After four games on the road, the Boston University women’s hockey team returned to Walter Brown Arena in a rematch with Northeastern University Tuesday night, but faced a similar result.
Following a tough 6-2 loss against the Huskies (6-2-1, 2-0 Hockey East) last week, the Terriers (3-3-1, 2-3 Hockey East) were unable to reverse the score, falling 4-3 and losing two in a row for the first time since February.
In the opening frame, the Huskies took quick possession of the puck and junior McKenna Brand scored her fifth goal of the season just 67 seconds in. Strong defense continued from the Huskies and four minutes later, defender Maddie Hartman added a shorthanded goal to extend the Northeastern lead to two.
As this was just the seventh contest of the season, BU head coach Brian Durocher remains unsure of who his main goaltender. Senior Victoria Hanson and junior Erin O’Neil have essentially split time in net, with Hanson getting a little more ice time.
“If both of them play a game next week, there will be another look and if they’re both sitting at a 90 save percentage, that’s going to be a recurring theme from last year,” Durocher said. “I want them to send me a message and I haven’t quite gotten the message yet.”
After a poor start to the game, BU was able to turn things around and capitalize on its second power play of the night.
Senior forward Samantha Sutherland tapped the puck to classmate and fellow forward Maddie Elia who broke through and scored her fifth goal of the season to cut the Huskie lead to 2-1 at the 11:48 mark in the first period.
Continuing into the second frame, the Huskies remained persistent, and their aggressive play led to another Brand goal, a backhand power-play conversion, at the 5:16 mark.
Nine minutes later, senior Hayley Scamurra netted the second shorthanded goal of the night for Northeastern to give her team a 4-1 advantage.
“I think we had a chance to maybe chip it up the outside wall and we didn’t, then suddenly it gets knocked off our stick but it’s not like they stole it and went on a break” Durocher said. “They the Huskies got the puck and a play evolved. We need to have people really coming back and marking people, and I don’t know if we did a great job there.”
Late into the period, the Terriers were able to counter.
The Terriers countered later in the period, though, as junior forward Victoria Bach cut Northeastern’s lead in half with a power-play score at the 16:20 mark.
“We had some good saves in our end, but there were four grade-A chances in the third period by Bach and Leslie and for a goalie to keep making those saves, you’ve got to identify that kid as being awful, awful good tonight,” Durocher said.
With two shutouts this season and a current goal save percentage of 0.940 to her name this season, Northeastern’s sophomore goaltender Brittany Bugalski shined once again against BU.
Despite Bugalski’s performance, the Terriers’ offensive skill was on display. At the 7:34 mark in the final frame, Bach was able to sink an impressive backhand wrist shot past Bugalski to bring BU within a goal.
In the waning minutes of the contest, however, BU was unable to create an opportunity.
“We remained resilient, we stayed in the game, we fought back from a three-goal deficit and had plenty of glittering opportunities to tie the game and give ourselves a chance,” Durocher said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite stay out of the box enough in the third period.”
BU looks to improve over the next 10 days before the team plays rival No. 4 Boston College at Conte Forum next Friday.
“We need to be ready at the shift and period against Boston College,” Durocher said. “Those are mistakes that kill you. We want to grow and try to build.”
