After losing in the first round of the Beanpot, the No. 3 Boston University women’s hockey team bounced back with a home-and-home sweep of Northeastern University this past weekend.
On Friday, in front of a season-high crowd of 1,005, the Terriers (24-4-3, 14-2-3 Hockey East) recognized senior forwards Lauren Cherewyk, Jillian Kirchner and Holly Lorms along with graduate student defenseman Catherine Ward before their final regular season game at Walter Brown Arena. All four would end up having big nights en route to BU’s 4-3 victory over the Huskies (14-11-6, 6-9-4 HE).
“They’ve done a fantastic job and they’re all great skaters and kids who put up points consistently over four years, and that’s what you look for is people who do that,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “Obviously Holly’s fought through injuries, Jillian played with casts and other injuries over time, Lauren Cherewyk has been a steady eddy all the way through. With the addition of Catherine Ward… we’re lucky to have those four and they’re true ambassadors for Boston University.”
The scoring started early on when Lorms snatched a Northeastern breakout pass and wristed it into the net. Then, 1:40 into the second period, junior forward Jenn Wakefield took a pass from Kirchner and flipped it into the goal. Freshman Kaleigh Fratkin, who has been playing forward since an injury to sophomore Taylor Holze, followed with her first career goal. Ward passed to Kirchner who then passed to Fratkin, giving the Terriers a 3-0 lead. The assist was Kirchner’s 100th point of her career.
The Huskies responded a little more than halfway through the second frame when freshman goaltender Kerrin Sperry was knocked over by Northeastern freshman Claire Santostefano. The puck found its way to Casey Pickett, who slid it off of junior Carly Warren’s skate into the net.
“I think that there is a rule out there, or an unwritten rule, you protect the goalie,” Durocher said. “I’m not sure she was protected tonight.”
Northeastern continued its scoring early in the third with a goal by Siena Falino 39 seconds into the frame. Stephanie Gavronsky completed the Northeastern comeback with a goal about three minutes later.
But the Terriers turned around and won the game. Junior forward Jenelle Kohanchuk went to the penalty box at 5:38 for cross-checking. Lorms then passed the puck to Ward who passed to Cherewyk. Cherewyk scored the short-handed tally to win the game.
“I think we knew we had to turn it up, and we did,” Cherewyk said.
On Saturday at Northeastern, Lorms once again started off the game with a goal 4:10 into the first period of the game. However, the team’s individualistic play frustrated Durocher.
“It was, to me, a slow start,” Durocher said. “We had some real good chances after we made it 1-0 and we didn’t do much with them. Bottom line is I didn’t think we were very accountable. We were playing as individuals in the first period—I probably was a little bit upset and let them know that there is real high standards that I hold them to, and I hope they have high standards for themselves.”
The second frame started off with a strange penalty call as Fratkin, having collided with two Northeastern players, had the string of her pants caught on the skate of a Northeastern player. Fratkin ended up serving a two-minute penalty because her pants held down the other player.
When Fratkin came out of the box, she picked up the puck and shot it off the pipe. Wakefield snatched the rebound and also hit the post. Then, halfway through the frame, Warren tipped a shot off of Northeastern goalie Leah Sulyma. The shot popped straight up in the air and then fell behind her for the second goal of the game.
In the third frame, Lorms scored her second goal of the game to increase the Terriers’ lead. Wakefield followed this up with two straight goals, the second of which was a power-play tally. The two goals gave Wakefield control of the single-season goal record that Marie-Philip Poulin had broken earlier in the season.
The Huskies scored late in the frame to account for the final score of 5-1.
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