The No. 9 Boston University women’s hockey team, entering the weekend with a loss to No. 2 University of Wisconsin, found itself on the losing end once again with a 3-1 loss to No. 6 Harvard University Friday night. However, it rebounded Sunday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over the University of New Hampshire.
BU (11-3-1, 7-0-0 Hockey East) fell behind early against Harvard (7-1-1) as forward Dylanne Crugnale made a pass from behind the net to forward Gina McDonald. McDonald was right in front to send a shot pass a falling senior goaltender Kerrin Sperry just 3:19 into the game to give Harvard a 1-0 lead.
For the majority of the first period, Harvard pelleted Sperry and the BU defense with a number of dangerous chances, none of which, luckily for BU, went to the back of the net. Sperry finished the first period with 15 saves, and Harvard held a 16-9 advantage in shots going into the first intermission.
Sophomore forward Rebecca Russo had perhaps the best chance of the first period, with a breakaway attempt with about 30 seconds on the clock, but Harvard goalie Emerance Maschmeyer handled the shot to preserve the Crimson’s 1-0 lead.
The Crimson extended their lead late in the second period after Sperry blocked a shot from forward Hillary Crowe, but forward Samantha Reber knocked home a rebound at the 18:00 mark to extend the Harvard lead to 2-0.
That would be enough for the Crimson to earn the victory, but at the midway point of the third period, Miye D’Oench knocked the puck through Sperry’s five-hole to give Harvard an overwhelming 3-0 lead.
BU got a goal back with about four minutes left in regulation to avoid being shut out for a second straight game. Russo scored from the slot off a rebound to cut the deficit to 3-1, but it was too little, too late for the Terriers, who dropped back-to-back games for the first time since early February of last season.
At UNH (6-7-2, 2-3-2 Hockey East) two days later, early on, the Terriers got off to an encouraging start as sophomore forward Sarah Lefort notched her eighth goal of the season, tying senior captain Louise Warren for the team lead and giving BU a 1-0 lead.
That lead would hold until the 15:28 mark of the second period. With the Wildcats on a power play thanks to a Lefort elbowing penalty, forward Hannah Armstrong redirected a shot from defenseman Jess Ryan past Sperry to even the score at one goal apiece.
At the 11:14 mark of the third period, BU broke the tie with a wrister from junior forward Kayla Tutino, who earned her fourth goal of the season to give the Terriers a 2-1 lead.
That lead held until the final horn sounded, thanks to a strong BU defense and a huge save from Sperry on a breakaway from senior Jessica Hitchcock. The victory snapped the longest losing streak of the season for the Terriers.
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.
