Following a record-breaking performance against University of Vermont on Jan. 22, freshman forward Marie-Philip Poulin of the No. 3 Boston University women’s hockey team was named Hockey East Rookie of the Week. She was also named BU Student-Athlete of the Week.
Poulin earned the honor, her fifth of the season, on the strength of a hat trick in the Terriers’ 4-0 win against the Catamounts. Her third goal tied the single-season goals record of 21, set last year by Melissa Anderson, and gave her 41 points for another new program record.
Since her arrival in Boston this fall, Poulin has stood out as one of the most dominant players in college hockey, let alone the most impressive freshman in Hockey East. She leads BU with a plus-24 rating and ranks first in power play points, with 14. Her seven power-play goals are the second-most in the nation.
In her last five games, Poulin has also won 77-of-110 face-offs for a 70 percent success rate. Her nine blocked shots are third among BU forwards, after junior Jenn Wakefield and freshman Louise Warren, and her 21 goals account for 23 percent of BU’s overall scoring this season.
The road ahead
In the remaining three weeks of the regular season, the Terriers will face five Hockey East teams with a combined overall record of 59-51-13. (With the addition of Harvard University, a possible opponent in the second round of the Beanpot, that number changes to 69-58-15.) Out of those five definite opponents, only two – No. 8 Boston College and Northeastern University – have winning records, and only BC is nationally ranked.
That’s no reason to believe that the Terriers will coast to the end of the season, however. Before this weekend, the only Hockey East team they had not defeated was last-place University of Vermont, owners of a 4-13-9 overall record and a 1-9-4 conference mark. Two ties against the Catamounts on Nov. 12 and 13, followed by a loss to BC on Nov. 21, mark the longest winless stretch of the season for BU.
A 4-0 win over Vermont on Jan. 22 indicated that the Terriers have learned from the early-season mistake of disregarding opponents who don’t look particularly formidable on paper. They’ll need to keep that lesson in mind as they face three teams in the bottom half of the Hockey East standings – University of New Hampshire, University of Maine and Northeastern – in the final weeks of the season.
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