Women’s Ice Hockey: Terriers Stifle Late Maine Rally

BOSTON — “You need some big saves, you need some timely goals, and you need a lot of fight.” said Boston University head coach Brian Durocher “Today, I don’t think there was any question the fight was there”

In another evenly matched contest the Terriers held off a furious rally from the Maine Black Bears to win 3-2 and sweep the weekend series.

While the first period opened with back-and-forth action, the Terriers (8-6-0, 6-3-0 Hockey East) controlled possession. 13 minutes into the first period, the third line held the puck deep in Maine territory for a solid thirty seconds.

After having her shot thwarted, Sammy Davis parked in front of Maine goaltender Meghann Treacy, starting in her second straight game. Dakota Woodworth found the puck in the corner and skated to the faceoff circle, and fired a bullet to the back of the net. Before Treacy could see the puck, it had already pierced the twine behind her and bounced out.

Samantha Sutherland would add to the Terrier lead after she found the puck loose in front of the net seven minutes into the second period. Linemates Davis and Woodworth added assists for their respective two-point nights.

Maine (6-8-0, 3-6-0 Hockey East) was held without a shot on goal for the first nine minutes of the second period. The Black Bears continued to play their physical game but BU did not retaliate. Of the six penalties called in this game, only two were in the first two periods. Yesterday’s game had 13 penalties between both teams.

“Penalties are part of the game” Durocher said. “The only ones that bother me are the ones when they’re breaking out of the zone and instead of taking two more strides to get equal with them we reach and get a hook, get a hold. Those are the ones coaches lose sleep over.”

The third period saw the Black Bears offense awaken. Brooke Stacey drove past the defense and picked high-glove on Erin O’Neil to half the Terrier lead. Sarah Lefort followed suit six minutes later with a power play marker to the top shelf to restore the two-goal lead.

“She’s a natural goal scorer… I think she today relaxed and really made a beautiful shot there” coach Durocher said.

Audra Richards tipped in Brooklyn Langlois’ point shot at 13:44 in the period to keep BU at a one-goal lead. The call stood after a lengthy review by the on-ice officials.

“I thought [that goal] was really bad luck for us. Everybody was in the right position, everybody was fighting and it went in off an elbow or a shoulder or something just as Erin was ready to grab it” coach Durocher said.

When Catherine Tufts took a late slashing penalty, Maine pulled Treacy to restore five-on-five once the puck left the zone.

BU took three shots toward the yawning cage but could not score. A late flurry of shots from the Black Bears was not enough to tie the game and BU grinded out their second consecutive win.

Next weekend BU will travel to Merrimack on Friday night before welcoming the Warriors to Walter Brown Saturday afternoon. The Warriors are 2-10-0 overall with a 1-5-0 mark in Hockey East play. They come into the weekend series with BU having lost four straight Hockey East games, three to Northeastern and one to Connecticut.