Women’s Hockey: No. 7 Terriers look to keep rolling in home-and-home series with New Hampshire
By: Patrick Donnelly
Fresh off a thrilling overtime victory to win their first Beanpot since 1981–first as a varsity team–the No. 7 Boston University Terriers (17-6-7, 13-5-5 WHEA) will take on Hockey East foe, the University of New Hampshire Wildcats (13-14-4, 10-13-1 WHEA), in two matinee matchups this weekend.
Brian Durocher’s Terriers come into the weekend having won four-straight games–one of which is a shootout victory over No. 3 Northeastern in the Beanpot semifinals–and remain unbeaten in eleven-straight, having won ten of those (including the previously mentioned shootout victory).
On the other side of the sheet, after getting off to a rocky start, the Wildcats have improved over the second half of the season. New Hampshire has dropped two-straight, both to Hockey East opponents, but won five in a row prior to this blip on the radar. Over the course of that five-game winning streak, the Wildcats outscored their opponents 20-4.
For the Terriers, they have not allowed any opposing team to score more than three goals over the course of this unbeaten streak, and have totaled a whopping 48 goals in those eleven games–averaging to 4.36 goals-for per game for BU over this span.
Sophomore goaltender Corinne Schroeder comes into the weekend unbeaten in her last 10 games with a dominant .930 save percentage (12th in the nation) and 1.91 goals against average on the season (14th in the nation) to go along with a 14-5-7 record.
Freshman Kate Stuart won in her previous appearance and has not allowed more than two goals in her four appearances this year with a record of 3-1-0, including a 3-2 win over New Hampshire early-on in the season.
Redshirt junior captain Sammy Davis ranks sixth in the nation for points (43) and third in goals (22) while sophomore Jesse Compher is tied for the most assists in the nation with 35 and ranks third in points with 51 to her name. Davis has a point in seven-straight contests–8G, 8A, 16P–and Compher is riding an 11-game point streak of her own with five goals, 14 assists, and 19 points in that span.
Senior captain Reagan Rust has been a force for the Terriers on defense over the past few weeks, including the shootout winner in the Beanpot semifinals and the opening goal of the game in the championship. Rust also had a handful of masterful defensive stands against Harvard in the Beanpot championship, preventing a flurry of potential odd-man opportunities for the Crimson.
For Hillary Witt’s Wildcats, senior net-minder Kyra Smith holds a .930 save percentage and a 2.05 GAA with a 12-9-2 record. Sophomore Ava Boutilier has a .928 save percentage, 2.10 GAA, as well as a 1-5-2 record that includes a 3-2 loss to BU in the team’s first meeting this season.
On offense, the Wildcats are led by redshirt junior forward Taylor Wenczkowski, who has 16 goals and 22 points in 31 games on the year.
The Terriers rank fourth in Division-I in terms of power play percentage at 23.8% compared to New Hampshire’s 22nd-best clip of 16%.
On the flip-side, New Hampshire’s penalty kill ranks seventh with an 87.3% success rate while BU is 26th with a 82% clip.
In terms of team offense, New Hampshire holds the 24th-most goals per game with 2.19 while allowing the 19th-fewest goals against per game at 2.26.
Meanwhile, the Terriers rank tenth in team offense, scoring 3.33 goals per game on the year as they have allowed the sixth-fewest goals against per game at 1.87.
The two games this weekend mark the beginning of the Terriers’ push to the Hockey East playoffs as there are only four games remaining in the regular season (all against Hockey East opponents), including this weekend.
The action kicks off on Saturday afternoon in a 3:00 PM start at Agganis Arena before the two sides travel to the Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire, for Sunday’s 2:00 PM start.