play.”
BU battled back and scored on a power play at the end of the period. During a power play, Kearns passed to sophomore Melissa Anderson down low and she cut to the net. Anderson then deked a poke check from Reid and slid a perfect tape-to-tape pass to a streaking Kearns, who buried a one-timer.
The Terriers continued to battle and evened the score in the second period with another power-play goal when freshman Lauren Cherewyk received a pass from freshman Jillian Kirchner in front of the net for an easy one-timer.
After the goal, however, Thibault ruined any chance of a BU comeback, notching a power-play goal at 10:58 of the second. Thibault put the game out of reach in the third period, when she set up in the high slot for an open shot. The power forward let loose a rocket of a slap shot that sniped the top corner of Wilcox’s glove side.
“Their big players played extremely well,” Durocher said. “We weren’t there to match [Thibault and Hawkins], and the rest of their team fights and scratches and claws real hard. I compliment them for the win.”
In spite of the team’s difficulties against top teams, BU is still in a position to make the playoffs. They are sitting one point ahead of rival Boston College for the fourth and final Hockey East playoff spot with an upcoming two-game series against the Eagles this weekend. With only four games left, the series will be pivotal in deciding both teams’ playoff fates.
“It’ll be pretty easy to leave this weekend behind,” Kearns said. “We let four points get away, and there’s four points up for grabs against BC. It’s always easy to get up for BC.”
“If we have competitors at all, we’ll regroup as far as effort and conviction and energy,” Durocher said.