The No. 8 Boston University women’s hockey team will be set on revenge when it travels to Chestnut Hill to face Commonwealth Avenue rival Boston College Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Kelley Rink.
The Terriers (5-4-5, 3-3-1 Hockey East) are looking to avenge an early season loss that they suffered at the claws of these same Eagles (4-3-5, 3-2-3).
‘It’s a game we’re excited about,’ BU coach Brian Durocher said. ‘[There’s some] payback involved. We have to play a real solid game, and we’re really excited and energized about playing BC. We want to even the season series at one.’
On Nov. 2, BU hosted BC in its conference home opener at Walter Brown Arena, but freshman BC forward Ashley Motherwell’s goal early in the third period broke a 1-1 deadlock on the way to securing the Eagles’ 2-1 win. BU outshot BC, 28-16, but the difference in shots was not a clear description of the game, according to Durocher.
The last two meetings between the two teams have resulted in BC victories. Before the Nov. 2 game, the Terriers and the Eagles met in last year’s Hockey East Tournament semifinals where the Eagles narrowly escaped with a 3-2 win.
BU is coming off a 6-2 loss on the road to Providence College Sunday afternoon, while BC hopes to carry the momentum it gained in its 4-0 Sunday victory over the University of Connecticut into the game.
On offense, the Terriers are led by sophomore forward Jenelle Kohanchuk, whose 10 goals are tied for second in the country. Senior forward Melissa Anderson, who set the program record with her 103rd career point on Nov. 11, leads the team with nine assists and is tied for second with 13 points. Freshman sensation Jill Cardella has scored seven goals in her first 14 games as a Terrier, trailing Kohanchuk by three goals for the team lead in this category.
Senior goaltender Melissa Haber has a 5-3-3 record in 11 games in net. She has made 258 saves in 658 minutes in between the pipes, posting a 0.899 save percentage. Haber recorded her first shutout of the season in BU’s 4-0 rout over the University of Vermont last Wednesday.
BC will rely on senior forward Allie Thunstrom (8 goals, 3 assists), Motherwell (2 goals, 5 assists) and sophomore Mary Restuccia (2 goals, 5 assists) to provide the offense for an Eagles’ team that has barely outscored its opponents this season, 24-23.
In goal for the Eagles will be freshman Corinne Boyles, who was recently named Hockey East Co-Rookie of the Week. She was awarded the honor this week after her 42-save performance against UConn. On Nov. 2, the Terriers forced Boyles to make 27 saves, but they only found the back of the net once in that game.
‘She’s been one of the top performers for BC,’ Durocher said on Boyles’ play this season. ‘She’s done a fantastic job. When that’s the case, we have to shoot pucks at off angles, set screens, fight for loose pucks and put away rebounds. We have to score early first period goals and find some luck as the game goes on.’
BC is currently in third-place in the Hockey East standings with 10 points, while BU is fifth with eight points, setting up for a big conference showdown at Kelley Rink Wednesday.
‘It’s a real big game for us,’ Durocher said. ‘We let some points slip away in the league and overall. We have to start finishing games in the third period. We are what we are. We’re 5-4-5, and we have to go out [tomorrow] and get the win and move forward.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
