As she raced down the ice after scoring the biggest goal of her new team’s season, Riley Walsh drew out an imaginary heart with both hands, then gave the air in front of her an enormous punch. The heartbreaker.
The junior, a transfer from Union whom head coach Tara Watchorn has called a “firecracker,” said postgame she pre-plans all of her celebrations. The original thought before Saturday evening’s Hockey East quarterfinal was to whip out what she named the “selfie” if she scored, but after burying Vermont with an overtime winner at Walter Brown Arena, instinct took over.
“That one just came first, I guess,” Walsh said. “I don’t know.”
When she joined this offseason, her teammates on the Boston University women’s hockey team had only ever known playoff heartbreak. BU hadn’t won a Hockey East tournament game since 2018-19. And even this season, despite enjoying an out-of-nowhere resurgence to the top of the conference, the Terriers had yet to come through when something was on the line.
Watchorn said on Thursday that No. 14 BU (22-11-2, 18-7-2 HE) — herself included — was still learning how to win big games.
“It’s a whole different type of winning,” she said, “when it’s high pressure.”
The Terriers put themselves under plenty of it on Saturday, falling behind by a goal on three separate occasions before forcing a golden-goal overtime period with their season on the line. But each time its life flashed before its eyes, BU found a way to revive itself, culminating with Walsh firing a ricocheted puck past Vermont goalie Sydney Correa four minutes into the extra frame.
This was no accident. The Terriers said they repped “pressure situations” in practice all week, with a heightened focus on goal-scoring, because as junior forward Sydney Healey said on Thursday: “In those high-pressure situations, we need a goal.” BU focused less on foundational things like its tactics and its structure — Watchorn said her team is comfortable with those things by this point in the season — and even tried to ignore who was winning specific drills. Sometimes, Watchorn said, the Terriers didn’t let a drill end until there had been at least three goals scored.
Assistant coach Megan Meyers even showed the team a reel of in professional leagues to emphasize to the players how goals tend to be scored at the highest level of the sport. The trend was clear. Rebounds. Net-front deflections. Anything in and around the crease, anything that would normally be considered “gritty.”
“You look at the numbers, and they don’t lie,” Watchorn said postgame. “It’s where goals are scored. It’s the slot — but it’s not the high slot — it’s right above the crease.”
And that was exactly where BU scored the three goals that saved its season on Saturday. In the final minute of the first period, trailing 2-1, junior Lilli Welcke skated above the crease and placed a perfect tip on a shot from Walsh, poking the puck through Correa’s five-hole. 10 minutes into the third and down 3-2, Healey, standing right above the crease, plucked a shot from junior defender Maeve Kelly out of the air, tapping it past a hopeless Correa.
That set up Walsh’s winner, a pseudo-rebound off a face-off from — guess where — right above the crease.
“Just kind of saw the puck pop out, and it’s like, ‘If I don’t touch this, this is just a missed opportunity,” Walsh said. “I had to be hungry for that.”
In the four games BU played with a trophy on the line during the regular season — the Beanpot final against Northeastern and the last three games of the season, when the Terriers could’ve clinched the conference regular season title — they scored as many goals (four) as they did in one game against Vermont.
But BU deserved it on Saturday, finishing the game with 48 shots on goal, its highest total of the season. Watchorn noted that sustaining offensive zone time and dominating puck possession would be critical against the pesky Catamounts. Aside from a subpar second period, second-seeded BU thoroughly outplayed eighth-seeded Vermont.
“It wasn’t the prettiest, but I had no doubt in my mind that if we controlled the things that we needed to, it was just going to be a matter of time,” Watchorn said. “Such a great performance.”
Of course, there’s no avoiding just how much the Terriers flirted with fire. Against a team that had only scored multiple goals in 14 games this season, BU conceded twice after just 10 minutes. Catamounts’ freshman Oona Havana opened the scoring on a sudden wrister through traffic that BU senior goalie Callie Shanahan completely misread, then linemate Rose Marie-Brochu forced a one-timer through Shanahan at the doorstep after the Terriers failed to break out of their defensive zone.
Early in the third, Vermont captain Maddy Skelton tapped the go-ahead goal into a vacated net after BU’s vaunted penalty kill broke down. It was the fourth power-play goal the Terriers have conceded in their last seven games, after going perfect on the kill through the first 11 games of the spring semester.
Then there was the scoreless second period, in which BU couldn’t establish any momentum or territory and was outshot, 9-6. When Watchorn was asked about that frame after the game, she admitted she thought the stress of the moment got to her team.
“It’s so easy to overthink and let your brain travel to what was and what could be,” she said. “And it’s really hard to just to keep trying to put our best foot forward and practice being in the moment, controlling the shift in front of you, the five-second battle in front of you.”
In any case, BU buckled down when it needed to, and now the Terriers are two wins away from the Hockey East title. BU will host the semifinal against arch-rival Boston College on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
“It all comes down to attitude,” Walsh said. “If the other team scores a goal, it’s just how you put your energy towards knowing that you’re the better team.”
More reading on BU women’s hockey:
- BU should’ve won the regular season title. But don’t forget what the Terriers accomplished.
- BU loses to UConn, 3-1, falling short of Hockey East regular season title
- BU falls at UConn, losing another chance at HE regular season title
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