This Week in Women’s Hockey: Feb. 5 -12

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After punching their ticket into the Women’s Beanpot championship last Tuesday, the Boston University Women’s hockey team took to Worcester, MA to take on the Holy Cross Crusaders.

The Terriers (20-6-3, 14-6-3 Hockey East) won last Saturday against the Crusaders (3-21-5, 3-18-2 Hockey East) in a game where BU’s special teams dominated.

While Holy Cross scored in the first 70 seconds of the opening period, BU responded on the power play as junior forward Jesse Compher scored to tie the game. Thirteen seconds later, the Terriers grabbed the lead as freshman Nadia Mattivi scored her fifth of the season. Later on in the first period, redshirt-senior forward and captain Sammy Davis found the back of the Crusaders’ net while on the power play to extend BU’s lead to two goals.

Davis scored her second of the game about five minutes into the second period, while Holy Cross managed to cut their deficit to two goals at 11:46 of the second frame. However, sophomore forward Courtney Correia responded less than two minutes later to regain the Terriers three-goal lead.

A scoreless third period to secured the victory for BU, handing the Terriers their 20th win of the season.

BU’s head coach Brian Durocher said the only critique coming out of the win was that he wished his team played tighter as a unit throughout the game.

“We played a little too loose in the second period,” Durocher said. “A product of the score, and a product of the game. I wanted people to be ready to play [Saturday], and putting forth their best effort Saturday and we would worry about the next game Tuesday. If we could avoid any segments of the game where for any length of time where people were taking chances or being a little over-aggressive, that would be the only thing we got to erase from today.”

Tuesday night, after Boston College and Harvard played their consolation game, the 42nd Women’s Beanpot Championship game between Boston University and Northeastern was decided in front of a Beanpot-record crowd at Walter Brown Arena.

The last time the Terriers played the Huskies, Northeastern scored two short-handed goals to walk with a 2-1 win on Jan. 28. This time it was the Terriers turn to score short-handed, and they did just that four minutes into the game as Kristina Schuler scored an unassisted short-handed goal to BU on the board first.

The Huskies would score late in the period as Chloe Aurard skated up the left wing, past BU defenders, and shot one past BU goaltender Corinne Schroeder to tie the game at one goal apiece. Aurard would strike again for Northeastern less than seven minutes into the second period as a Terriers defensive breakdown behind Schroeder led to the goal for Aurard, who was named tournament MVP.

Northeastern would go to the penalty kill 13 seconds later, and after they successfully killed their penalty, the Huskies buzzed around Schroeder’s net. After Schroeder held a shot by Northeastern and a whistle blew the play dead, Skylar Fontaine of NU shoved Breanna Scarpaci from behind, earning herself a major penalty and game misconduct for cross-checking and roughing after a lengthy review. Scarpaci was also given a minor penalty for cross-checking.

After Scarpaci’s penalty was killed, the Terriers were able to score on the major power play. Abby Cook took a shot from the blue line, and the puck made its way through traffic and in to even the scoring at two apiece.

In the third period, Northeastern regained the lead as Jess Schryver buried the puck on her third attempt while on the power play 14:41 into the final frame of play. As the clock ticked down into the final minute of play, it appeared that the Huskies would be crowned Beanpot champions by winning in regulation. However, the Terriers were not done. At least not yet.

Durocher pulled Schroeder for the extra-attacker with 1:49 left in the game.

And it worked.

With 22 seconds to go in regulation, Sammy Davis tapped in a rolling puck that squeezed past Frankel. The game would go into a five-minute overtime, then into a 20-minute second overtime.

It took 16 minutes into double overtime for a team to call game. Notheastern’s Lauren MacInnis found a loose puck and converted on the power play to earn the Huskies their first Beanpot championship since 2013.

While the Terriers were unable to defend their Beanpot title from last year, Durocher said that his team made their school proud despite the loss.

“Two teams played their hearts out,” Durocher said. “Teams that displayed an awful lot of talent, compete and toughness, and made their institutions awful proud win or lose.”

The Terriers are set to take on the University of New Hampshire this Saturday and Sunday in a home-and-home back-to-back. The Wildcats (15-12-4, 11-10-3 Hockey East) are coming off a 2-2 tie against Merrimack over the weekend.

Trying to move forward after an emotional Beanpot loss, Durocher said that while it is difficult to keep his team motived after a devastating defeat, sometimes a loss can bring a positive effect.

“Because they are competitors, because I think we have a super tough team, we’ve got a pretty deep team, you hope that we can kind of flush it aside,” said Durocher. “Sometimes when you lose, it does give you a little extra momentum.”

Puck drop in Durham is on Saturday at 2 p.m. before the series moves to Boston at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday.