Crossley, Newton show importance for women’s hockey

The old adage “You can’t win if you can’t score” carries a great deal of weight on the ice, but that doesn’t mean defense should remain in a team’s periphery.

This is something head coach Brian Durocher has preached to the Boston University women’s hockey team all season.

In a weekend in which the Terriers (16-9-2, 13-4-2 Hockey East) swept Providence College 5-1 in a home-and-home set, that defense-first attitude manifested itself through the team’s top defensive pairing.

Junior Alexis Crossley and fellow defenseman sophomore Savannah Newton have endured some ups and downs, as had this entire BU bunch, but their skills were on full display against the Friars (8-17-1, 4-11-1 Hockey East).

“I think Alexis Crossley is unquestionably the top defenseman on our team, and Savannah is probably the most improved player on our team from last year to this year,” Durocher said. “[Savannah’s] just stepped it up in a lot of different ways. They’re both pretty strong kids physically, so it’s nice to have an upper pair, but I like to think there’s multiple people participating and really doing a good job on [defense].”

As Durocher noted, Crossley and Newton are among a number of key contributors on defense, but their pairing acts as an anchor of sorts. In Saturday’s victory over the Friars, the pairing was on the ice for Providence’s lone goal 10:26 into the game, but returned to lock-down defense thereafter.

In Sunday’s 4-2 win, Crossley and Newton were on the ice for Providence’s second goal but also significantly factored in a four-goal comeback.

Another key part of Crossley and Newton’s pairing is they’re often tasked with defending the opposition’s top forwards. For that reason alone, they’re not going to win every battle, but do lean on a rapport that extends beyond their BU days.

“What’s nice for us is we’ve played together since we were like 14, 15,” Crossley said. “We grew up together and knew each other, and I think we started off with that chemistry initially. It’s nice to have a chance to play with someone that you feel comfortable with and can really grow with as a [defensive] pair and as hockey players.”

The pair certainly is still growing too. Last year’s top defensive pairing of now-graduated Shannon Doyle and Shannon Stoneburgh finished the season with a combined plus-62 rating, far greater than the current duo’s plus-15 rating.

While plus-minus rating is not entirely indicative of a pair’s performance, it illustrates that there’s still room for improvement.

Part of the reason Crossley and Newton have gone through some adversity this season is they were not on the ice every game last year. Newton only played in 10 games during her freshman campaign, and Crossley sat out the entire 2014-2015 season due to transfer regulations after coming over from the University of New Hampshire.

However, the pairing is confident that given their history together, they can improve down the stretch.

“We’ve played with each other for so long that we know pretty much what the other person’s going to do,” Newton said. “We know how the other thinks, we know where to be when the other person isn’t, we know how to adapt and just go with each other.”

With the Beanpot Tournament and Hockey East Tournament on the horizon, it’s likely that games will often be decided by a goal or two. Given the tendency for close games, Durocher knows that defense can make or break a season.

“There are very few teams that win strictly with offense,” Durocher said. “It has to be done with defense, and we probably can look down the street at the Patriots to know … it has made life a lot better for them.”

In the vain of Bill Belichick’s philosophy, Durocher emphasized that team defense is a pillar any successful group needs to have.

“We haven’t been very sound defensively here, in the back end and all the way through we need to get better,” he said. “I talk about the goalie making one more save, the [defense] just being a little more stingy, and it’s a team activity. All six people on the ice have got to be participating shift after shift.”