After a loss last weekend that pushed the Boston University women’s hockey team’s ranking down to fourth in the nation, the Terriers fell behind in their weekend series against Niagara University just minutes after the initial face off.
However, even without mainstay sophomore forward Marie-Philip Poulin in the lineup, the Terriers (3-1) fought back and went on to sweep the Purple Eagles (0-4) in the first-ever series between the two schools.
“I felt we were pretty steady throughout the weekend. Pretty workman like,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “We got behind in both games but we had to be resilient and bounce back.”
On Friday night, Niagara jump-started the scoring with a goal just 2:07 into the first period by freshman Kayla Raniwsky. The goal, which was the first of her collegiate career, was scored on a skirmish in front of the net.
“Those first goals are huge because I always think you need three to really put the game away or put the other team in some pain,” Durocher said.
The Purple Eagles maintained their lead throughout the first and for most of the second frame despite being outshot by the Terriers 25-13 total in the two periods.
This all changed 13:52 into the second when Niagara’s Delaney Middlebrook received a penalty for checking. Just 20 seconds later, BU senior captain Jenn Wakefield notched a power-play goal from the top of the left circle for her third tally of the season.
The Terriers’ special teams continued to dominate the offense in the third period when BU scored two goals to accumulate a 3-1 advantage.
With 5:03 left in the third period, senior forward Jenelle Kohanchuk passed the puck to Wakefield who slid it back to Kohanchuk. Kohanchuk picked slipped the pass by Niagara netminder Sarah Moses for the game-winning, power-play goal.
“[It] definitely felt really good,” Kohanchuk said. “We needed something to get us going and I felt like I had a really good game.”
The Terriers finished off their scoring about a minute later when freshman forward Kayla Tutino notched her first collegiate goal, a short-handed goal, on a rebound from a shot by junior forward Isabel Menard.
“It was a good first goal, especially on the PK,” Tutino said. “I wasn’t expecting it but it’s a good start.”
The next afternoon, BU got on the board first with a short-handed goal by Kohanchuk halfway through the first period. However, Niagara quickly evened up the score with 3:31 left in the frame.
After ending the period in a stalemate, the Purple Eagles came out and scored their second goal of the game at 4:39 on the wings of sophomore Jessica Hitchcock.
Niagara would hold that lead until about halfway through the period when Wakefield scored her first goal of the game on a power play just as she did on Friday.
Just 1:35 later, Kohanchuk scored her second goal of the game, her second-straight game-winning tally, when she deked a Niagara defender and made her way down the ice to push the puck past Niagara’s goaltender.
“Today’s game, our intensity, we brought it [earlier] than later and that just gave us momentum throughout the whole entire game,” Kohanchuk said.
With less than a second left in the second period, Menard tallied her second goal of the season after she took a pass from Wakefield into the left circle and shot it. Her shot deflected off of a Niagara player’s leg and into the goal.
“We obviously got ourselves a little bit of an advantage there in the second period which certainly gave us a little breathing room,” Durocher said. “I think that maybe [Saturday] we got just a little more good fortune too.”
Wakefield rounded out the scoring 5:14 into the third when she wristed a shot by Moses for her second goal of the night. This accounted for the final score of 5-2.
Junior netminder Alissa Fromkin, who had her first start of the season on Saturday, had 29 saves, including 17 in the third frame.
“A hockey game is still in doubt in the third period when they put a little pressure on us, and one can sometimes lead to two and now you get into a nail biting situation, Durocher said. “She didn’t give them that one [goal] to open that door.”
According to Durocher, the challenges his team faced in the games against Niagara are telling of what they will face throughout the season.
“If [the Terriers] were frustrated… they better get used to it,” Durocher said, “because teams are going to give their best games against us. Their goalies are going to get a little extra charged up and that’s what happened this weekend and we had to fight and scrap for everything we were going to get.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
