Saturday’s loss to Princeton University might not have been the most lopsided in the history of the women’s hockey program, but to BU coach Brian Durocher, it was the worst.
Special teams doomed the Boston University women’s hockey team (2-6-2, 0-2-0 Hockey East) Saturday as it fell, 4-2, to Princeton (2-3-2, 1-3-1 ECAC) at Walter Brown Arena. The Terriers couldn’t get anything going as they struggled to apply sustained pressure in the offensive zone and keep the Tiger snipers away from the net. Poor execution on the power play and an even worse penalty kill amounted to the Terriers shooting themselves in the foot.
“I thought that was maybe as disappointing a game as we’ve played in two and a half years here for my money,” Durocher said. “While the score was close and it was an open-net goal at the end, I just thought that we were not as prepared as we should have been, and I don’t think we caught as many passes as we should.
“When you’re not collecting pucks it means you’re probably not ready to play,” he said.
Princeton opened the scoring in the first period when sophomore defenseman Stephanie Denino took a pass from junior Christine Foster and skated into the BU zone against two Terrier defenders. After gaining the high slot, Denino fired a wrist shot that beat junior goaltender Allyse Wilcox’s glove side just under the crossbar at 8:08.
BU played its best hockey in the first period when the first line — juniors Gina Kearns, Erin Seman and sophomore Melissa Anderson – was able to cycle the puck down low and keep the play in the Tigers’ zone for nearly two minutes.
“It works well because we got people moving,” said co-captain Kearns. ” We got a couple of good opportunities there and we would have liked to put one in.”
Early in the second period, BU evened the score when sophomore Melissa Tetreau netted her first career goal. Sophomore Jonnie Bloemers centered the puck from along the boards and Tetreau banged it home at 1:25.
But when sophomore defenseman Sarah Appleton was called for checking, Princeton senior captain Lizzie Keady skated into the zone on the ensuing faceoff and let go a wrister shot that beat Wilcox’s glove side again, putting up the Tigers, 2-1.
“Jillian Kirchner did a good job of back-checking on [her hooking penalty],” Durocher said, “but there were two or three or four others that were just us being a little bit lazy.”
Junior defenseman Amanda Shaw would even the score at 13:00 when she took the puck out of her own zone and skated up the rink. Shaw passed to junior Nicki Wiart behind the net and then went to the front of the net. Bloemers took the puck from Wiart behind the net and sent it out front to Shaw, who beat Princeton junior goaltender Kristen Young to even the score at 2-2. Bloemers earned her second assist of the game on the play.
Foster would sink the eventual game winner, her second score of the game, at 4:00 in the third period. Sophomore defenseman Maddie Endicott took a slap shot from the blue line and Foster and redirected the shot into the corner of the goal past Wilcox. Junior Annie Greenwood iced the game with an empty-netter with less than a minute left.
The Terriers’ power play started out hot this season, including games against Mercyhurst College and Dartmouth College, when they were 4-7 and 3-7 on the man advantage, respectively. But they haven’t scored on a power play in four straight games and failed in their six chances against Princeton, including two chances with a 5-on-3 advantage.