In another closely fought battle given away by the Terriers in the final period, the Boston University women’s hockey team lost 2-0 to the Northeastern Huskies at Matthews Arena on Saturday.
This afternoon rivalry matchup was the second game of a home-and-home series, with the Terriers being swept by the Huskies. Much like the night before, the Terriers stayed with the Huskies throughout and, entering the third period, the contest was tied 0-0.
Early in the third, fifth-year forward Peyton Anderson broke through for Northeastern. After the feed from freshman forward Allie Lalonde, Anderson instantly fired one past Terrier goalie Alexa Matses to put Northeastern up 1-0.
BU failed to tie it up in the third. The offense was unable to get anything past Husky goalie Gwnneyth Phillips, who had 31 saves on the night.
The Terriers couldn’t score on the power play midway through the third either, leading to a déjà vu moment of BU pulling a goalie down one goal with a minute left.
Groundhog Day continued with the Terriers surrendering an empty netter in the final minute, scored by sophomore Husky forward Lily Shannon.
Yet again the Terriers outshot their opponent, this time 31-30, but lost by multiple goals.
Following Saturday’s loss, head coach Tara Watchorn said that she was “really proud” of the effort the team had in the weekend.
“We’re exactly where we want to be,” Watchorn said.
It was another great day for the Terrier penalty kill, which forced the Huskies to go 0-4 on their power play attempts. To be fair, the Terriers went 0-3 on power plays of their own.
Still, Watchorn was proud of the team’s performance on the penalty kill especially.
“We haven’t even given them a structure yet, we’ve only given them our foundation, and I asked them to buy in…and they really did today, and it was cool to see,” Watchorn said.
The Terriers elected to try out another goalie after a great start from freshman Mari Pietersen in Friday’s game, making Saturday the debut for graduate transfer goalie Alexa Matses, who saved 28 shots. Watchorn said postgame that she was “so proud” of Matses.
“I told her before the game, I believe in her. She’s come in and she’s proven herself in preseason. She works hard every day, is an amazing teammate, and it was so cool for her to be able to go out there today and really show her stuff,” Watchorn said.
While it’s great that the Terriers showed they could compete with a team like Northeastern, moral victories will only take you so far. The team exits the weekend series with zero wins to show for great effort in two very winnable games.
Fans of Northeastern University hockey (5-1-0, 2-0-0 Hockey East) will be happy to see that, like in years prior, their team can take the best efforts from conference opponents and still come out with a victory.
The Terriers (0-2-0, 0-2-0 HE) will return on Oct. 20 to face off against the Syracuse University Orange. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. with full coverage on Instagram @boston.hockey.blog and Twitter @BOShockeyblog.
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