Women’s Hockey: Terriers tie Merrimack, take 3 of 4 points on the weekend

By: Patrick Donnelly

NORTH ANDOVER – The No. 10 Terriers’ five-game win streak came to an end this afternoon after skating to a 3-3 tie on the road against the Merrimack College Warriors to complete the weekend series. With the tie, BU’s unbeaten streak extends to seven games as they took three of four possible points from the Warriors.

“I think the mindset is that you gotta come back and make sure that you put pressure on them [Merrimack],” head coach Brian Durocher said of his team’s focus heading into the second game of the series.

“We gotta keep an eye on their big line,” Durocher continued. “Our team has been a grinding team. It hasn’t been a high scoring team, although of late, we’ve had the goals. We’ve had a lot of people starting to get confidence.”

After backing the Terriers to a 6-3 win over Merrimack on Friday, sophomore Corrine Schroeder was back in net once again, while senior Samantha Ridgewell looked to redeem herself for Merrimack.

The Warriors came out flying to start the game as Mikyla Grant-Mentis scored the first goal of the game just 3:15 into the opening frame off a feed from Paige Sorenson and Julia Maclean.

With 4:26 to go in the opening frame, BU’s Deziray De Sousa broke the puck out to Nara Elia, speeding up the left wing, who dished a cross-ice pass that Kristina Schuler buried past Ridgewell to cap off the rush.

Not to be outdone, Abby Cook put the Terriers up 2-1 with 1:03 remaining in the first with her power play tally. Cook wheeled to the top of the high slot and sifted a wrister through Elia’s screen after some slick puck movement from Sammy Davis and Jesse Compher.

The second period saw only one goal scored between both sides as Jessica Bonfe beat Schroeder to tie the game at two-apiece just 5:15 into the period.

The Warriors came out hot once again to start the third period as Kaetlyn Rae put the score at 3-2 in favor of Merrimack a little over five minutes into the final 20.

The Terriers fought throughout the third to try and crack Ridgewell, who stood tall for the Warriors. Late in regulation, Durocher pulled Schroeder to get the extra-attacker on the ice in hopes that a last-ditch effort would send the game to overtime.

With 1:03 remaining, Davis scored the game-tying goal, stuffing a rebound passed Ridgewell, who made the initial save on Elia’s shot after Compher fed her in the slot.

The scoreless extra frame was dominated by the goaltenders as Schroeder and Ridgewell made four saves each.

Ridgewell stopped 35 of the 38 shots that came her way in what was a bounce-back performance for both her and the Warriors.

For the Terriers, Davis (1G, 1A) and Compher (2A) each had two-point games while Schroeder turned aside 27 of 30 shots.

The Terriers are back in action on Friday night as they visit a struggling Vermont Catamounts team (7-16-4, 5-13-2 WHEA), who has lost four straight, all against Hockey East opponents.