The Boston University’s women’s hockey team defeated Merrimack College 5-1 Thursday night in North Andover and took home two valuable Hockey East conference points. The Terriers (9-13-6, 5-10-5 Hockey East) scored five unanswered goals after falling behind 1-0 early in the matchup.
Contrary to what the score would indicate, the game was hard fought between the two teams. The Warriors (9-16-3, 4-12-2 Hockey East) came out of the gate strong on the attack, painting BU freshman goaltender Corinne Schroeder with numerous shots on goal, totaling 13 over the first period.
Merrimack sophomore forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis would ultimately see the back of the net, weaving past the Terriers’ defense and shooting to the left past Schroeder, giving the Warriors a 1-0 lead at 12:19.
The Terriers attempted several shots on net, including a one-on-one shot between BU senior forward and captain Rebecca Leslie and Merrimack goaltender Samantha Ridgewell that went just wide of the net.
But Terrier senior forward Victoria Bach fired a wrister through traffic that Ridgewell could not register, knotting the game 1-1 at the end of the first period.
The goal was just another in a long list for Bach, making it her 30th goal of the season. After breaking numerous records in her senior season, the forward also became the third player in BU program history to notch 30 goals in a single season.
In spite of this, Merrimack had the Terriers outshot by a wide margin of 13-4 at the end of the frame.
“We got off to an extremely slow start and they had us beat on the ice in the first,” BU head coach Brian Durocher said. “Merrimack played a quick first period and really controlled the game. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous.”
However, BU would return to the ice in the second and dictate the rest of the game.
Just a little over a minute into the period, on a power play opportunity that carried over from the first, Terrier freshman forward Jesse Compher set this new tone with a slapshot that found the top shelf of the goal, improving BU’s score to two.
Several Terrier penalties gave Merrimack a man advantage, but the Warriors were unable to make anything out of it. Merrimack was only able to land four shots on goal throughout the entire frame and the period ended with the score in favor of BU 2-1.
The Terriers came blazing again in the final period, with Leslie backhanding a rebound into the net at 1:51.
The Warriors attack became more aggressive, but the Terrier defense continued to stand their ground and Merrimack were unable to respond.
The Warriors saw another power play opportunity and got five shots on goal, but failed to take advantage. Merrimack ended the night going 0-for-4 on the power play.
BU continued to be aggressive on the attack as well, with sophomore forward Natasza Tarnowski scoring a shorthanded goal, her fourth goal of the season.
With the clock dwindling down, the Warriors pulled Ridgewell in an attempt to put some points on the board, but were unsuccessful. However, Bach sunk the puck into an empty net to obtain her second goal of the game and the Terriers went home with a 5-1 win.
The home-and-home series will conclude on Saturday afternoon when the two teams meet again in Boston.
“It looked like a one-sided game, but it was anything but,” Durocher said. “We did a good job playing penalties. That was a big part of the game. Credit to the special teams. That was a really nice job.”
