BOSTON — With around a minute left in overtime at Matthews Arena on Tuesday night, Tara Watchorn went with her gut.
Out skated Alex Law.
The sophomore forward — whom assistant coach Megan Meyers said a couple weekends ago is one of the fastest players in college hockey — hadn’t left the bench in the first four minutes of the extra frame. Watchorn said she values maturity, decision making and protecting possession during 3-on-3 hockey. But now the Boston University women’s hockey team was staring at a shootout with Hockey East powerhouse Northeastern, on the road, with critical league points on the line.
So BU’s most electric forward jumped over the boards.
“Get her out live while we have possession,” Watchorn said, “and see if we can utilize her skill.”
The puck found Law in the neutral zone, and off she went, looping around a defender near Northeastern’s bench, gliding into the circle and firing a wrister past star NU goalie Lisa Jönsson at the near post. Law had slipped as she shot the puck, but when she returned to her feet after securing the 3-2 victory, she pumped her fists and invited her teammates to pile around her.
“I looked at her face and she had no idea it went in,” graduate defender Julia Shaunessy said postgame. “So it was pretty funny.”
It was only Law’s second goal of the year. It couldn’t have arrived at a much bigger moment, with BU reeling heading into overtime after surrendering a two-goal third-period lead. The No. 14 Terriers (19-8-1, 16-4-1 HE) survived the first several minutes of overtime against the ultra-dangerous No. 13 Huskies, then began to slow things down, as they do so well at 5-on-5.
“We didn’t have the momentum in the beginning,” Shaunessy said. “Once we had possession, we started to get momentum, I kind of knew a goal was coming.”
BU not having the momentum at the start of overtime was one way to put it. “Reeling,” or “on it’s heels,” would work, too, as the Huskies had outshot the Terriers, 21-3, in the third, a barrage of shots BU senior goalie Callie Shanahan (33 saves) could only keep out for so long. Shanahan’s excellent performance finally gave out with just over four minutes to go, when NU sophomore forward Allie Lalonde tied the game with an easy net-front chance.
Northeastern (18-10-1, 13-8-1 HE), which had just 10 shots on goal through two periods, finished the game with 35.
The Terriers were missing juniors Lilli and Luisa Welcke and rolled out three lines and four defensive pairings to compensate. That they ran out of gas isn’t necessarily a surprise, but even so, the difference from the first two periods to the last was stark.
Still, in classic Watchorn fashion, the second-year head coach appeared almost excited at the idea of finding out what went wrong.
“I think that’s going to be the fun part of debriefing it and going back and reflecting with the players,” she said, “…Lots to figure out.”
Her response was similar to BU’s 8-1 loss to Princeton before Thanksgiving — the program’s worst defeat since 2015 — and BU proceeded to rattle off four straight victories. The Terriers hit a similar low point the last time they faced Northeastern before Tuesday night, the 4-0 Beanpot final loss at TD Garden on Jan. 21, but they are 5-0 since, with two ranked wins and only five goals allowed.
“It was definitely on our mind,” Shaunessy said of the Beanpot loss. “But it was kind of back burner. The thought came and went quickly.”
She did admit the Terriers were excited to get another crack at the Huskies before a potential meeting in the Hockey East tournament. Northeastern, which has won six of the last seven conference titles, was 11-0 in three seasons against BU entering this one. The Terriers got the monkey off their back in early October, winning 4-0 at Agganis Arena a day after a 4-0 loss at Matthews, but the Beanpot final loss felt at the time like an indictment on how far BU still needed to go to reach NU’s level.
On Tuesday, though, the Terriers were the far better team for the first 40 minutes.
Freshman Kaileigh Quigg put BU in front 13 minutes into the first period, whacking home a Lindsay Bochna rebound for her fourth goal of the year and second in three games. She’s centered the top line in every game since the Beanpot and Watchorn — who’s constantly shuffled lines this year — can’t seem to take her off. The goal was created in part by junior linemate Sydney Healey (BU’s leading scorer with 11 goals), whose dogged forecheck of a lone NU skater started an odd-skater rush.
“I could keep you guys here all night,” Watchorn said when asked what Healey brings to the team. “She makes players around her better, which you need from a top-six forward.”
Junior forward Clara Yuhn buried a wrister past Jönsson at the tail end of a BU power play late in the second, her ninth of the year and second in four games, to provide what felt like a game-clinching cushion until it all fell apart after the intermission. But the Terriers found a way against a team they almost never do, and crucially, they will not lose the season series with their cross-town rival.
“The tough thing about them is they have so much confidence, and they’ve played against opponents that, on paper, are better than them, but they’ve come out on top,” Shaunessy said. “For us, channeling that type of energy is something we’ve definitely been focusing on… and just moving forward knowing we are good enough to play in these games and beat opponents like Northeastern.”
BU certainly has big games in its future — with defending league champion UConn awaiting it at Walter Brown Arena on Friday, the first matchup of the season between the teams now in essentially a two-horse race for the regular season title.
The Terriers are five points clear of second-place UConn, each with six games left to play and three of those against each other. How BU fares against another top conference opponent will likely decide if it clinches its first No. 1 seed in 12 seasons.
“We’ve gotten to a place where we want to be able to give context to the game,” Watchorn said. “We’re well aware, and we’re excited to see how we’re gonna match up.”
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