Boston University’s women’s ice hockey team couldn’t complete the comeback against the defending Beanpot Champions, the No. 14 Northeastern Huskies, falling 2-1 in overtime at TD Garden in the Beanpot Championship game.
Just 27 seconds into the three-on-three overtime period, the team leader in points, junior forward Skylar Irving, received a pass from fifth-year forward Katy Knoll and sent it past junior goaltender Callie Shanahan to secure Northeastern’s 19th Beanpot Championship.
“I’m proud of our group obviously fought all the way until the end, and I think really prove that we can compete on any stage against any opponent,” BU head coach Tara Watchorn said following Tuesday’s loss.
To get to overtime, though, the Terriers overcame a seemingly insurmountable 1-0 lead that remained until 58 seconds left in regulation.
The equalizer, sent past the eventual Beanpot MVP fifth-year goaltender Gwyneth Philips, by senior forward Catherine Foulem, originated from Sydney Healey. The sophomore forward sent a pass to Foulem, alone in the slot, to knot the game at one apiece.
— Boston Hockey Blog (@BOShockeyblog) January 24, 2024
BU’s season began with two hard-fought games against this conference rival. Now, in the fourth meeting of the two teams the Terriers gave them another tough game, but the result stayed the same.
“We just keep building on what we do well and we’re getting more belief and buy-in to our identity and that’s just wearing teams down, playing fast in transition and using our habits to create offense,” Watchorn said on her team’s improvement since the opening series.
The Terriers and Huskies had a pretty even first period with eight shots for NU and seven for BU and ended the period scoreless.
“They definitely settled in and I think, just the cool thing that we’ve seen all year and we saw at the very beginning of the game was that we can play our depth we got to get every line rolling, every d-pair, Callie played well to get us going while we settled in,” Watchorn said.
The Huskies came out ready at the start of the second with some dangerous energy and chances, but Shanahan held down the fort after facing — and saving — four shots in the first 90 seconds of the period.
The Terriers fought back, and even with the addition of a couple power-play opportunities, the Terriers couldn’t get past their 19 second-period shots into the net past Philips.
After a missed opportunity to clear the puck, BU gave Northeastern another opportunity to shoot, when junior center Skylar Irving fired one top-shelf past Shanahan at 19:27 to break the deadlock and put the Huskies up 1-0.
Shanahan was a constant throughout the game that was littered with penalty minutes. She finished the game with 28 saves, the most since her return on Jan. 12, after being out the first half of the season with a knee injury.
“We threw her right into the mix in the high-pressure situations,” Watchorn said. “It just speaks to her work ethic. We’ve seen the hard work she’s put in through her whole return-to-play and we had no doubt that she was going to do well for us and we had all the confidence in the world in her and she played with that confidence.”
Despite the loss, this game meant more than the outcome. The contest not only marked the first time the tournament was played in an NHL rink, but the largest recorded attendance of a women’s hockey game in New England — clocking in at 10,633 fans.
“It’s been really cool for me to see, being at BU as a player, assistant [coach], and now head coach, just the growth of our game,” Watchorn said. “Really special moment, and it was fun to see them take it in.”
The Terriers (11-11-3, 9-8-1 Hockey East) will now look toward the remainder of their regular season, starting with a home-and-home against Holy Cross (5-16-2, 2-13-2 HE) this weekend.
“This is just a little bump in our journey. We’ll sink in this one and then at the playoffs, we’ll get them back and we’ll be on the other side of this,” Foulem said. “We’re not giving up.”
The Terriers will next face off against Holy Cross at home on Friday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m., and the Boston Hockey Blog will have full, on-the-ground coverage of the matchup, so be sure to follow along on Twitter (X) @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.
The ladies did us proud!
They matched an excellent team, and showed the grit and caliber of play that is required to win championships. Goaltending at both ends of the ice was exceptional, and the ebb and flow of the offense and defense was evenly matched. The steadfast determination with which the ladies tied the game with seconds left in regulation was most impressive.
Top/Down – coaching through ancillary staff, the program is very solid, and has been steadily improving as the season has progressed. They all performed admirably on the big stage, and (again) did us proud. PSD