All good things must come to an end.
This tenet rang true for the No. 4 Boston University women’s hockey team’s historic 10-game unbeaten streak Tuesday after a 4-1 loss to Yale University at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Conn.
‘I hope the lesson learned is that we realize who we are,’ BU coach Brian Durocher said. ‘We start with good goaltending on this team. We think we’ve got enough talent at defense and forward. We’re a team that has to play good defensive hockey. We’ve all got to work. We’ve all got to compete defensively.’
The Terriers fell to 8-3-3 overall, while Eastern College Athletic Conference opponent Yale rose to a 4-6-0 season mark.
Durocher said his team’s defense was ‘somewhat uncharacteristically just standing around in the front of the net or coming out to the front of the net without defending at all.’ This lack of defensive precision allowed the Bulldogs to get to loose pucks and rebounds, which led to Yale’s first three goals, Durocher said.’
Yale attacked the Terrier defense out of the gate, using a boisterous forechecking strategy against BU defenders to gain control of the puck and create second chances in the offensive zone.
The strategy got to the Terriers late in the first frame. BU senior goaltender Allyse Wilcox saved a shot off the stick of Bulldog senior Crysti Howser, but Yale freshman Aleca Hughes recovered the puck and zipped a shot past Wilcox for the first goal of the contest. The score came on a Yale power play 34 seconds after BU junior forward Melissa Anderson was sent to the penalty box for hooking.
Yale tacked on some insurance midway through the second period. After two more saves from Wilcox, who had 20 on the night, Yale senior Kristen Stupay made it a 2-0 game by converting the rebound into a Bulldog goal.
Less than a minute later, a delayed penalty on Yale was called, and BU pulled Wilcox in favor of an extra attacker. The Terriers’ player advantage on the offensive end paid off when freshman forward Jenelle Kohanchuk scored about 40 seconds later.
Kohanchuk converted Anderson’s centering pass from behind the Bulldog net, taking a straight-on shot that eluded Yale’s sophomore goalie Jackee Snikeris. BU sophomore forward Lauren Cherewyk also assisted the goal.
Unfortunately for BU, the goal would be its last of the evening.
The Bulldogs secured the victory with two more goals in the contest, as senior Danielle Kozlowski cashed in to make the score 3-1 during a Yale power play late in the second period. Howser nailed a breakaway shot halfway through the third that would be the final blow in BU’s 4-1 loss.’ ‘
Penalties also contributed to the Terrier loss. During the 10-game unbeaten streak, BU avoided most negative effects from penalties thanks to tight defense. Durocher acknowledged that ‘penalties are part of the game,’ but he said that the team needed to avoid penalty trouble away from its own net.’ ‘ ‘ ‘
‘In that case, I want to see people skating and not getting hooking penalties,’ Durocher said.
‘ This was not the case in New Haven. The Bulldogs capitalized twice in their six power-play opportunities. In contrast, the Terriers failed to net the puck during any of their seven man-up chances, which amounted to 10:57 of clock time – almost double the time that the Bulldogs were up a player (5:30).’
‘This is one of those nights we probably were a little flat in our execution,’ Durocher said.
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.
