After self-destructing last Tuesday in a lopsided 8-0 loss to Harvard University, the Boston University women’s hockey team will finish its part in the 31st Women’s Beanpot tonight in the consolation game against Northeastern University.
‘We’re always playing for something,’ BU coach Brian Durocher said of the consolation game. ‘Whether it be having a chance to lock up a winning season, getting a little bit more national respect by upping our win totals, preparing ourselves for two weekends from now when we do battle with Northeastern.’
With four games remaining on the schedule and their overall record at 14-10-6, a win tonight would secure the Terriers’ first winning season in four years as a varsity program.
Durocher called last week’s thrashing from Harvard in the first round of Beanpot play ‘almost a throwaway game because it got so one-sided.’ He said the loss encouraged his players, especially the veterans, to bounce back and put in added effort for the rest of the season. It provided an extra incentive for BU to take the No. 9 University of Connecticut down twice over the weekend.
‘They knew they had to recharge their batteries and refocus,’ Durocher said. ‘They did a great job of doing that and getting four points away from UConn.’
BU will head into Matthews Arena tonight propelled by the momentum of two consecutive victories. After struggling to gain a solid foothold in Hockey East in the past month, BU squeezed out a shootout win Friday night in Storrs, Conn., and added another 3-1 triumph against UConn at home Saturday.’ ‘
BU is now third in Hockey East with a 12-6-0 conference record. With the victories, the Terriers nabbed four points in Hockey East, raising their total to 24 – three behind conference leader No. 5 University of New Hampshire and one back from No. 7 Boston College.
The consolation game, which does not count toward Hockey East standings, will give BU a valuable look at Northeastern (11-5-3), who the Terriers face in a home-and-home series at the end of this month to close out the regular season.
The Terriers have faced the Huskies only once this year, coming up short in a 2-0 loss at Walter Brown Arena on Jan. 8. That defeat came amidst BU’s January funk, in which they outshot most of their opponents, but could not find the back of the net enough to turn in victories.
‘They’ve got to have some confidence getting the win against us here,’ Durocher said of Northeastern. ‘We want to see if we can’t deflate them a little bit and get ourselves moving in the right direction.’
BU outshot Northeastern by a huge margin – 31 to 16 – in that game, but flawless goaltending by Northeastern sophomore Leah Sulyma laid the Terriers to rest that night. Sulyma is currently fifth among Hockey East goalies with a 1.98 goals-against average.
‘They’ve got big-time goaltending,’ Durocher said of Sulyma. ‘We’ll have to work hard to do the little things ‘-‘- screening, kicks, rebounds, go under the net ‘-‘- because you just don’t beat their goaltender too often with straight shots.”
BU senior goaltender Allyse Wilcox is coming off a solid performance Saturday, making 23 saves and allowing just one goal. Senior forward Caroline Bordeau also had a big weekend, notching the decisive score that claimed BU a shootout victory on Friday, then adding two assists in Saturday’s win. Freshman defenseman Tara Watchorn continued to put together a solid rookie season with a goal and an assist Saturday.
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.
