Beanpot consolation game bittersweet for BU women

The Boston University women’s hockey team will face Boston College in the Beanpot consolation game Tuesday night at 5 p.m in what could be a bit of a disappointment after the excitement of the Terriers’ first-round matchup.

In their semifinal game against No. 9 Northeastern University, the Terriers (11-8-10, 7-6-4-2) rallied from an early four-goal deficit to tie the game and force overtime, but eventually lost in a shootout. In the other semifinal, the Eagles (5-15-9, 4-9-4-4) fell to Harvard University, 5-0,
At this point in the season, with only four regular-season games remaining for BU, the team may be tempted to look past this contest to the upcoming weekend when it plays Northeastern for crucial conference points. But BU coach Brian Durocher said the team intends to treat this as just another game, despite the relatively low stakes.

“Unfortunately, we both wish we were playing in the 8:00 game, not the 5:00 game, so there’s an element of letdown for both sides,” Durocher said. “But because it’s BU-BC, and it’s a hockey game we both want to win, I think the ladies will put forth the effort. It may be slow at the start, but I think as the game goes on they’ll start to really get into it.”

The Terriers’ play has been inconsistent of late. They have been impressive for short stretches, including the four unanswered goals they scored to take Northeastern to a shootout. But such a comeback was only necessary because they allowed four unanswered goals in the game’s first 25 minutes.

More recently, against the No. 6 University of New Hampshire, BU came away with a somewhat lucky 5-2 victory despite registering only nine shots all game.

Part of the reason for their success in that game was senior goaltender Melissa Haber, who withstood an early UNH onslaught to keep the Terriers in the game. Haber finished the game with 33 saves, 29 more than UNH junior goalie Kayley Herman. When Haber is on top of her game, the Terriers are a tough team for any opponent to beat.

“Melissa’s had a wonderful career here,” Durocher said. “Every time we’ve called on her, she’s been fantastic. In the last couple of weeks there’s been a few times she’s played a little deep in her net, and we worked on it for a day or two, and then she was at the top of the crease being assertive and aggressive again. When she does that, she can play with anybody in college hockey.”

Haber has fared well against the Eagles so far this year, allowing only two goals in three contests and picking up her record-tying seventh career shutout against BC on Nov. 18. Then again, most opponents have fared well against the Eagles this year &- they are currently on a seven-game losing streak, and have not won in regulation since they shut out the No. 7 University of Connecticut, 4-0, on Nov. 15.

Going into a relatively unimportant game against a struggling opponent, Durocher said the main thing on the Terriers’ minds is putting together their first winning streak of the year.

“Everybody knows in this program we haven’t done it yet this year. We’ve had three, four, five-game unbeaten streaks, so it’s a bit of a funny situation, but now is the time to get a little bit of that feeling. You want to rattle a few wins off on the way into the playoffs. And once you’re in the playoffs, you get three wins and you can be the team holding the Hockey East trophy.”