The No. 6 Boston University women’s ice hockey team had a strong surge of offense against Wayne State University in their home opening series Friday and Saturday at Walter Brown Arena. The Terriers (4-1-0) had 11 goals from seven different players in the two games.
On Friday night, the team won 7-2 in front of 817 fans &- the largest crowd at the arena since the 2008 Beanpot Championship. Leading the Terriers to the win was freshman forward Marie-Philip Poulin, who scored four goals. Poulin’s performance was just the second time in program history that a player scored four times, the first coming last season as then-sophomore forward Jenelle Kohanchuk netted her own four goals, also against Wayne State.
“The one thing that without a doubt sticks out is she sees everything that goes on on the ice,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “There are only a few players that can really carry a puck, shoot, skate and see the game, and she sees it at the highest level.”
In the first period, BU scored four goals to Wayne State’s one. It also outshot Wayne State 25-4. The scoring began 13:22 into the game, when Poulin received a pass from sophomore forward Jill Cardella to notch a short-handed tally. A little over a minute later, junior forward Jenn Wakefield scored a power-play goal to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Warriors cut the lead in half on forward Lauren Ragen’s goal 15:22 into the game. However, about two minutes later, BU junior defensemen Kasey Boucher scored the second of the team’s three power-play goals of the night. Poulin scored her second goal of the game with 58 seconds remaining in the period.
Halfway through the second period, Wayne State scored its only other goal of the night. At 15:28, Poulin completed the hat trick after receiving a pass from Cardella. The rest of the goals came in the third period, when Poulin notched her fourth tally of the night and junior defenseman Tara Watchorn scored her second goal of the season. Freshman Kerrin Sperry earned her second win of the season with a 14-save night.
“I thought we were pretty thorough through the 60 minutes of the game,” Durocher said. “I thought that the beginning of the game, we were a little lackadaisical taking three penalties to their one to start the game. . .but after that we got some big plays, obviously another short-handed goal and three power-play goals. That pretty much sealed the deal there.”
Overall, the team played aggressively and cohesively in its first regular-season contest at Walter Brown.
“We were pretty excited for that game, and it was exciting for us to be there with our fans and our home opener,” Poulin said. “It was just a great team effort.”
In the first period of Saturday’s game, Wayne State had already taken the lead on a goal by forward Julie Ingratta. Then, BU senior forward and captain Holly Lorms scored her first goal of the season in a scramble in front of the net to tie the game, 1-1, but it was a spectacular save by Sperry that gave the Terriers some momentum.
“That was a huge save,” Durocher said. “That time in the game it’s still anybody’s game, and one goal for them and all of a sudden we’re fighting a different battle.”
In the second and third periods, BU scored three consecutive goals to finish off the 4-1 win. Toward the end of the second period, Wakefield scored her seventh goal of the season. Six seconds later, Kohanchuk scored the Terriers’ third goal after Poulin won the faceoff and passed to her right in front of the net.
In the third period, Cardella scored her first goal of the season on a pass from Kohanchuk. Sperry, playing her first back-to-back games for BU, received her third win of the season and had 24 saves.
“I thought it was a fairly thorough effort,” Durocher said. “One thing I might grab back is maybe not giving up 25 shots on net, try to keep it a little less than that. But all in all we got a couple of people their first goal of the year with Jill Cardella and Holly Lorms, so that was really positive. You know, when you get goaltending, you kill penalties, you get scoring from different places, it’s a pretty good day.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
