The Boston University women’s ice hockey team (5-4-1, 3-4-0 Hockey East) has a big weekend ahead with games against Boston College (7-6-1, 7-2-1 HE) and Providence (3-8-0, 3-4-0 HE).
Friday, the Terriers will play this season’s first Battle of Comm Ave with an 11a.m. game against the Eagles at Conte Forum. On Saturday, the team travels to Providence to take on another conference opponent in the Friars.
The weekend’s games provide an opportunity for the Terriers to get back to winning after a tough 3-1 loss Wednesday at Havard, giving the 0-8-1 Crimson their first win of the season.
BU had gone unbeaten since a sweep at the hands of Northeastern in the opening weekend prior to Wednesday’s loss and a split in a home-and-home series against UNH last weekend.
In an appearance on Terrier Hockey Talk, senior forward Lacey Martin said the most important lesson coming out of Wednesday’s loss is to be ready by puck drop.
“I feel like we saw it Friday at UNH but we’ve had some slow starts especially [Wednesday] vs Harvard,” Martin said. “Just playing a full 60 minutes would be our focus.”
BU’s offense has stagnated over these last three games due in part to the absence of freshman forward Alex Law to “illness,” per head coach Tara Watchorn. Law’s status for this weekend is still questionable.
The Terriers will need to find a few goals from other places to put them over the top this weekend. The team was outscored 10-8 over the last three games.
Despite early success, the continued rotation of goalies may have now become a negative for the Terriers after both freshman Mari Pietersen and graduate transfer Alexa Matses were pulled out of their respective starts in BU’s two most recent losses.
“I think we go out with the same game plan no matter who’s in net,” Martin said.
Martin also discussed how the absence of junior goalie Callie Shanhan this season due to injury has affected the team’s play.
“Callie [Shanahan] is our other goalie, who’s been injured, so relying on two goalies has been a little tough for us just because we don’t have that third goalie to rely on. Callie’s been here for a while, [Matses] is new and so is [Pietersen] so I think we definitely have to get used to that as well,” Martin said.
Three things to know about the Eagles
- BC has been off to a good start this season in conference, currently outsourcing Hockey East opponents 31-21 to start the season.
- The Eagles’ captains this year are senior forward Gaby Roy and junior forward Abby Newhook.
- Roy and Newhook are tied with freshman forward Julia Pellerin for most goals for BC this season with six each.
Three things to know about the Friars
- Providence has had trouble to start the 2023-24 season, going 3-8-0 to start with four of those losses coming within the conference.
- The Friars were one of the best teams in Hockey East last season, with a 22-11-4 record overall. They lost to top-seeded Northeastern 4-1 in the Conference Finals last season.
- Freshman Audrey Knapp leads Providence in scoring so far this season with four goals in 11 games played.
BU will open the weekend against Boston College on Friday at 11 a.m. at Conte Forum, followed by a 3:30 p.m. matchup on Saturday in Providence. The Boston Hockey Blog will have full coverage of the weekend’s slate, so be sure to follow along on Twitter (X) @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.
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