Coming off a weekend sweep of a conference opponent, the No. 7 Boston University women’s hockey team will welcome No. 6 Harvard University and a familiar foe in the University of New Hampshire to Walter Brown Arena for a weekend home set.
The Terriers (8-3-1, 5-2 Hockey East) will host the Crimson (2-1-1) Friday evening and the Wildcats (3-10-1, 1-6 Hockey East) Sunday afternoon.
BU has yet to face Harvard this season but will certainly be put to the test to kick off the weekend.
A red-hot team that will face its first non-conference opponent in the Terriers this weekend, the Crimson won its opening two games of the season by wide margins, knocking Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Oct. 31) and Union College (Nov. 1) aside by scores of 4-1 and 5-2, respectively. Since then, they’ve had a no-decision in their tilt against defending NCAA champion in No. 5 Clarkson (Nov. 14) and a 5-4 loss at the hands of St. Lawrence University on Saturday.
The Crimson’s 15 goals in four contests — one-third of which have come from junior Miye D’Oench, who leads the team with seven points — has put them at second in the Eastern College Athletic Conference in terms of tallies per game with 3.75.
For their part, the Terriers boast a mark of 3.42 goals per game. Harvard is scoring most of its goals at home, averaging 4.50 a night when playing on their own ice and notching about three when on the road.
In terms of goaltending, the Crimson are still trying to figure out a solid presence in net. Junior Emerance Maschmeyer started in both of Harvard’s most recent games and has allowed seven goals on 48 shots faced, a .854 save percentage. Sophomore Brianna Laing and junior Molly Tissenbaum each have a win for their squad and have surrendered a combined three goals on 22 shots faced.
“Obviously with Harvard, you’ve got a team that’s a real top program and somebody that will be in the NCAA Tournament picture,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “So a game like this has some special interest and special ramifications when you look at potential NCAA seeds or who maybe is an automatic qualifier for the tournament, or at-large qualifier.
“So [it’s] very important to get wins here and do a good job against a real top team that’s got some outstanding skaters up front, probably two all-star defensemen at least on the backend and an all-star goalie as well, so we’re gonna have to bring our ‘A’ game Friday.”
BU was winless in both of its matchups against the Crimson last year, once in Cambridge on Nov. 22, 2013 and once at Conte Forum at Boston College for the Beanpot consolation game on Feb. 11. The last time the Terriers played Harvard at home, though, they bested the Crimson by a score of 2-1 on Nov. 18, 2012.
On the back end of the weekend, UNH rolls into Boston three weeks after BU’s 4-2 victory over the Wildcats on Nov. 2.
BU struck first in the game when freshman winger Rebecca Leslie scored in the second period at 4:03, but the Wildcats scored two goals within three minutes during the third period to take the lead. With just under seven minutes to play, junior winger Sarah Lefort tied the game up, and 2:33 later, junior winger Rebecca Russo put the Terriers ahead. Lefort added her second of the game, an empty-netter, at 18:41 in the period to give BU the victory.
Since that game, the Wildcats have posted a record of 1-2 while playing all-conference opponents, earning their first win of the season in Hockey East with a 5-1 triumph over the University of Vermont on Nov. 8.
While the Terriers are shooting at about a 10.7 percent success rate, UNH is toting a 5.4 percent shooting percentage with its less than desirable record. And with the Wildcats’ 19 total goals compared to BU’s 41, just over a 2:1 ratio, it’s hard to argue that the Terriers don’t have the advantage.
Still, Durocher said his team should stay focused.
“UNH is a little bit down still this year,” he said. “But you can see they’ve got energy with the new coach, and we’ve gotta make sure that we’re 100 percent ready, not assuming that we’re a better team, or that this is a team that we can take lightly because the second time around against Northeastern this year, the results weren’t what we want. We’ve gotta make sure that we’re ready and plugged in and get after them as hard as anybody else.”
Nice girl, tries hard, loves the game. Judy covers men's hockey for The Daily Free Press. When she's not writing, she's quoting "Miracle" in conversations and living in a constant in a state of wonder at everything Patrice Bergeron has ever done. Follow her on Twitter at @judylee_c
