By James Garrison
The Boston University women’s hockey team (9-8-4, 8-5-3 HE) returned to gameplay action for the first time since January 2nd today to take on the number three nationally ranked Northeastern Huskies (19-2-1, 14-2-1 HE) where they lost 1-3.
The Terriers’ past two series against Boston College and the University of Maine have been postponed due to COVID issues on the opposing schools’ end. The Terriers were slated to take on Northeastern twice next weekend, but one game was moved up so that the Terriers would not go three full weeks with no game action.
“A lot of credit to the other opponent in that we had a hard time really generating the offensive or puck possession parts of the game,” said Head Coach Brian Durocher in his post-game press conference. “You’ve got to get your share of that activity.”
The Terriers took the ice today with a pieced-together roster as several of their regular players were unable to play this afternoon. On the bench for BU were ten forwards, eight defensemen, and only one goaltender.
In her fifteenth game of the season, the Terrier’s lone goaltender, senior Kate Stuart, kept her team in the game. Stuart set a new career high in saves today, stopping 44 of the 47 shots that she faced.
“Kate was there all the way for us and kept us alive,” said Durocher.
After ten minutes of even play, the game was broken open as Huskies senior forward Chloé Aurard went streaking down the right side and put one past Stuart to open the scoring as the Terriers’ power-play was just ending.
For Aurard, it was her thirteenth goal of the season overall, tying senior forward Maureen Murphy with the team high in goals. Aurard also leads Hockey East with thirteen goals.
The Terriers were able to respond fairly quickly though, as sophomore forward Lacey Martin’s point shot beat Huskies goaltender Aerin Frankel for the Terriers’ lone goal of the game. For Martin, it was just her second goal of the season, her other tally coming on New Year’s Day against Syracuse University.
“We put [Martin] to center,” said Durocher when asked what has contributed to Martin’s recent offensive output of five points in her last four games. “It also gives you the ability to go left or right when you’re coming up the ice.”
The Terriers were able to hang with the Huskies for the rest of the first and second periods, despite finishing the second period down one goal. The effects of BU’s shorthanded lineup were finally felt in the third period where a tired Terrier squad was dominated for much of the 20 minutes.
Strong defense and great goaltending kept the shorthanded Terriers in the game against a top-ranked Huskies squad that looked poised to make another run at the national championship.
Despite Stuart’s stellar play, the Huskies finally broke through as senior forward Alina Mueller provided Northeastern an insurance goal with just over one minute remaining in the game.
The Terriers will not have to wait long for another shot at the Huskies, as they will face off next Friday for what was supposed to be the first meeting of their two game series. Due to COVID related schedule changes, the Terriers are only slated to play one game next weekend.
After that, the Terriers will have a one game series against Holy Cross––their last test before the Beanpot Semifinals, where they will take on Harvard University.
For coverage of Men’s and Women’s games, recaps can be found here on the blog, with additional coverage on Twitter @BOShockeyblog and on Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.
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