By Gillian McMahon
The Boston University women’s ice hockey team (9-9-4, 8-6-3 HE) took on the No. 3 ranked Northeastern Huskies (21-2-1, 16-2-1 HE) at Matthews Arena this afternoon, which despite a strong effort, resulted in a 6-3 Terriers loss.
After some COVID-19 related scheduling issues, the Terriers home and home series with their cross town rivals, the Huskies, was split up over the last two weekends. Last Saturday’s matchup at Walter Brown Arena resulted in a 3-1 loss for a shorthanded Terrier lineup that was still able to hang with the likely Frozen Four team for much of the game.
Tonight, just 21 seconds into the game, senior forward Courtney Correia scored her team-leading 11th goal of the season.
Then, sophomore forward Catherine Foulem scored a second goal off a rebound from teammate junior forward Julia Nearis after a turnover in the Northeastern zone. Foulem put in her fourth goal of the year, giving the Terriers a 2-0 lead quickly within the first two minutes of the game.
Before the game, Huskies head coach Dave Flint emphasized the challenge that any game against BU brings as they are a tough and well-coached team. Another point of emphasis for the Huskies was to avoid a slow start, which is exactly what they didn’t do, to the Terriers’ benefit in the first period.
After a tripping penalty on sophomore defenseman Julia Shaunessy, BU handled their first penalty kill of the game well and was able to keep up the aggressiveness.
On their first attempt at the power play, the Terriers were unable to get much through the Huskies’ defensive zone. With about 30 seconds remaining, Nearis got a cross checking penalty to finish BU’s power play at 4 aside.
Quickly after, senior forward Cholé Aurard scored off of senior forward Maureen Murphy’s second attempt from the slot for the Huskies, cutting the Terriers lead in half and swinging the momentum towards the Huskies.
However, before the end of the first period captain and senior forward Kaleigh Donnelly scored her first goal of the season in a shot from the left circle with nothing but red Huskies jerseys surrounding her.
Though scoring goals has been a point of trouble this year for the Terriers, only averaging 2.3 goals per game, the three goals in the first period were a hot start to the game.
The second period began with a Huskies goaltending change, putting in junior goaltender Gwyneth Philips. The Huskies soon were able to settle into their style of offensive play and spent much of the period in BU’s zone.
Captain and graduate defenseman for Northeastern, Brooke Hobson, netted her 6th goal on the year while falling to the ice halfway through the second period cutting the Terrier lead to one.
Northeastern found themselves in a 5-on-3 position with two Terrier penalties in a row. BU stayed tough and got bodies in front of pucks to disrupt the Huskies flow on the penalty kill.
BU had a chance to score at the start of the third period on the power play from junior forward Peyton Anderson’s penalty but were unable to get into any rhythm until the two minutes were running down.
The Huskies went on the power play again around the 13 minute mark of the third period and got a game tying goal from graduate forward Maddie Mills.
The Huskies took the 4-3 lead with a tip in goal from junior forward Katy Knoll with just under four minutes to go. Murphy sealed the game with an empty net goal with a minute left to play. The Huskies put in one final tally on a game ending power play shot from Mills.
Despite the loss, freshman goaltender Callie Shanahan had an impressive performance as Northeastern put up 59 shots. She handled the pressure between the pipes throughout the game.
Northeastern remains undefeated at Matthews Arena this year and extends their unbeaten streak to 20.
The Terriers have two matchups remaining before the start of the Beanpot Tournament at the beginning of February. They will face the Holy Cross Crusaders in Worcester on Friday night at 6 p.m. and the following night host the Boston College Eagles at Walter Brown Arena for a 6 p.m. puck drop.
Be sure to follow along with our coverage of Boston University men’s and women’s ice hockey here at the Boston Hockey Blog alongside our Twitter (@BOShockeyblog) and Instagram (@boston.hockey.blog).
How’s that unbeaten streak. Why would a coach make changes to the lines that had success. I know Colin they are all good kids and it doesn’t matter.
So time to revisit the best coach in college hockey.
Back to no offense against the bottom team in the pairwise