The Boston University women’s hockey team (3-0-2) will spend the weekend in upstate New York where they’ll face two different opponents: The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers (2-4) on Friday and the Union College Dutchmen (2-4-1) on Saturday.
The Terriers had a tough go last Friday in their matchup against the Merrimack College Warriors––a team who had dropped their first five games of the season and ended the 2020-2021 campaign with a 1-15 record.
BU ended with only a point to show in the standings as they lost the game in a shootout. The game will go down as a 4-4 tie in the records, but morale wise, their single-game weekend was a falloff from how they want to perform this year.
With two opportunities to redeem themselves, the Terriers need to get back to the spirit and drive they showed in their 2-1 win over Northeastern University (4-2) earlier this season. Point leaders like senior forward Courtney Correia and junior forward Julia Nearis will aid their squad in getting back on track.
Correia and Nearis have a combined 16 points in five games, both stepping up to their leadership positions in big ways. Per usual, senior netminder Kate Stuart has been standing tall for BU in the crease and will likely be the starter this weekend. She had 23 saves in the Merrimack game and holds a .917 save percentage.
The Terriers not only have strength in their veterans, but in their underclassmen too. The group has been able to depend on players like freshman forwards Christina Vote and Kylie Roberts to create offense, while sophomore defensemen Andi Calderone and Julia Shaunessy have done a fantastic job of holding it down at the blueline.
BU will have to start playing like a unit again and take advantage of the wide range of talent they have on the bench to find themselves back in the win column.
RPI will be the Terrier’s first opponent. The Engineers got their first wins of the season two weekends ago with a sweep of Union College. They came away with 13 goals in two days, securing a whopping 9-2 victory in the Saturday game and snapping their previous 4 game losing streak.
Junior forward Marah Wagner leads her squad in points with six (3g, 3a) and is closely followed by freshman forward Audrey McCutcheon with five (4g, 1a). McCutcheon had a hat trick in their last competition against Union and is definitely an offensive force BU needs to keep on their radar.
Starting between the pipes for all of their games thus far, junior goaltender Amanda Rampado has garnered a 2.16 goals-against-average and a .935 save percentage. We can expect that she’ll be ready to go when the Terriers arrive at the Houston Field House on Friday.
Saturday’s game is against the Union College Dutchmen who haven’t tasted victory since the first weekend of October. But if the Merrimack game taught us anything, it’s that your opponent’s record simply doesn’t matter––the game in front of you does.
Since getting swept by RPI, the Dutchmen have had two 0-5 losses––one against Syracuse University and one against Mercyhurst University––as well as a 2-2 tie in their most recent game last Saturday. Similar to BU, they’ll urgently be looking to get something going.
Sophomore forward Celeste Beaudoin leads Union with five points this season (2g, 3a). All of the Dutchmen’s point leaders are underclassmen––it seems the group has leaned on their younger players for offensive production thus far.
In net, sophomore goalie Oliva Rinzel has started in five out of the seven games her squad has played and will probably get the nod against BU. Rinzel has a 3.11 goals-against-average and a .865 save percentage.
This weekend, the Terriers need to prove that their blockbuster opening two weekends were not just a fluke and that they’re really here to compete. Realistically, RPI and Union are two groups BU has the talent to beat, so we’ll see if they come more prepared than they did for Merrimack to collect the six points up for grabs.
The puck will drop at 6:00p.m. on Friday in Troy, New York against the Engineers, and 3:00p.m. on Saturday at Union College. We’ll have a weekend recap up on the blog following the games and as always, follow along on Twitter (@BOShockeyblog) and Instagram (boston.hockey.blog) for BU hockey updates.
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