Last week the Boston University women’s hockey team, then ranked 10th in the nation, skated off the ice at Walter Brown Arena dejected after losing in the Beanpot championship game.
A mere week later, the Terriers regained their confidence in a weekend sweep of a struggling University of Vermont squad in Burlington, Vt. as BU came out on top 8-4 on Saturday, then 4-1 on Sunday against the Catamounts.
“[Vermont was] fighting for their playoff lives trying to get that sixth spot,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “They made us work pretty hard in both games. I thought they made us play pretty thorough.
“We were really playing in a situation where we definitely could have been thinking more about the Beanpot and licking our wounds, but it was a good solid effort and a good weekend.”
In an offensive surge, the Terriers (18-13-1, 12-7 Hockey East) opened up the two-game series with a three-goal first period against the Catamounts (4-20-6, 3-14-2 Hockey East).
Junior forward Isabel Menard lit the lamp first for BU with a goal 7:03 into the contest. She followed that up 10 minutes later with her second goal of the game, a power-play tally, to give the Terriers a 2-0 advantage heading into the end of the frame.
Just 24 seconds later, redshirt freshman defenseman Caroline Campbell sent the puck over to junior forward Shannon Mahoney. After hitting the crossbar in her first attempt, Mahoney put the puck past Vermont netminder Roxanne Douville to give BU a 3-0 lead going into the first intermission.
In a quieter second period, BU opened the door to a Catamount comeback. Vermont scored three goals of its own during the period, but BU never gave up its lead as senior captain Jenn Wakefield notched her 20th goal of the season 13:12 into the period.
The Terriers went on to score four goals in the third to solidify their dominant offensive performance. Junior forwards Jill Cardella and Taylor Holze, along with sophomore forward Louise Warren, each scored in the frame, while Wakefield scored her second of the game.
BU gave up a goal to the Catamounts with 2:12 left in the game to account for the 8-4 final score.
While Durocher said he was pleased with his team’s performance, the four goals BU gave up to Vermont were a disappointment.
“It was the only thing that probably was a negative on the weekend,” Durocher said. “I talked to our team about making sure we play a little better shut-down defense . . . We just can’t have a slip up there because we gave up four [goals] in the Beanpot, and we gave up four the first night [against Vermont] so that was probably in my eye the only black mark of the weekend that we really can’t afford to have that happen.”
During the game, 15 different Terriers registered points, while six different found the back of the net.
On Sunday, BU opened up the game early again with a goal by senior defenseman Tara Watchorn 2:32 into the first period. The Terriers would add to their slight advantage 7:35 into the second frame when Wakefield scored what would become the game-winning goal, her 22nd of the season.
Vermont cut BU’s lead in half exactly nine minutes later; however, it would serve as the only time the Catamounts would get past BU’s sophomore netminder Kerrin Sperry in the contest. Sperry had a total of 39 saves over the course of the weekend.
In the final minutes of the third period, BU added two insurance goals to end the game with a resounding 4-1 win when Mahoney scored BU’s third goal of the night. With five seconds left in the game, Wakefield scored the Terriers last tally on an unassisted, empty-net goal.
“There was plenty of good support spread throughout the team,” Durocher said of the team’s performance over the weekend.
The sweep will give the Terriers momentum going into the final weekend of conference play where they will face off against the University of Connecticut in a home-and-home series.
BU has won seven of its last eight contests and is ranked ninth in the nation after the weekend’s success.
“You want to be playing well, you want to be on a roll, you want to fine tune everything for the single elimination hockey you’re going to be playing in the playoffs,” Durocher said. “At this point I think we’ve been playing well. I even thought we played a real good game against [Northeastern University] in the Beanpot, but the stars didn’t line up.”
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