For 58 minutes of Friday’s season opener, the Boston University women’s hockey team matched No. 5 Northeastern blow for blow. The final score of the Terriers’ 4-1 loss to the Huskies only tells the story of the final two minutes of the matchup.
During the Terriers’ final timeout — with the Huskies holding on to a one goal lead in the final minute of the game — head coach Tara Watchorn pulled freshman goalie Mari Pietersen and brought on freshman forward Alex Law as the extra skater.
Catherine Foulem, senior Terrier forward, won the post-timeout faceoff but missed the shot that would’ve tied the game.
The puck dribbled away from the goal, landing in a scrum at the left side boards. The Huskies recovered it, and broke away for an empty netter that more or less ended the game.
After Northeastern’s empty-netter, scored by graduate forward Peyton Anderson, the Huskies came up with another, this time scored by sophomore Lily Shannon.
Thus, a game which was fought on the margins for the better part of three periods ends in the record books as a 4-1 blowout.
Despite the loss, Watchorn said postgame that her team “felt it” tonight.
“We felt moments of the game when we were dominant, they felt moments of the game when our power play was clicking, they felt moments when our [penalty kill] was doing well. So I think that’s the biggest thing is that we felt it work,” Watchorn said.
Watchorn, who was coaching in her first regular season game as head coach for the Terriers, said that doubt crept in for her team as time dwindled down.
“As soon as it got down the wire there, I think that doubt creeped in a little bit or that that self confidence wasn’t there and it should be there,” Watchorn said.
In the first period, the Terriers took advantage of an uncharacteristically slow start for the Huskies in the first — Northeastern only held an 8-6 advantage in shots on goal.
Pietersen lost track of the puck when Husky sophomore Allie Lalonde shot a quality wrister that gave Northeastern a 1-0 lead shortly after the halfway point of the first period.
Directly after, Husky captain Megan Carter took a penalty, putting the Terriers on the power play.
The Huskies nearly escaped their penalty kill with the lead before senior Catherine Foulem tied it on the final second of the power play, just as the Northeastern fan section was beginning to celebrate.
After receiving the feed from sophomore Sydney Healey behind the net, Foulem twisted around and squeezed her goal past the stick side of Northeastern’s fifth-year goalie Gwyneth Philips.
As time wore down in the first period, BU’s skaters were batting away every Northeastern pass attempt, putting an exclamation point on their strong start.
The Huskies came out of the gates hot in the second, showing much more energy to start the period.
Pietersen made several heroic saves to stave off the Huskies early, including one where she stopped a shot amid a chaotic net front scrum where it looked as though she may have caught a stick to the head.
“Mari kept us in it no doubt,” Coach Watchorn said. “I had no doubt, she’s a gamer, she rises to big occasions. I think she made some big saves for us.”
Despite Pietersen’s great play throughout, Wathcorn wouldn’t commit to naming her as the team’s go-to starter this early in the season.
“I think she’s shown that she can compete at the D1 level, but we have [other] great goalies as well, so we’ll have to see who’s gonna give us the best,” Watchorn said.
Midway through the period the Terriers got their second power play of the contest, but came away without a goal to show for it.
Minutes later the Huskies earned a power play of their own and junior forward Taze Thompson scored to put the Huskies up 2-1 heading into the final period.
Even though the Terriers held strong to kill off two power plays for the Huskies in the third, they weren’t able to seal the deal on any of their own shots in the third period, setting up a down-to-the-wire end in the third.
Coach Watchorn said postgame that she wanted to pull Pietersen after the three minute mark in the third period but didn’t feel the team had enough momentum.
“We were looking for it, but we just couldn’t get it down there. So as soon as we did, we tried our best and hoped to get that last look,” Watchorn said.
Even though that last look proved unsuccessful, the first game of Watchorn’s coaching career offered a glimpse at a team much improved from the year before.
“I’ve always wanted to be a coach, and this is the absolute dream come true to be able to be behind the bench in a big game like this,” Watchorn said. “Great way to start our season against a great opponent.”
The Terriers (0-1-0, 0-1-0 Hockey East) will take on the Northeastern Huskies (4-1-0, 1-0-0 HE) again tomorrow afternoon at Matthews Arena. Puck drop is set for 1:30pm with full coverage on Instagram @Boston.Hockey.Blog and Twitter @BosHockeyBlog.
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