Boston University’s offensive struggles continued in Friday’s 3-0 loss against a familiar foe — No. 15 Boston College (14-8-6, 13-4-4 Hockey East). The shutout marks the first scoreless game for the Terriers (14-8-6, 13-4-4 HE) since their 2-0 loss to Northeastern University on Oct. 7.
Despite the score — as two Eagle goals came in the final four minutes of play — the Terriers maintained relatively consistent pressure on sophomore goaltender Grace Campbell, but could never find a way to get the puck in the back of the net.
The first period was pretty evenly split with the goaltenders on each side of the ice making saves early. Boston College gained more offensive-zone time, holding BU to zero shots in four minutes. Junior goaltender Callie Shanahan remained cool under the increased Eagle pressure, making 17 saves in the opening frame.
“She kept us in it, especially when you look at that first period,” head coach Tara Watchorn said postgame. “What I really love about watching her continue to progress. She came out, played that puck today and she really started our breakout, so there was a lot of good in her game.”
While the Terriers sustained pressure, they suffered from the extra move they made or the move they didn’t make.
“We’ve been switching up the lines a little bit, we’re getting a sense of who works well together, obviously battling injuries,” Watchorn said. “But you could tell today that we were upgrading the puck and we are creating those backdoor looks and we’re just not connecting on them.”
On a 2-on-1 opportunity, freshman forward Julia Pellerin only had to get through senior defender Andi Calderone and Shanahan for the goal, and had senior winger Caroline Goffredo to her right to support. Pellerin sent the right-side shot right past Shanahan’s glove to put the Eagles on the board, 1-0, at 15:41.
The Terriers gradually gained more and more offensive time as they tried to tie the game late, pulling Shanahan with just under three minutes left.
But the Eagles’ team-leading scorer, freshman forward Sammy Taber, put the empty-netter in to seal the deal, and 30 seconds later, graduate forward Sammy Smigliani sent one past Shanahan to put the Eagles up 3-0 at 18:06.
“There’s a lot to build off of. It was by no means a perfect game, but I felt like we were able to just generate a lot of offense off the rush, and offense at o-zone play. There was a lot of good there and we’d just like to get better,” Watchorn said.
The Eagles now lead the season series 2-1, and the Terriers will look to tie it up tomorrow, in hopes to also end their four-game skid.
Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Conte Forum Saturday afternoon. The Boston Hockey Blog will have full coverage of the matchup, so be sure to follow along on Twitter (X) @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.
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