The last time the No. 9 Boston University women’s hockey team lost five consecutive games, it was 2005, the Terriers’ inaugural season.
After dropping its first game against Providence College 4-3, BU (10-8-1, 5-3 Hockey East) made a dramatic late-game comeback at Walter Brown Arena on Sunday to win 2-1 over Providence and stop its losing streak at four.
“Playing as well as we did [Sunday] and not coming up with something would have been a tough roll or a tough spin of potentially five games without a win,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “But we got a win.”
Providence (8-9-3, 6-4-1 Hockey East) lost their first matchup with BU in Providence, R.I., on Nov. 20 when freshman forward Kayla Tutino scored a third-period power-play goal to put the Terriers on top.
With that fresh in their minds, the Friars jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in Saturday’s game at Schneider Arena.
Providence forward Kate Bacon scored first for Providence with assists from forwards Corinne Buie and Jessica Vella. Less than four minutes later, senior Abby Gauthier netted a rebound that resulted from a breakaway opportunity by senior Ashley Cottrell.
Once the Friars got the two goal lead, they were able to trade goals with the Terriers for the rest of the game and emerge victorious.
Junior defenseman Kathryn Miller brought the score within one later in the first, but Gauthier added a second goal in the second period to increase the Providence lead to 3-1.
BU attempted a comeback in the third, with junior center Isabel Menard scoring twice, bringing the deficit to one both times.
However, Providence goaltender Genevieve Lacasse was able to hold the Terriers at bay and hold on to the 4-3 win.
The two teams met again the next day at Walter Brown Arena in a game that would decide the season series between the two.
Again, the Friars scored the first goal of the game in the first period.
This time it was Cottrell with the first tally for Providence on a rebound from Gauthier.
The lead lasted through the first 55 minutes of the game until Tutino deflected a Tara Watchorn shot on a power play past Lacasse to tie the game with 4:39 remaining. Tutino’s goal came while she was in front of the net screening the goalie, which is a spot she has found success from this year.
“[Tutino] has absolutely played so much bigger than she is physically and is tough as nails,” Durocher said. “Tonight she continued to do what she does well.”
With Tutino’s goal, the momentum had shifted to the Terriers and they did not settle for the tie.
“We just felt it on the bench,” said junior forward Jill Cardella. “Everyone was up, and once we got the first one we knew the second one was going to come.”
Then, just over a minute later, defenseman Jennifer Friedman was called for a roughing penalty to put BU back on the power play.
Cardella made the Friars pay for their mistake, tipping in a shot from Kasey Boucher and sealing a comeback victory for the Terriers.
Goaltending was key for the Terriers in the win, as sophomore goaltender Kerrin Sperry made 25 saves on 26 shots.
While she made many great stops throughout the game, her best was during the short window when the game was tied 1-1.
A BU defenseman had just turned the puck over in front of her net, but Sperry was able to sprawl into position and knock aside a point-blank shot.
“[That save] was really magnificent,” Durcoher said. “She got a piece of it with her glove on a bang-bang one-time play where we made a pretty big mistake.”
While the Terriers struggled to put pucks past Lacasse at even strength, four of BU’s six goals over the weekend were on the power play.
On the other end of the special teams’ spectrum, BU did not allow a power-play goal in any of the nine chances it surrendered.
“The kids did a great job on both nights,” Durocher said. “We continued to play with our aggressive style both nights, but we were really working much better as a unit [Sunday].”
Now that the Terriers have prevented a five-game losing streak, Durocher is looking forward to continuing the team’s winning ways.
“[The win] was real big and I hope it snowballs,” Durocher said.
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