After winning over Northeastern University and the University of Maine, the Boston University women’s hockey team will host the University of New Hampshire this weekend in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East Playoffs.
The best-of-three quarterfinal series bodes well for the Terriers (17-10-6, 12-8-4 Hockey East), as they beat the Wildcats (13-17-2, 11-11-2 Hockey East) 5-1 in their first meeting of the season and swept a weekend series just 13 days ago.
While BU has made it to the semifinals nine years in a row and won four titles in a row from 2012-2015, BU head coach Brian Durocher stressed that the team cannot take New Hampshire lightly and must play smart, just as they did over their successful weekend.
“I think that mentally we’re in a good frame of mind,” said Durocher. “They’ve recognized the level of competition they’ve got to bring to the table and we did last weekend.”
After their two wins, the Terriers will be going into playoffs with the fourth-best goals per game average (3.64) in the nation.
Junior forward Victoria Bach and graduate student forward Mary Parker also ended the regular season on high notes. Bach leads Hockey East with the most points (47) and second most assists (25) while Parker leads the conference in goals (23).
Senior forward Maddie Elia will also look to extend her current seven-game point streak, which consists of four goals and seven assists.
However, Durocher noted that these are far from the only players who can make an impact, and said that many others add depth to the team’s offense.
“You hope that your top players rise to the occasion,” Durocher said. “They certainly did throughout the season, but now it’s a new season and if nothing else, it can be a short season. You want to keep playing and the best way to do that is to have your top players produce.”
Though New Hampshire dropped its home-and-home series to BU, it came right back the following weekend against the University of Connecticut and beat the Huskies (14-16-4, 9-13-2 Hockey East) 4-1 both days.
Senior Jonna Curtis, who leads the Wildcats with 39 points, notched three goals and three assists over the weekend.
The Wildcats also wield juniors Julia Fedeski and Amy Schlagel, a pair of defensemen, who were productive offensively during the series. Fedeski collected five assists while Schlagel scored two goals and an assist.
The two players currently lead the team in points behind Curtis.
“I think a lot of their offense and what they do well comes from probably the three defensemen that carry the puck well,” said Durocher. “From our end we just have to be really determined and compete, win all the little battles that sometimes we’ve been erratic in doing during the course of the year.”
While the Terriers went three-for-five on the power play against Maine (10-21-1, 6-17-1 Hockey East) and bode the third-best power play in the nation, the Wildcats remain a threat during BU’s penalty kills.
New Hampshire was able to get four goals past senior goaltender Victoria Hanson over the two games on their extra-man opportunities and went three-for-four on their power play opportunities during their first contest against UConn.
“The rule of thumb for us is to not assume they’re going to get it in the zone and go set up a tic-tac-toe power play,” Durocher said. “They may try to strike right on the initial rush and we’ve got to shut that down first.”
The home ice that BU had been fighting for will likely give it some edge, as it has gone 11-3-2 in the 2016-17 season at Walter Brown Arena. If the Terriers secure two wins over the Wildcats, they will have an opportunity to compete for the semifinals and finals at home, as Walter Brown Arena hosts the 2017 Hockey East championship.
“[The Wildcats] know their way around the league and certainly have played here at our rink just a couple weeks ago, so nothing’s a given,” Durocher said. “We’ve got to be on our job and play smart the entire time but having your own rink is good for a number of reasons.”
