The No. 6 seed Boston University women’s hockey team (6-6) visited Schneider Arena for the Hockey East quarterfinals against the No. 3 seed Providence College Friars (11-6-1) Sunday. The Terriers’ season was cut short as the Friars came out with a 4-3 victory in the single-elimination game in the first meeting the two teams have had in 414 days.
The Friars wasted no time asserting their dominance and got on the board just over two minutes into the competition. Freshman defenseman Brooke Becker, who made the Pro Ambitions All-Rookie Team Friday, gave her team the lead with a wrister from the right face off circle.
Later looking for the equalizer, BU senior forward Nara Elia forcefully poked the puck across the goal line. However, the officials concluded the whistle blew before BU’s could’ve been tallied and the score remained 1-0.
Three minutes later, Providence was in a similar scenario when junior forward Caroline Peterson’s chip in goal went under review. BU senior goaltender Corinne Schroeder made two great initial saves, but it was determined the score would stand as it got to the back of the net before the whistle blew. The Friars gained a 2-0 advantage from this call.
“The two reviews were very, very similar in that both of them crossed the goal line, both of them the whistle blew and one of them, it wasn’t in the net until after the whistle,” head coach Brian Durocher said in the post game press conference. “In a 4-3 game, those two decisions loom large.”
BU got some life back into the bench as the time on the clock dwindled down and freshman defenseman Julia Shaunessy garnered her first collegiate goal with two minutes left in the period. Shaunessy weaved through four Friars to gain entry to the offensive zone and wristed one just past the left post to get the Terriers on the scoreboard, as she would later do at the end of the third period as well.
“I look at the last probably three to five games where she gave herself an opportunity to influence the game,” Durocher said of Shaunessy’s play. “It was nice to see her get rewarded with a couple goals today.”
The second ended with a score of 4-1 after a last minute goal from Providence to extend their lead.
Junior goaltender Kate Stuart started between the pipes for the third period, relieving Schroeder who protected the crease in the previous forty minutes of play. Durocher said it was an “extremely tough” decision to make this switch.
“To me, I looked at it as a win-win,” he said. “You’re picking two outstanding goaltenders, to say the least. But when we got into the third period, you need some kind of a spark, you need some kind of a change of scenery so to say.”
The spark seemed to work, as the Terriers cut the Friars’ lead in half with an outstanding goal from senior forward Kristina Schuler just 1:49 into the period. Schuler scooped the puck from the mess and seamlessly passed three Providence players on her way to the net, sniping the puck left side high, past senior goaltender Sandra Abstreiter.
In a last attempt to save their season, Shaunessy scored her second of the game and her career with ten seconds left on the clock. A rocket from the point that had eyes for the back of the net got the Terriers within one goal, but time ran out before they could knot the game at four, unable to get off a single shot before the final buzzer.
As BU’s season comes to a close, the Friars will move on to the semifinals March 3 against the University of Maine. The Terriers had only twelve games to show for their 2020-2021 campaign. Durocher said the limited games definitely hindered the level at which they were able to compete, but the shortened season still had its benefits.
“The good that I find is that people were forced to grow in a way that we never quite planned or never saw coming,” Durocher said. “And again, they are going to be better, they proved their resilience, they proved their ability to deal with adversity, they worked hard to stay together.”
