At home, on the road, against conference opponents or not, everything has gone the No. 4/5 Boston University women’s ice hockey team’s way in the last few weeks, and Tuesday was a continuation of that pattern.
The Terriers rode a triad of unanswered goals and stellar goaltending to a 3-0 win over No. 10 Northeastern University at Walter Brown Arena.
Freshman goalie Kerrin Sperry recorded her second straight shutout and the third of her career, and BU’s (13-2-3, 5-1-3 Hockey East) two leading scorers, freshman forward Marie-Philip Poulin and junior forward Jenn Wakefield, both scored in the third period to secure the win.
Northeastern (10-4-4, 3-3-3) junior goalie Florence Schelling, who ranks fourth in HE in goals-against average with 1.78, made 37 saves and kept her team in the game through the first two periods. BU led narrowly in shots, 13-10, through the first frame, but neither team could score.
Senior forward and team captain Holly Lorms broke the stalemate seven minutes into the second, redirecting a shot from junior defenseman Kasey Boucher on the power play. The Terrier power play, ranked first in Hockey East with a 21.8 percent conversion rate, has produced a goal in each of the last four games and went 1-for-2 on Tuesday.
After a slow start to the third period, Poulin made the lead 2-0, carrying the puck in from the blue line, faking a shot to Schelling’s glove side and then beating her on the blocker side. The goal gave the Terriers a chance to regroup from what could have been a problematic drop in energy in the first few minutes of the third.
“I wasn’t overly excited about the first five, six minutes of the period,” Durocher said. “I almost called my timeout, even after [Poulin] made it 2-0. We had one shift or two more but I tried to get everybody’s attention on the bench. . . From there, I think we ended up [outshooting Northeastern] 13-1 or 13-2 in the last 13 minutes, after we had a little quick chat on the bench, so hats off for them to rally and protect the puck and play much better in the last 13, 14 minutes.”
As BU picked up the pace, Wakefield delivered the final blow to the Huskies with less than four minutes left. Sophomore forward Taylor Holze found her at the top of the right circle, and she fired over Schelling’s shoulder for her team-leading 14th goal of the year.
“Some of our high-end kids did some nice things, obviously,” Durocher said. “Not everybody in this league can hit that top corner with that slap shot that Jenn did, or make the play that Marie-Philip made, and if you take one of those away it’s anybody’s ballgame if Northeastern can score one. To get two great efforts like that, you don’t find that too often.”
Northeastern is in a three-way tie for third place in the conference with University of Connecticut and No. 8 Providence College, as second-place BU moved within one point of first-place No. 6 Boston College with the win.
The Terriers are now on a five-game winning streak, their longest since they won six straight between Oct. 3 and Oct. 23. Except for an uncharacteristic 6-3 loss to BC on Nov. 20, they have not yet been defeated in conference play. With Tuesday’s win, they’ve put a comfortable margin of four points between themselves and the third-place teams, with one game – against Harvard University on Friday – left to play before winter break.
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