BOSTON — Three takeaways from the Boston University women’s hockey team’s 2-0 victory over Maine on Saturday afternoon at Agganis Arena:
BU won again, but it looked even less convincing than it did on Friday
Head coach Tara Watchorn was not pleased with her team’s performance in Friday’s 2-1 victory, choosing to direct her criticism mostly at BU’s struggling offense and blanketed power play.
On Saturday, those same problems continued, only for the Terriers to deteriorate everywhere else. BU (4-3-0, 4-1-0 Hockey East) controlled play in the first period, but let senior netminder Callie Shanahan out to dry with two brutal turnovers in the neutral zone at the very start and very end of the frame, leading to uncontested breakaways for the Black Bears (1-5-0, 1-3-0 HE). Shanahan saved both, which, along with an ugly goal from junior forward Sydney Healey at 13:44, allowed the Terriers to take a toothless 1-0 lead into the break.
BU then came out all over the place in the second, finding only five shots on goal and allowing Maine to pepper 11 on Shanahan. The final frame was slightly better, but the Terriers still only finished the game with three more shots on goal than an opponent they were expected to handle easily.
At multiple points on Saturday, the Terriers failed to carry pucks out of their own zone and thus couldn’t transition from defense to offense, something they did with ease on Friday. In that game, BU was clean and looked a level above its opponent despite concluding afterwards that it needed to be better. On Saturday, the Terriers barely outplayed a team picked to finish eighth in the Hockey East preseason poll.
Goal-scoring is officially a problem
Watchorn was notably frustrated with an offense averaging less than three goals a game in the press conference on Friday, and accordingly, she switched up the line charts on Saturday. Riley Walsh was bumped from the top line in favor of Lindsay Bochna, who joined Luisa and Lilli Welcke.
Finishing chances had been more of a problem for that line than creating them, and those hick-ups continued. In the final minute of the second period, a Black Bear defender passed the puck directly to Bochna, who received it in stride in the slot. Maine freshman goalie Kiia Lahtinen had no time to leave the crease and make herself big, but Bochna still put the point-black chance right into her pads.
Walsh was relegated to the third line with Christina Vote and Ani Fitzgerald, and Clara Yuhn, BU’s leading returning point-scorer from a year ago, was sent down to the fourth with Neely Nicholson and Kaileigh Quigg. Sydney Healey, Alex Law and Lola Reid were the only forward line that remained together, and they combined for the Terriers only even-strength goal.
BU went to the power play three times after going 0-for-5 on the skater-advantage Friday. It looked a tad better on its first skater-advantage early in the second period, as the top unit of the Welcke sisters, Reid, Tamara Giaquinto and Kiera Healey worked passing lanes into the slot. But on multiple occasions, the Terriers couldn’t redirect centering passes onto goal, a theme of this opening stretch of the season.
On BU’s second power play early in the third, the Terriers failed to even record a shot on goal, and on its final skater-advantage late in the frame, they were very nearly blanked again, before a wrister from Reid careened off the boards and perfectly into the path of Giaquinto, who buried a one-timer from the circle.
Callie Shanahan is the unquestioned starter in net, and she’s playing like it.
After starting in both games against Northeastern last weekend, Watchorn said midweek that Shanahan would be treated like “the No. 1.”
The assistant captain started both games against the Black Bears and only conceded once — a deflected shot that squeaked through her five-hole on Friday. Other than that, Shanahan stood on her head, saving multiple Grade-A chances across both games and weathering Maine’s second-period storm on Saturday.
In the series, Shanahan made 37 saves against 38 shots on goal.
Recent Comments