Undisciplined penalties, a lack of offense and bad luck doomed the Terriers as they fell to St. Cloud State 5-0 on Friday and 3-1 on Saturday.
Sophomore goaltender Melissa Haber got the start on Friday while junior Allyse Wilcox was in net for the second.
BU (2-8-2, 0-2-0 Hockey East) got a chance on the power play a minute into Friday’s game when freshman Diana Karouzos was called for interference. After a week of practice that emphasized improving special teams play, the Terriers could still not capitalize on a power play, finishing 0-8 with the man advantage.
Meanwhile, the Terriers couldn’t stay out of the sin bin or keep the Huskies out of the net. After St. Cloud sophomore Caitlin Hogan made it 1-0 at 9:18 of the first, sophomore Melissa Anderson took a cross-checking penalty while in the offensive zone at 10:23. During the power play, St. Cloud senior captain Laura Fast took a shot on Haber, who lost the rebound in the crease. Junior Sammy Nixon collected the loose puck and banged it home.
“Part of the situation is we didn’t get any bounces tonight and they probably made a couple of bounces and the score is 5-0,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “I don’t think the game was quite that lopsided or that we didn’t work, but again we didn’t get any breaks or generate enough breaks to get ourselves back in the game.”
At 8:31 of the first, Durocher called a timeout to get the team back on track after St. Cloud (7-4-3, 4-4-2 WCHA) had been dominating. It didn’t work, as the Huskies scored again on the power play at 14:01 of the second to make the score 3-0. The game was all but over before St. Cloud added two more goals to make the final score 5-0.
“It gets frustrating when they win two or three or four battles in a row and you’re almost out of the zone, and all of a sudden it’s back down your throat,” Durocher said.
The Terriers came out much stronger in the second game of the series, with two early power plays where the puck never left the offensive zone. They made smart decisions and were able to move the puck with quick, crisp passes that prevented the Huskies from clearing the zone. It paid off a minute into the second advantage when junior Amanda Shaw took a pass from senior Julie Poulin and took a slap shot from the point that junior Gina Kearns was able to tip in for the goal.
“We were moving the puck around well,” said junior co-captain Sarah Russell. “They didn’t pressure us a lot in the beginning. We were making good passes and I think maybe we started to get a little nervous at the end of the game and started getting tight. We didn’t move the puck around well.”
BU clamped down on the penalty kill and expired all eight St. Cloud power plays. The Terriers used a more aggressive defense than the passive box that they have deployed before. The forwards forechecked hard to help break the play up in the neutral zone and applied pressure at the point to prevent the Huskies from moving the puck in the zone.
The Terriers held a one-goal lead after two periods but lost it in the final period. During a BU power play, Fast took a shot on Wilcox and the rebound bounced to the other side of the net. Husky sophomore Holly Roberts raced around the net, collected the loose puck on the other side of Wilcox and snuck it by her to tie the game.
Two minutes later, Husky forward junior Sammy Nixon tipped the puck past a BU defender and raced down the ice on a 2-on-1 break. Poulin played the shot and skated over to defend Nixon, but snuck a pass to Hogan, who beat Wilcox with a clear path to the net.
“We just made a couple of small mistakes and they capitalized on them,” Durocher said. “It’s a credit to them but again we have to find a way to graduate to winning hockey games.”
The Terriers finished their seven-game home stand with three straight losses. With only two wins on the season, they are starting to feel a sense of urgency.
“We’re definitely not happy with how it’s gone so far,” Russell said. “It’s been frustrating but we’re hoping that our experience playing these better teams will help us out when we get to the Hockey East games and we’ll have more success.”