After opening the 2018-19 season with two games against the Northeastern University at Walter Brown Arena, the Boston University women’s hockey team visited Northeastern (6-1-1, 5-0-1 Hockey East) Sunday afternoon.
The Terriers (1-3-3, 1-3-3 Hockey East) had a 5-0 blowout loss and a 3-3 tie in their two games against the Huskies, and they could not find a win three weeks later in a 2-1 loss at Matthews Arena.
Despite this loss, BU head coach Brian Durocher said he believes that the team was competitive during most of the game outside of a 10-minute frame in the second period.
“Sometimes it takes you seven, eight or nine minutes to get the team back under control,” Durocher said.
The first period looked promising at first for the Terriers — they made seven shots on goal, and halfway through the first period, sophomore forward Nara Elia and the BU offense pressured Northeastern goaltender Brittany Bugalski, which led to Elia getting the puck into the net.
However, the referees looked over the goal and called interference against the Terriers, resulting in the goal being called back.
Durocher said he was curious to re-watch the play and see how accurate the call was.
“I think the kids are going to the net hard, and that official just feels, ‘That kid just crashed into the goalie without anyone on her,’” Durocher said.
At 15:56 in the period, the Huskies opened scoring with a goal by sophomore forward Veronika Pettey, who leads the Hockey East in goal-scoring, with a primary assist from freshman forward Chloe Aurard.
The goal came 18 seconds into a Northeastern powerplay. In their own extra-player opportunities, the Terriers went went 0-4 overall.
“In the powerplay we’ve got to get one to go in,” Durocher said. “We got to get just a little bit more creative and poised when we get that opportunity.”
The Huskies scored again in the second period, only three minutes in.
Elia, the same player whose goal was called back in the first period, got a counted-for goal with 30 seconds left in regulation when sophomore forward Jesse Compher got the puck in front of the net from behind the Northeastern cage, allowing Elia to shoot the puck into the top of the net.
This cut the Huskies’ lead to one point with a score of 2-1.
However, the Terriers could not make magic happen in these last 29 seconds, and Northeastern was able to get the 2-1 victory.
BU has now scored only one goal in each of its last three games, with the last two goals being in the third period while trailing.
“We’re facing a dilemma … that we may not be a high-scoring team,” Durocher said. “We got to find ways to get the second and maybe the third, and unfortunately that didn’t happen.”
The Terriers will play again Nov. 9 against the University of Connecticut, giving the team nearly two weeks off.
Along with giving the players time to focus on midterms, Durocher said he is looking to practice on some skills during this time off.
“One of the things we need to work on is to know when to flood an area when killing penalties and just rip [the puck] out of there,” Durocher said. “We can continue to work on our conditioning.”
