Seeing Red: BU set for duel with Cornell

After months of replaying the images from the hard-fought game that ended its season last March, the No. 3 Boston University women’s hockey team will look for redemption when it takes on Cornell University in a two-game series this weekend.

“It was so emotional when we played that game, and we’re still talking about it,” said junior co-captain Marie-Philip Poulin.

That game took place in the first round of the 2011–12 NCAA Tournament as the Terriers (4–0) traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., to face the Big Red, against whom they had struggled earlier in the season.

What started out as a sizable lead for the Terriers in the first period progressively dwindled, as BU was forced to come back from a 7–4 deficit with less than half a period left in regulation. Tying the game would become the least of the team’s worries as what had become a high-scoring competition turned into a stalemate that lasted into the final 10 seconds of triple overtime.

As junior defenseman Lauriane Rougeau of Cornell scored the final goal, an exhausted BU squad fell to the ice, devastated.

“Next time, if we get to overtime, we for sure want to win it,” Poulin said. “I think it’s a great motivation for us to talk about it.”

This time around, BU will come into the game with a slight advantage, having played six games, two of which were exhibition games, whereas Cornell has yet to play an official game. Furthermore, the contests will take place on the Terriers’ ice with the first game occurring at Agganis Arena Saturday night and the second at Walter Brown Arena Sunday afternoon.

The Terriers most recently played Tuesday night when they defeated No. 8 Northeastern University 4–1. While the contest featured a lot of late-game scoring action, the spotlight was on the net as junior netminder Kerrin Sperry successfully earned her 44th career victory making her the winningest goaltender in the program’s history.

During the six-period duel against Cornell on March 10, Sperry played the entire contest, giving up eight goals with 58 saves in 119:30 of play.

“Cornell’s obviously a very talented team. They’re a big name,” Sperry said. “[When] we lost to them last year in the quarterfinals of the NCAAs … that was tough. That was something you don’t forget about. However, you move forward.

“I’m extremely excited to play that caliber of hockey coming up this weekend, and I’m looking forward to giving them an extremely tough goaltender to play against.”

While the Terriers no longer have the offensive force of former Terrier Jenn Wakefield to help them in the contest, they do have the prowess of freshman forward Sarah Lefort, who leads the Terriers with six goals in her first four games.

On Monday, Lefort earned her second consecutive Hockey East Rookie of the Week award after she scored three goals in the Terriers’ games last weekend. Lefort added to that on Tuesday when she scored another goal.

While this game comes with heavy emotions attached to it, BU coach Brian Durocher said he is not going to try to put a hold on the excitement.

“You just talk about being smart,” Durocher said. “You don’t want to really hold too many emotions. You want to make sure they don’t carry over into people’s sticks being in the air, or [getting] foolish penalties, being so excited you go offsides. You play with the energy and the conviction and hope that when it’s time to relax, you’re doing just that in a game like this because that’s what sometimes happens — you try too hard and you know you don’t execute as well as you can.”

Although Durocher said he would like to take two games from Cornell, he also said the team must win at least one of the competitions.

“We have to come out against a tremendous team and see if we can get a ‘W,’” Durocher said. “It’d be great to win two, but you certainly want to make sure that you get at least one of the two in a game like that.”