No. 7 women’s hockey ready for Beanpot consolation game with Northeastern

After a 9-2 loss to No. 4 Harvard University eliminated the No. 7 Boston University women’s hockey team from the 37th Annual Women’s Beanpot Tournament, the team is now preparing for a consolation game matchup with Northeastern University.

Seven times in the program’s 10-year history, BU (18-7-2, 13-4-0 Hockey East) has not made it past the first round, while the Crimson (18-4-2) have now won six of seven meetings with the Terriers in the tournament. Junior wing Sarah Lefort and freshman center Victoria Bach scored for BU in the contest, but a goal from forward Sydney Daniels just 34 seconds into the match sparked Harvard to a seven-goal margin win.

Northeastern (9-14-4, 8-8-1 Hockey East) did not fare much better in the Beanpot semifinal, though they did give one of the top teams in the nation a run for its money. Freshman McKenna Brand put the Huskies up 1-0 on No. 1 Boston College in the second period, but the Eagles roared back to a 3-1 win.

This will be the fourth meeting of the year between BU and Northeastern, with the Terriers holding a slight 2-1 advantage in the season series. BU edged the Huskies 3-2 in its home opener at Walter Brown Arena on Oct. 28, 2014. Junior forward Rebecca Russo scored two goals for the Terriers, while freshman goaltender Erin O’Neil made a career-high 37 saves in the win. A few weeks later on Nov. 11, the teams met once again at Walter Brown, with Northeastern grabbing a 6-3 victory. Senior captain Marie-Philip Poulin later netted two goals in a 4-3 win over the Huskies at Matthews Arena on Jan. 18.

BU coach Brian Durocher said his team will have to watch out for Northeastern forward Kendall Coyne. A member of the United States Women’s National Team, Coyne has already put seven goals in the Terrier net this season, including a hat trick in each of the previous two meetings.

“We have to keep a close eye on Coyne,” Durocher said. “She’s had a great college hockey career, she’s played fantastic against us and we’ve got to do what we can to neutralize her. But by no means is she the only kid on that team. They have other very qualified and talented players, and they’re a team that competes.

“They fight and they scratch and they claw and they do their best. So we’ve got to keep a close eye on her and try to set the pace and the tempo with our intensity and our attention to detail.”

Although BU has already been eliminated from winning the Beanpot Tournament, it will have to bring every bit of its intensity to the Bright-Landry Hockey Center Tuesday night. The team stands sixth in the PairWise Rankings, which are used by the NCAA selection committee to determine the teams that will play in the NCAA Championship Tournament. To qualify for postseason play, BU will need to stay in the top eight of the those rankings.

“It’s clearly tricky because the big prize of the Beanpot is not available anymore, but I think the other two things have got to be overriding,” Durocher said. “Number one is the fact that we’re in a precarious PairWise position, one that we can improve by winning another game and improving our win-loss record. The second thing is that there’s pride and they’re competitors, and every time you go out there, you want to put on your best show and you want to perform well and you want to have individual and team success.”

Between Beanpot games, the Terriers took a trip to Durham, New Hampshire to take on the University of New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon. Poulin, recently named Hockey East Player of the Month for January, gave BU a 1-0 lead early in the game. Junior forward Dakota Woodworth extended the lead to two later in the period, while Bach reestablished the two-goal advantage just 12 seconds after a Wildcat (8-19-2, 5-11-1 Hockey East) tally. Sophomore center Maddie Elia finished off the scoring for the Terriers, who earned a 4-2 win. Durocher said the road victory was key for BU to get back on track after a discouraging loss.

“It was a good win. Road wins are never easy to come by,” Durocher said. “I thought in a lot of ways, it was a very thorough win. In the second and third periods, we had pretty good structure in how we played. We were respecting the opponent. We probably let down a little on a couple of initial rushes, but that’s more reading the situation. But to get four goals and keep the opponent down, I think in all three zones, we had a pretty solid game.”