By: Lily Betts and Kyle Patterson
The Boston University women’s ice hockey team dropped their fourth game in a row 4-2 to the University of Maine on Friday afternoon at the Alfond Arena, but returned home and got their first win of the season against the University of Connecticut.
While looking for their first win of the season on Friday against Maine (5-2, 1-0 Hockey East), the Terriers (1-4, 1-4 Hockey East) kept the board scoreless for the first 13 minutes of play.
However, the Black Bears then went on to score twice in 49 seconds.
“We have enough talent to be solid, we just need to be thorough,” BU head coach Brian Durocher said. “We let someone come up the middle of the rink, which is a cardinal rule not to break, and then before we could get our feet on the ground, we had a physical error and the opposing player was on a breakaway, leaving us 2-0.”
Maine put another point on the board before freshman forward Nara Elia found the back of the net, assisted by freshman forward Kristina Schuler.
This was the second goal the freshmen duo have fed to each other this season.
Senior forward and assistant captain Victoria Bach broke past four Maine players and narrowed the Black Bears’ lead to 3-2 at 7:18 in the third period.
In the final seconds of the game, senior goaltender Erin O’Neil, who made a total of 31 saves, took to the bench, which allowed Maine defenseman Alyson Matteau to slide in an empty-netter for her third point of the night.
The Terriers had until Sunday to regroup, before facing off against UConn (3-3-1, 0-2-1 Hockey East) and Durocher stressed the team needing to capitalize offensively.
“There’s possibly some frustration that we haven’t been scoring more goals, but if you look at our games, we’ve been scoring enough goals to win,” Durocher said. “Again, we need to make sure we’re very thorough and are taking advantage of opportunities.”
BU did just that and pulled out a 6-2 win against the Huskies, which was a much needed morale booster for the team.
“Across the board everyone played with good energy and good discipline,” Durocher said.
UConn obtained an early lead when sophomore forward Catherine Crawley found the back of the net, but it was short lived as Elia responded with a power-play goal at 10:14. Bach followed shortly after with a shorthanded goal at 11:32 and UConn responded with an aggressive attack, but BU’s freshman goaltender Corinne Schroeder made many saves.
Durocher was particularly complimentary of the defense.
“All six our defenders played solid and played well positionally.” said Durocher.
However, UConn’s Leah Lum slipped one in on a power-play at 6:59 in the second period, tying the game 2-2.
BU immediately fired back with senior forward captain Rebecca Leslie sliding the puck through the bars on a wraparound halfway through the second period, scoring her first goal of the regular season.
The period concluded with the score at 3-2.
BU returned in the third period just as aggressive. Leslie opened up the period her second goal of the game while fellow forward Nina Rodgers also saw the back of the net at 4:47 in the third period.
Leslie eventually capped off the game with another goal with less than three minutes remaining. The final score was 6-2 BU.
Although Durocher said he is excited for the win, he already has his eyes set for next week’s matchup against Boston College at home.
“We’ve just gotta bring it again,” Durocher said “We’ve gotta match them and keep our composure.”