The Boston University women’s hockey team will host the Holy Cross Crusaders on Wednesday evening for the opening round of the Hockey East Tournament.
The Crusaders (7-23-3, 4-20-3 HE) hold the regular season edge over the Terriers (14-17-3, 12-14-1 HE) with two wins in the teams’ weekend series in late January to BU’s single win in mid-December. The weekend series marked Holy Cross’s first win since Nov. 28.
The Crusaders haven’t won since the weekend sweep.
BU faces an uphill battle, despite being the better team on paper. The Terriers are the only Hockey East team that Holy Cross has beaten twice in regulation.
The Terriers simply couldn’t get pucks into the back of the net in their series against the Crusaders, just making one move too many or one move too few, as they navigated injuries across their lineup.
Now, BU is coming off a two-loss weekend against No. 11 UConn, but came close to scoring on league-best goaltender Tia Chan, especially in the Terriers’ 1-0 loss on Saturday. The Terriers outshot the Huskies 32-23 in the game, and the lone goal scored by UConn was on a power-play opportunity.
To win on Wednesday, the Terriers must play their game and get pucks on the net. BU proved what it could do offensively against its opponents when it capitalized last weekend against UVM and Merrimack, with two four-goal wins. However, the Terriers will have to gain and maximize offensive zone time to gain momentum in this tournament game.
They’ve performed on the big stage — beating BC in shootout in the Beanpot semifinal game and coming this close to a Beanpot win against Northeastern in a 2-1 overtime loss — but now BU needs to prove itself in Watchorn’s first playoff game at the helm of the program.
Five things to know about Holy Cross:
- The Crusaders dropped their most recent games against Maine, 3-2, in overtime on Friday and then 5-2 on Saturday.
- Senior netminder Madison Beck has a .277 goals-against average while facing an average of 26.8 shots per game. BU didn’t face Beck in its games, instead seeing sophomore Brooke Loranger, who’s played in 12 games this season.
- Holy Cross is led in points by senior forward Millie Sirum, who the Terriers have held to just four shots in their three matchups.
- The Crusaders won four games in regulation, three in overtime, and had three shootout victories during the regular season. They lost in overtime only once.
- Wednesday night will mark the team’s first meeting in the postseason.
Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Walter Brown Arena. 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.
Recent Comments