BOSTON — Tara Watchorn and Callie Shanahan were forced to wait nearly a minute before taking questions in the Agganis Arena press room Friday afternoon. Something, it’s unclear what, wasn’t ready for the head coach and her assistant captain as they arrived at the dais following the Boston University women’s hockey team’s victory over Maine. “Technology,” one person in the room blamed. Everyone else waited.
During the delay, Watchorn peeked at the stat sheet. On it, there were numbers that suggested utter BU domination — 40 more shots, 23 more shots on goal, 43 faceoffs won. But there was also the final score, which, curiously, only read Terriers 2, Black Bears 1. A contradiction that required someone to set the record straight.
When the cameras finally started rolling, Watchorn was given the opportunity.
“Yeah, not good enough,” she said. “This team can play way better than that.”
Senior netminder Shanahan nodded subtly beside her. They were still not far removed from the start of the third period, when Shanahan sat clueless in the crease, nursing a one-goal lead, as BU’s collective life flashed before its eyes. A tame shot — just the Black Bears’ 12th on net, to that point — squirted through the goalie’s legs and into the mouth of goal. It laid there, perilously, for seconds. A mad scramble ensued.
“I didn’t really know where it was,” Shanahan said. “Thank god that, I don’t remember who it was, was there to clear it out.”
That would be junior forward Lilli Welcke, whose first-period goal proved to be the decider in BU’s victory. And thank god she was there, indeed, because it was the best chance either team created in the final two periods — a 40-minute stretch played almost entirely in BU’s offensive zone but one the Terriers left with nothing to show for.
“We’re a really good team,” Shanahan said. “And it wasn’t good enough, for sure.”
The game’s three goals were all scored within a 72-second stretch in the middle of the first. Freshman forward Lola Reid poked in her own rebound off an assist from senior defender Julia Shauhnessy at 12:14 before Welcke redirected a centering pass from her twin sister, Luisa, into goal 55 seconds later. Not 20 seconds after that, a deflected shot off Black Bear junior forward Danielle Brunette squeaked through Shanahan’s five-hole.
But from then on: crickets. Until, of course, a rare mistake from the Terriers’ stalwart goaltender very nearly cost them.
BU (3-3-0, 3-1-0 Hockey East) finished with 37 shots on goal and went to the power play five times yet barely tested Black Bears’ freshman goalie Kiia Lahtinen.
“We had a lot of shots,” Watchorn said, “but it sure didn’t feel like it.”
“It’s kind of the message we talked about — good offense is hard work,” she added. “How do you create better quality offense that’s goalie proof, that sets the next line up for success, that builds momentum and doesn’t hand the other team opportunities that they didn’t deserve?”
Those are questions BU didn’t have many answers for Friday. The Terriers didn’t create Grade A chances at even strength, instead settling for, as Watchorn described them postgame, “wristers on net that end in whistles.” On the power play, BU looked even less convincing; it tried different units throughout its five skater advantages, but didn’t come particularly close to scoring at any point.
“We’re overthinking on the power play,” Watchorn said. “We have an extra player on the ice, so I’d like to think you could shoot the puck and recover rebounds. But I think you could tell by the pace of our passes, not knowing what we wanted to do before we get it, you could tell that we were just kind of overthinking the looks.”
Over their last five games, the Terriers are 0-for-24 on the power play.
The fact Reid’s goal was scored off a rebound was pleasing to Watchorn, who spoke midweek of the Terriers needing to bury those more often, but she still came away lamenting the rebounds BU let slip away. And on the Terriers’ best chance of the final two periods — when a turnover in the neutral zone led to a 3-on-1 for the top line of Welcke, Welcke and junior forward Riley Walsh — they didn’t even attempt a shot. Instead, Luisa Welcke forced an extra pass that was intercepted.
“The ones that are sitting there, that could go in, that still aren’t going in, are frustrating,” Watchorn said.
The Terriers entered the series ranked No. 15 by USA Hockey, which the arena jumbotron gladly noted marked the first time BU had been ranked since 2020. In her second season, Watchorn has repeatedly said the program has both Hockey East and National Championship aspirations. Accordingly, this series with the Black Bears (1-4-0, 1-2-0 HE), who were picked eighth in the conference preseason poll and haven’t finished with a winning record since 2019-20, became a must-win.
And on Friday, BU did win. But not in the way anyone in Scarlet and White would’ve liked.
“It just seemed like there was points of the night where we thought it was going to feel easier than it did,” Watchorn said.
BU continued to impress in the defensive zone, allowing only 15 shots on goal. The Terriers’ penalty kill blanketed the Black Bears in the three moments it was called upon. BU controlled the neutral zone, too, forcing the game into its offensive zone consistently. But for Shanahan’s third-period blunder and a couple decent chances in the minutes that followed, Maine never looked like it truly belonged in the game.
And still, had Lilli Welcke not been the one to get her stick on that loose puck behind Shanahan early in the third, the Black Bears could’ve taken the game to overtime.
“We’re a good hockey team and we found a way to win, obviously, you take that for what it is,” Watchorn concluded. “But I think it’s realizing that, having the inner confidence individually and as a group, and being able to be present every weekend and every game that we play. I’m looking forward to seeing a little bit more professionalism in that tomorrow.”
Puck drop for the series finale is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday at Agganis.
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