The Boston University women’s hockey team won at home for the first time this season, beating Yale University 3-1 Tuesday night.
Heading into the game, BU (now 7-3-1, 3-3-1 Hockey East) was ranked 11th in the country for their penalty kill and 10th in the country on the power play.
After a penalty-filled game against Providence College this past weekend, BU head coach Brian Durocher said he wanted his team to be more disciplined. Against Yale (5-2-0, 3-1-0 ECAC), the Terriers found themselves on the penalty kill three times and on the power play five times.
The Terriers were on the penalty kill less than three minutes into Tuesday’s game, as freshman forward Haylee Blinkhorn was called for tripping.
Just past the halfway mark in the opening stanza, Yale defenseman Greta Skarzynski was sent to the penalty box for body checking. The resulting power play was short-lived for the Terriers, though, as junior forward Jesse Compher was sent off 13 seconds later for high sticking.
The game remained 0-0 at the end of the first period.
Just 16 seconds into the second period, Yale forward Elle Hartje was sent off for hooking.
BU opened the scoring around the 11-minute mark in the period when junior forward Kristina Schuler netted her third goal of the season. Shuler received a pass from junior forward Nara Elia and got the puck past Yale goaltender Tera Hoffman to break the stalemate.
Roughly four minutes later, the Terriers were on the power play for the second time in the period as Yale defenseman Tabea Botthof was sent off for hooking.
The period would finish 1-0 in BU’s favor.
Just over two minutes into the third period, Yale went on the penalty kill as Hartje was given her second penalty of the night for tripping. Senior forward Natasza Tarnowski of BU was then sent off for cross-checking.
At the 8:54 mark, junior forward Nara Elia doubled the Terriers’ lead off assists from Schuler and senior linemate Deziray De Sousa.
The Terriers got another opportunity to add to their lead on the power play as Yale forward Rebecca Foggia was whistled for tripping just over 12 minutes into the final period. Despite the player advantage, though, BU was unable to capitalize.
Then with less than four minutes remaining in the game, Yale got on the board as forward Grace Lee shot one past BU goaltender Kate Stuart for her fifth tally of the season.
In the final minute, BU would seal the game with a two-goal lead as Compher scored on Yale’s empty net for her first goal of the season.
“To have her get a goal is great,” Durocher said of Compher. “We all need confidence, we all need results, and I’m glad to see her get that one.”
Stuart got her second win of the season, stopping 30 of the 31 shots that came her way.
“I felt good,” the goaltender said. “I feel like the defense really controlled [the shots] to the outside, so I was able to see a lot of the shots, especially in the penalty kill. The defense was really able to help me out at times.”
The Terriers’ next game is at home against local and conference rivals Boston College (9-1-1, 8-1-1 Hockey East) on Friday at 7:05 p.m.
