For the first time since the 2009-10 season, the No. 5/4 Boston University women’s hockey team was shut out and suffered back-to-back losses as the No. 1 University of Wisconsin swept the Terriers in Madison, Wis. this past weekend.
The Terriers (5-3-1) were outscored 9-1 and outshot 80-43 over the course of both games in a rematch of last year’s NCAA championship game.
“Wisconsin’s got a fantastic hockey team,” said BU coach Brian Durocher, “but what disappointed me was that we couldn’t quite keep things as tight as I would have liked through the game . . . I give full respect to Wisconsin for their success, but I think that we’ve got to certainly do a better job of keeping ourselves in the game.”
The two-game series started off Friday afternoon in a game where the Badgers scored a goal per period to eventually defeat the Terriers 3-0.
Wisconsin lit the lamp halfway through the first period when Brittany Ammerman slipped the puck under sophomore goaltender Kerrin Sperry’s pads.
Ammerman struck again when she notched her second tally of the game 13:19 into the second period on a pass from teammate Brianna Decker, hitting a shot that went into the back of the net.
The Badgers finished off their scoring with a shorthanded goal by Kelly Jaminiski in the third period. It was the first time this year that BU gave up a shorthanded tally.
Sperry played an impressive game with a career-high for saves with 37, 17 of which came in the first period.
According to Durocher, Sperry served as a driving force, keeping the Terriers in the game.
“Kerrin was, as always, very competitive and did a great job of giving us an opportunity to not only be in the game but maybe win the game,” Durocher said.
On Saturday, BU kept the Badgers close for the first two periods thanks once again to the performance of Sperry.
After Wisconsin scored a goal late in the first, junior forward Taylor Holze scored her second goal of the season to tie the game 3:36 into the second.
Wisconsin retaliated with 1:07 left in the second frame to retake the lead, an advantage that the Terriers would never overcome.
Wisconsin proceeded to score four goals in the first half of the third frame, two of them by Decker who had a hat trick in the contest.
After the fifth goal, Durocher replaced Sperry with junior goaltender Alissa Fromkin who gave up the sixth and final goal of the game.
Durocher once again felt that Sperry’s effort helped BU to keep the game close in the early goings. He also felt that the blame did not rest on Sperry for the late offensive surge by Wisconsin.
“That’s something that frustrates me a little,” Durocher said. “If we had an off day by a goaltender we could point to that as being maybe a shortcoming of the weekend.
“That’d be one thing. But to have us kind of fall apart around her particularly late in the game on Saturday . . . that frustrates me because she did everything she could to give us a chance to win.”
Sperry ended the weekend with a total of 70 saves.
For a team that has been averaging 2.8 goals per game, this past weekend served as a harsh reality.
BU played this weekend without two of its normal offensive leaders. Sophomore forward Marie-Philip Poulin, who scored 24 goals in 28 games last year, and senior forward Jenelle Kohanchuk, who has tallied the third most goals this season, were both absent due to injury.
While the Terriers have been without Poulin for most of the season because of an abdominal injury, Kohanchuk missed this weekend’s series after getting banged up in a the contest against St. Lawrence University last weekend.
Kohanchuk switched from playing left wing to center after Poulin’s injury and had made up for some of the offense the team was missing in her new role.
Durocher, however, does not see missing these two players as an excuse for the team’s lack of offensive output in the series.
“There’s no question that it hurts when you lose two of your top forwards . . . but that’s no excuse,” Durocher said. “You’ve got to score with whoever’s there. We had some talented kids on the ice but again maybe giving some credit to Wisconsin and maybe we just didn’t execute.”
With an important Hockey East conference game coming up on Wednesday against Boston College, Durocher felt BU had a lot to work on.
“We’ve got to be a little more resilient when things aren’t going exactly how we want them to go,” Durocher said. “Nobody looks to see how pretty a win was. You just have to go out and get the win.”
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