In the second straight game, the Boston University women’s hockey team struck first, and in the second straight game, it won.
“They played a phenomenal game,” assistant coach Reagan Rust said of her team’s 6-1 win over the University of Vermont Friday night at Walter Brown Arena.“All around offense, defense, upgrading the pucks, everything we’ve been talking about.”
With four shots to UVM’s zero in the first two minutes, BU started the game with energy and momentum from its shootout victory over No. 13 Boston College on Tuesday to advance to the Beanpot Finals.
On their fifth shot, 2:18 into the first period, junior forward Ani Fitzgerald broke up a Catamount attempt to get the puck out of their zone and got a wrist shot past goaltender Jessie McPherson to put the Terriers on the board.
1-0.
14 shots later, alongside dominant play, senior forward Catherine Foulem scored on a rush alongside linemate freshman forward Alex Law to extend the Terrier lead at 16:45.
2-0.
Catamount Lara Beecher was sent to the box for tripping with 10 seconds to go in the first, and sophomore forward Clara Yuhn tipped in a Nadia Mattivi shot with a second left in the period to send the Terriers up by three heading into the first break.
3-0.
The Catamounts looked sharp to start the second, with more shots on goal in the first four minutes than in the whole first period, but the Terriers took control of the puck and play soon after. From a Mattivi shot from the top of the zone, sophomore forward Sydney Healey tipped in the puck.
4-0.
With five minutes left in the second, freshman forward Ella Huntley was sent to the box for tripping. 20 seconds after a successful penalty kill for the Terriers, senior forward Lacey Martin scored a backdoor goal from Huntley’s centering pass.
5-0.
The third period brought more control from UVM, but BU continued generating chances in the offensive zone. McPherson made key saves to maintain the score, but junior defenseman Maggie Hanzel scored, on a deflection, at 6:58 to tie the Terriers’ season-high goals scored at six.
6-0.
Just 46 seconds away from the end of the game, a Catamount puck finally got through the strong Terrier defense. Despite the goal, junior netminder Callie Shanahan saved 14 shots in the game in just her third game back from a knee injury that kept her out for the first half of the season.
“She’s got the most confidence I’ve seen in a while … especially after so many months. She has been phenomenal in net,” Rust said.
Yuhn, and her linemates Huntley and Martin, had a combined five points with two goals and three assists.
“We’ve been playing together for over a month now. We’ve had really consistent lines and I think that that’s been really good for our team, just building chemistry,” Yuhn said postgame. “We have so much depth through our entire lineup, and we’re just able to dominate against good teams like tonight because we’re able to produce on all four lines.”
The Catamounts (9-13-1, 7-9-0 Hockey East) will return to Walter Brown tomorrow afternoon to finish out the weekend series. The Terriers (10-10-3, 8-8-1 HE) are hopeful for their first weekend series sweep since the first weekend in November against Merrimack.
“We’re taking the momentum from the past two games and moving forward with it,” Rust said. “Tomorrow’s three points is going to be even bigger for us.”
Puck drop is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday. The Boston Hockey Blog will have full, on-the-ground coverage so be sure to follow along on Twitter (X) @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.
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