Boston University women’s hockey coach Brian Durocher called it a bad tie, while Northeastern University coach Dave Flint called it a well-earned point for his team. Either way, the No. 4 Terriers found themselves in the same situation they were in last year at this time, tying the Huskies 3-3 in the Beanpot consolation game on Tuesday. BU had led 3-0 with 10 minutes left in the third period.
“It reminded me of a consolation game, unfortunately,” Durocher said. “I don’t think either team had the fire in their belly to get started, and we kind of inched our way into a lead thanks to some good stops by our goaltender, a couple individual plays. . .I guess we figured we were off and running and away with that one, and an awful lot of credit goes to Northeastern for putting on a great rally and getting a tie out of the game.”
At the end of an uneventful first period with no score, the Huskies (14-11-7, 6-9-4 Hockey East) held a 10-5 edge in shots. Northeastern goalie Florence Schelling, who had not started in the two games the Huskies played against BU (24-4-4, 14-2-3 HE) over the weekend due to a concussion, held the Terriers scoreless on a power play early in the second before sophomore Britt Hergesheimer broke the tie.
Positioned on the left post, Hergesheimer redirected a cross-crease pass from senior linemate Lauren Cherewyk past Schelling for her first goal of the year. A few minutes later, a pass from Hergesheimer sent junior forward Jenn Wakefield on a one-on-one rush against a Husky defenseman. Wakefield fired a rising shot through the defender’s legs and over Schelling’s shoulder for her team-leading 25th goal of the year.
A hooking call against Northeastern freshman Katie MacSorley put BU on the power play just 30 seconds into the third period, and it only took the Terriers nine seconds to capitalize. Graduate student defenseman Catherine Ward took a shot from close range that Schelling stopped, but the rebound bounced right to senior forward Holly Lorms, who knocked it across the goal line.
Up 3-0 with 18 minutes to go, BU seemed to be in position to claim third place in the Beanpot – after finishing tied with Boston College for third last year – with relative ease. Instead, they started taking penalties. Wakefield went off just over a minute after Lorms’s goal for slashing the stick out of a Northeastern player’s hands, and shortly after the Terriers killed that penalty, junior forward Jenelle Kohanchuk was whistled for hooking.
Although the Huskies didn’t score on that power play – their sixth of the game – they got through to BU freshman goalie Kerrin Sperry for the first time just after the penalty to Kohanchuk expired. Center Rachel Llanes won a face-off back to defenseman Sonia St. Martin, who sent a slap shot through traffic and through the five-hole on Sperry.
Five seconds later, Wakefield went to the box for the second time, this time for cross-checking a Northeastern player in the neutral zone, and four seconds after she returned to the ice, Kohanchuk was called for roughing. It was on that power play, the Huskies’ eighth, when MacSorley cut the Terrier lead to one with a wraparound shot that slid under Sperry and into the net.
“There was some good execution by them, but we took some selfish penalties that continued the snowball going down the hill, and it was gaining more snow and more momentum and more strength, and that was thanks to us,” Durocher said.
Less than a minute after MacSorley’s goal, Northeastern forward Dani Rylan tied the game with a wrist shot from below the right face-off dot. The stunned Terriers couldn’t muster much offense in the remaining six minutes of regulation, or in the five-minute overtime period that followed before the curtain came down on the Terriers’ second straight Beanpot-consolation-game tie.
“I was disappointed because I really thought we’d come out with more fire,” Durocher said. “I thought we were flat, I thought we were legless, and I thought we didn’t get much going in the first period, and again because of some individual stuff, we were able to build up a 2-0 and then a 3-0 lead, but we didn’t show a lot of character or a lot of perseverance to finish the job.”
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