Home cooking can only last so long. The No. 9 Boston University women’s hockey team commences their 2009 road schedule with two weekend dates against the Warriors of Wayne State University.
As any long-standing BU fan will tell you, this is the first meeting between these two teams in the storied histories of the programs.
Meeting for the first time on Friday in Detroit, the Terriers know they have to make some slight adjustments because The Motor City is no home away from home.
‘You have to learn to play on the road,’ BU coach Brian Durocher said. ‘You have to cope with the travel and emotional shifts with the crowd.
‘You have to do the little things,’ he said.
Wayne State, Michigan’s only urban public research university, began the season with a 3-2 loss at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute followed by a scoreless tie against the Engineers the following day.
Freshman phenoms Genia Buquet, who has tallied two points in the two games, and Julie Hebert, who has notched one point, have led the Warriors this year. This is a squad that lost their four top scorers and 11 letter winners from a year ago. The 2009 team is stocked with hungry underclassmen ready to take the reigns.
The Terriers are coming off a tumultuous 4-3 victory against Robert Morris University. Senior co-captain Sarah Appleton and sophomore Kasey Boucher combined for three goals as the Terriers took a commanding 3-0 lead heading into the final period. However, in a six-minute span, Robert Morris scored three goals to knot the game at three apiece. Luckily for the Terriers, junior Lauren Cherewyk swooped in for the game-winning goal with 23.7 seconds left to salvage the victory.
Overtime has been nothing new for these female skaters as all three games this season have been extended beyond the usual 60 minutes.
‘These are learning experiences,’ Durocher said. ‘Hopefully we have learned to protect the lead in the third period.’
With that said, other than freshman goaltender Alissa Fromkin making her collegiate debut, do not expect to see a new Terriers hockey team when the puck drops on Friday.
‘We are not going to do anything differently,’ Durocher said. ‘We just need to do a better job of scoring on power plays and tightening up the special teams.’
In order to maintain that lofty No. 9 ranking, the Terriers are going to have to do a better job with the penalty kill as well – at 68.4 percent, BU ranks second worst in the nation behind Colgate University.
Though the season, chock-full of blown leads and missed opportunities, has not had the ideal beginning, there has been a fair share of bright points.
‘We are playing very well 5-on-5,’ Durocher said. ‘We have had good balance in scoring and have a number of points from the blue line.’
Pacing the Terrier attack are Boucher, who notched her first ever goals in the victory over Robert Morris, junior Jillian Kirchner, freshman Jill Cardella and Cherewyk with three points apiece.
While Wayne State does not represent a conference game, non-conference wins could stand to be crucial come tournament time.
‘These games could be a big determining factor on who gets in,’ Durocher said. ‘It is important to keep building up wins.’
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