Women’s Ice Hockey: Terriers Thankful for a Fast Start
By: Max Wolpoff
The Terriers scored four times in the opening 15 minutes, holding off a late surge from the Warriors to sweep the weeekend, 4-2.
From the opening faceoff win by Maddie Elia, Rebecca Leslie controlled the puck into the Merrimack zone. After having her first shot saved by Chaislyn Burgio, the second shot bounced off her left pad and found the stick of Rebecca Russo. 12 seconds into the game, Boston University led 1-0.
“Obviously, 12 seconds into the game you get a goal and it energizes the building and the team and gives you that one up start” head coach Brian Durocher said.
The Boston University Terriers (10-6-0, 8-3-0 Hockey East) pierced the back of the net three more times through the first period. Samantha Sutherland snuck the puck in glove side on Burgio with Erin O’Neil pulled for the extra skater on a delayed penalty.
On the ensuing power play, Alexis Crossley blasted the puck through traffic in front. Burgio never saw it come to her as Crossley scored her first goal in the Scarlet and White.
With 15 minutes gone by in the first, the Terrier top line pressured once again. After skating out of the zone, Victoria Bach stripped the puck at the red line and skated back in.
“I slipped it through one girl and I was looking to shoot, I guess the goalie thought I was going to shoot. I slipped it over to Kayla [Tutino] and she had a nice one-timer in the net” Bach said.
BU would not hold the Warriors (2-12-0, 1-7-0 Hockey East) scoreless after 20 minutes. Jessica Kuhlman capitalized on Savannah Newton’s ill-timed slip up to come in on O’Neil and shoot it by her. The goal came with just .03 seconds remaining in the period; it was also Merrimack’s third shot on goal of the period.
No goals were scored in the second period as Merrimack’s defense controlled much of the pace. Merrimack got six shots through to O’Neil while BU wase limited to seven. For comparison, they had 12 in the first period.
After an early strike from Jessica Bonfe, BU found itslef with a two goal lead after opening the scoring with four. The Terriers endured two penalty kills, limiting the Warriors to just five shot attmepts through the two penalties. Despite 94 seconds of a Merrimack open net, Sarah Lefort mustered the only shot toward the yawning cage. BU held on to win by a final of 4-2 to sweep the home-and-home set.
O’Neil finished the night with 13 saves on 15 shots while Burgio stopped 33 of 35. The win is O’Neil’s sixth of the year and 15th in her career at BU.
“To get four points, to play five good periods is a solid sign. I would’ve like to have it be six but I don’t think we played that well here in the third… we maybe got dissapointed that we couldn’t get that fifth goal” coach Durocher said.
This was the final game for the Terriers before the Thanksgiving Break. They will travel up to Burlington, Vermont to play as part of the Windjammer Classic against Cornell and Ohio State on Thanksgiving weekend.
“It’s a good break. We get to go home and see our families… we’ll come back and regroup, then we’ll be good to go” Bach said.