You can’t score goals if you don’t take shots – something the Boston University women’s ice hockey team must have picked up after this weekend. In a two game-weekend, the Terriers dropped an away game to Providence College, 4-0 on Saturday, and a home game in a tough overtime loss to the University of Connecticut, 1-0, on Sunday.
Between the pair of games, BU was outshot, 77-30, by its opponents – leading directly to being shut out in consecutive games for the first time this season.
“There wasn’t much there on offense,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “We didn’t recognize when to change from defense to offense.”
The Terriers could only muster up a mere 10 shots on goal against Providence, the Hockey East defending champs. The Friars, on the other hand, pelted 42 shots on BU’s backup goalie Karilyn Pilch, who had an outstanding game in net despite the four goals.
“Karilyn played extremely well,” Durocher said. “It was great to have her come back and play well after a few rough outings.”
Providence wasted little time in getting on the board, as senior forward Ashley Payton tipped in a shot from junior defenseman Kristin Gigliotti at 12:28 into the first period. The goal was also assisted by senior forward Karen Thatcher.
The Friars notched three more goals in the second period to put the game out of reach. Starting at 11:18 of the second frame, sophomore forward Jenna Keilch netted a rebound to make the lead 2-0. Just 41 seconds later, Gigliotti scored a goal of her own – this time assisted by Payton and Thatcher.
Finally, with four seconds remaining in the period, sophomore forward Rachel Crissy found the back of the net to put the Friars up 4-0, a lead that stuck.
“Providence played a marginal game [on Thursday] against the University of Vermont,” Durocher said. “So for us, they brought what was pretty close to their ‘A’ game.”
The Friars capitalized on a few BU penalties during the game, which ultimately proved to be the deciding factor.
“I give a lot of credit to Providence,” Durocher said. “They’re an experienced team, a veteran team and actually a very deep team.”
Sunday, the Terriers were hoping to return to their winning ways by coming home to face UConn at Walter Brown Arena, where they had not lost a regular-season game in their short history.
The game was a back and forth battle that was marked by penalties for the entire 60 minutes of regulation. But the Terriers were unable to pull out the victory in the intensely physical match-up, eventually falling in overtime.
The Terriers’ best scoring chance came late in the third period after UConn freshman defenseman Brianna Uliasz went into the penalty box for tripping at 18:41. Being on the power play for the remainder of regulation, BU pelted UConn goalie Kaitlyn Shain to no avail, even knocking one off the crossbar.
“[What hurt us most] was that we didn’t get one in,” Durocher said. “We hit the crossbar late, but we didn’t quite finish it – it wasn’t for lack of effort though.”
“That shot towards the end that ran off the crossbar really hurt,” said junior captain Cara Hendry.
The overtime period was more of the same until BU’s freshman defenseman Emily Schwarz committed a tripping penalty at 2:34. The Huskies wasted no time in capitalizing on the advantage – just four seconds later, UConn slid one past BU goalie Allyse Wilcox to notch its first road win of the season.
It was the first shot to make it past Wilcox, after she’d denied the 34 before it.
“She was huge for us,” Hendry said. “She made some great saves and definitely kept us in the game.”
Wilcox, who has been the backbone of this young team all season, leads Hockey East in saves, with 357.
“She played excellent,” Durocher said. “Obviously there was no way for her to stop that last play. She was once again a nice backbone for us.”
Although some good can be taken from the game, the Terriers still have dropped six of their last seven games. They dropped to second in Hockey East this weekend, and in order to maintain that, they’re going to need to get back on track – and fast.
“We just need to fire shots,” Hendry said. “We did better today than last game, but we need to fire more shots.”
“We need to score some more goals,” Durocher said. “The last four games we haven’t really gotten one.”
BU will have a full week to prepare for a two-game set at home against Robert Morris University Nov. 26 and 27, where it looks to regain its Walter Brown dominance.