Sophomore forward Jenelle Kohanchuk took the ice for the Boston University women’s ice hockey team on Sunday after missing 10 games with a broken thumb.
Kohanchuk had not played since the last time the Terriers faced Boston College on Jan. 19. She had a pin removed from her hand on Feb. 22 and began skating with the team again two days later.
“I’ve been biking and running to get back in shape,” Kohanchuk said. “As far as skating, I just needed to get my hands back, of course, so it was a struggle and it still is. I’m just working on that overall.”
Considering the obstacles, Kohanchuk played a relatively strong game on Sunday, putting four shots on net and assisting on junior forward Jillian Kirchner’s goal. Before missing a pair of games to play for the Canadian National U-20 team, and before injuries spoiled her subsequent return, Kohanchuk led the Terriers in goals.
“She creates space, she’s got strength, she wins battles,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “She was probably at 65 or 70 percent today, but obviously it’s another bullet in the gun, so to speak, somebody with an awful lot of talent, and it gives us a little bit more to work with.”
While Kohanchuk was out, senior forward Melissa Anderson emerged as the indispensable offensive presence for the Terriers. Anderson and her linemates, junior Lauren Cherewyk and freshman Jill Cardella, have been responsible for picking up the slack.
Though Kohanchuk’s absence may have been more immediately noticeable on the score sheet, sophomore defenseman Tara Watchorn also missed a string of games from Nov. 27 to Jan. 10 due to a cyst on her foot.
Watchorn, Kohanchuk’s teammate on the Canadian U-20 team, leads all BU defensemen in scoring with 14 points. She has a plus-12 rating, which is the second best rating on the team after Anderson’s plus-14.
Right behind her in both of those categories is sophomore defenseman Kasey Boucher (12 points, plus-11 rating), who saw more ice time in Watchorn’s absence and has made significant progress in her game as a result.
In Sunday’s game, Boucher was most effective on the penalty kill, particularly a 5-on-3 in the second period that Durocher called the “turning point of the game,” which prevented BC from establishing any momentum.
She has been a remarkable defensive force for the Terriers in recent games, blocking a number of shots in each game and winning battles in BU’s zone to keep the puck away from senior goaltender Melissa Haber.
“We’ve got multiple defensemen back there who can go back, get a puck and whale it out of the zone,” Durocher said. “[Kasey Boucher]’s up there with anybody. She’s got great agility so she can handle the puck well and change directions, and she’s been a rock for us all through the season.
“While Tara was injured and then playing in the tournament with Canada, the ice time [Boucher] got was phenomenal, and she’s carried it right into the playoffs. In the third period today, we went down to five defensemen and put [senior forward] Melissa Tetreau up at forward, which meant more ice time for her and Tara, and they answered the call.
Just in time for the playoffs, the Terriers are back at nearly full strength, with Kohanchuk and Watchorn in the lineup and Anderson and Boucher continuing to play the best hockey of their BU careers. However, the Terriers are still hampered by the loss of junior forward Holly Lorms, a reliable scorer who suffered a neck injury on Feb. 20 against the University of Maine and is, she and her coach said, out for the rest of the season.
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