The Boston University women’s hockey team fell just short in the Beanpot Finals as Northeastern University became the double-overtime winner in front of a record-breaking crowd, 4-3.
Junior defenseman Lauren Macinnis found a loose puck 16 minutes into the second overtime and converted a power-play goal to sink the Terriers (20-6-4, 14-6-3 Hockey East), giving the Huskies (25-3-2, 21-2-0 Hockey East) their 17th Beanpot title.
BU head coach Brian Durocher said the team can take the game’s official result as a tie and use it as motivation.
“The message I’ve got to send them is that today’s game goes down as a tie,” Durocher said in the postgame press conference. “That might help us move forward. Another game against a classy team, a talented team and we didn’t lose. So now we can take care of business.”
The last time BU faced Northeastern, the Terriers let in two shorthanded goals, allowing the Huskies to walk away with a 2-1 win.
Tonight, however, it was the Terriers who scored when down a player.
Less than four minutes into the opening frame, sophomore forward Emma Wuthrich was whistled for tripping. With 50 seconds left on the penalty kill, junior forward Kristina Schuler picked up a mishandled puck by Northeastern along the blue-line.
With a burst of speed, Schuler pulled ahead of the Northeastern defenders and found herself one-on-one with the Huskies junior goaltender Aerin Frankel. Schuler deked right, then left, then slid the puck past Frankel on her forehand to put the Terriers up early with a 1-0 lead.
But with less than three minutes remaining, the Huskies got on the board. Aurard skated up the left wing, past BU defenders and got the puck past BU junior goaltender Corinne Schroeder to even the scoring at one apiece.
A defensive breakdown for BU behind Schroeder’s net led to Northeastern taking the lead as Aurard picked up her second of the game to take the 2-1 lead.
After Schroeder stopped a shot from Northeastern, junior defenseman Skylar Fontaine shoved senior defender Breanna Scarpaci from behind, earning a roughing penalty.
Confusion arose after the penalty was called when Fontaine skated toward the penalty box, the scoreboard showed a penalty for Scarpaci as well. After review, it was determined that Scarpaci did receive a minor cross-checking penalty, but Fontaine was awarded a major penalty and game misconduct for cross-checking and roughing.
While on the major power play, the Terriers were able to tie the game. Senior defenseman Abby Cook shot the puck from the blue line through traffic and past Frankel to even the scoring at two goals apiece heading into the second intermission.
More than halfway into the third, redshirt senior forward Sammy Davis was called for cross-checking, setting the Huskies up with a power play.
Northeastern’s power-unit converted the penalty when freshman forward Jess Schryver stuffed the puck past Schroeder on her third attempt to give the Huskies a 3-2 lead.
With just over two minutes to go in regulation, Northeastern had a three-on-zero rush, but Schroeder stood tall and kept BU alive.
Durocher pulled Schroeder for the extra-attacker with less than two minutes remaining, and it worked out in favor of the Terriers. With 22 seconds remaining, Davis tapped in a crawling puck that got loose behind Frankel to tie the game at three and sent it to overtime.
Durocher said he noticed the similarities to Monday’s men’s Beanpot final.
“It was kind of funny how it paralleled what happened last night,” Durocher said. “Not the right results for Boston University.”
However, with one second to go in the third period, BU sophomore forward Mackenna Parker was assessed an interference penalty, forcing the Terriers to the penalty kill to start overtime.
The Huskies were called for penalty of their own to start overtime, but both teams killed their penalties. The five-minute overtime period ended with both teams knotted at three, sending the game into a 20-minute extra period.
Northeastern was called for a penalty in double overtime, but killed it soon after the Terriers were called for a penalty of their own.
It took less than 50 seconds on the power play for Northeastern to score. MacInnis shot the puck past Schroeder to give the Huskies their first Beanpot championship since 2013.
Durocher said the Terriers made their school proud despite the loss.
“You witnessed a classic hockey game there,” Durocher said. “Two teams that played their hearts out. Teams that displayed an awful lot of talent, compete and toughness, and made their institutions awful proud win or lose.”
Up next, the Terriers will travel to Durham, New Hampshire to take on the University of New Hampshire this Saturday at the Whittemore Center at 2 p.m.
Durocher said motivating the team after a tough loss can be difficult, but sometimes a loss like this can have a positive effect.
“It’s [really] hard,” Durocher said. “But because they are competitors, because I think we have a super tough team, we’ve got a pretty deep team, you hope that we can kind of flush it aside. Sometimes when you lose, it does give you a little extra momentum.”
