As the Boston University women’s ice hockey team closes out the first half of its second season, the second time around for this team could turn out to be a Doublemint dream – double the pleasure, double the fun. Oh, and double the wins.

Closing out the first half of the 2006-07 campaign yesterday afternoon with an 8-0 lashing of Sacred Heart University, the Terriers notched their 11th win of the season. The Terriers are now just one win away from matching their win total from all of last season.

Finishing their 2005-06 campaign at a 12-17-4 mark, the Terriers are on pace to nearly double last season’s total.

“I told the team I felt like we were one or two wins from having a real, real good first half,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “I think we had a good first half, I think they played extremely hard, but we couldn’t quite get over the hump there in a couple of the Hockey East games, but all in all, it was a real good first half and we’re going in the right direction here.”

It seems that Hockey East is the only place the Terriers do struggle. Despite its strong overall record, BU is just 3-5-1 in conference games and if the Terriers hope to double up their conference standings from the end of last season – when they finished in sixth place – they’re going to need a strong second half showing.

“We haven’t quite pulled the Hockey East stunners,” Durocher said. “[Last season], we had beaten Providence and tied BC, so those are three points we haven’t gathered this year.”

They will certainly have an opportunity to improve their conference fortunes. Twelve of the Terriers’ 16 games in the second half are against Hockey East teams.

But the fact remains that these Terriers have a more seasoned look and confidence on the ice. The biggest example of what that experience has done comes in the form of sophomore forward Erin Seman.

For Seman, it has been a tale of two seasons and two almost completely different players. Last season, Seman was a team leader, but not necessarily in a way Durocher may have liked.

Seman was queen of the penalty box, racking up 96 minutes in the box and having the honor of being the only member of the team to receive a major penalty – she received not one, but two majors last season.

This season, Seman is a team leader in a different way. Scoring two goals in yesterday’s contest, she became the team’s leading scorer, netting her eighth and ninth goals of the season. The two goals gave her a total of 18 points – tying her freshman season total – at just the halfway point of the year.

The difference in her play has been one of the biggest catalysts for the very successful first line of Seman, Melissa Anderson and captain Cara Hendry.

“Erin Seman’s had a tremendous first half of the year and there’s two reasons,” Durocher said. “One, she got herself in magnificent physical condition over the summer and is not fatigued at all when she’s out there on the ice, where last year she’d be fatigued halfway through a shift.

“And the second reason, it’s loud and clear, lack of penalties,” he continued. “She spent a lot of time in the penalty box, sat out two games for penalty-related discipline reasons and just would take herself out of the game through penalties.”

This year, Seman has only spent 22 minutes in the box – on pace for about half the amount of time she spent in there last season and has yet to receive a major penalty on the ice.

“Last year, I think I came here not really knowing what to expect and I didn’t have as much confidence as I do this year and so I really didn’t have as much control,” Seman said. “So I just realized that I have to go into the corners with my elbows down and keep my stick on the ice and why I’ve been staying out of the box.”

As for her point totals, Seman attributes much of her success to her linemates, Anderson and Hendry, who all continued their consecutive point streaks Saturday. Hendry’s now sits at eight while Seman and Anderson both are at six games. Together, the top line as tallied 28 of the Terriers last 57 points.

“We have a lot of chemistry, as it has been said, and it’s obvious with the amount of points that we’ve been able to get in the past few games,” Seman said.

After a strong first half, the Terriers are in a good position heading into the break. At this rate, the Terriers could have double the playoff chances come March.