The Boston University’s women’s hockey season officially began this past weekend after games against the Whitby Junior Wolves and Providence College. Following a solid 2015-16 season, the Terriers (1-0, 1-0 Hockey East) started the year off with a strong 6-0 exhibition victory over the Wolves on Saturday and a 5-2 defeat of the Friars (0-1, 0-1 Hockey East) on Sunday at Walter Brown Arena.
From the first puck drop on Saturday, the Terriers put in their all. Senior forward Maddie Elia wasted no time and scored 1:33 into the period. The team went on to score two consecutive power-play goals from sophomore forward Sammy Davis and Elia, extending its lead to 3-0.
Building off last season, BU head coach Brian Durocher and his staff hope the Terriers can continue to build off their solid offensive play and focus on strengthening their defense.
“They had some discipline and good focus,” Durocher said. “To score goals is one thing, but more importantly to give them eight or nine shots is as important to me as anything else. It’s important that we’re on point there and paying attention to the little things.”
Davis went on to score another goal 2:54 in during the second period, resulting in the third power-play goal of the game. As the team continued to display their effective offensive approach, their defense remained solid. The line pairing of junior defender Savannah Newton and senior defender Alexis Crossley was especially strong, holding Whitby to only six shots on goal through the first two periods.
In the final period, junior forward Rebecca Leslie made a shot early to extend the Terriers’ lead to 5-0.
Following the score, the Wolves’ defense got stronger, and no goals were scored by either team for a majority of the period. In the last five minutes, Elia was able to break through and score her third goal of the game, completing the hat trick and putting the finishing touches on the 6-0 shutout.
“Yeah, that was definitely the plan.” Elia said. “We had to get a good hard work out of everyone today to get ready for tomorrow, and I think that’s what we did.”
The Terriers continued their opening weekend success on Sunday against the Friars. The teams shared fairly even shot totals, but two crucial goals at the end of the third period sealed the win for BU.
“This was a good start for the team,” said Durocher. “We played defensively pretty solid. We were always fighting in front of the net, not giving them a lot of second chances or loose pucks.”
The Terriers struck first, taking a 1-0 lead at the 5:08 mark in the first period, with a goal from graduate student forward Mary Parker.
BU padded its lead almost 10 minutes later on a slapshot goal from the high slot by senior forward Samantha Sutherland, which assisted by freshman forward Natasza Tarnowski and freshman defenseman Abby Cook. The Terriers led 2-0 at the end of the first period.
Providence fought back in the second, though, bringing the game within one with a goal at the 4:17 mark from senior Cassidy Carels.
At the 5:46 mark in the third period, Sutherland found the net again, scoring a power-play goal. This put the Terriers up 3-1, but the lead was short-lived.
Providence’s Carels netted her second goal only 40 seconds later to bring the score back to 3-2. The majority of the third period was fought hard, and the game remained close until the end.
BU pulled away in the last minute and a half, with a goal from Elia and an empty-net goal from Sutherland at the 19:13 mark. The Terriers took a 5-2 lead, and Sutherland secured her first career hat trick.
“It felt really great,” said Sutherland. “I think my line mate was more excited about it than I was. I didn’t really realize it was happening. It feels pretty good.”
Throughout the game, penalties played a big factor for both sides, with eight penalties alone in the first period, and 21 total. Durocher noted the sport-wide effort to crack down on penalties as a potential cause, and said he was not too worried about the trend.
“It’s great to get a win,” Durocher said. “It doesn’t always have to be the prettiest win. It was one of those games that was a little bit broken up with penalties. We had a good game on the back end of the night. It was a nice win to get going.”
