Women’s Hockey: Terriers take 3 of 4 points from Wildcats

By Brian Lombardo

BOSTON– The weekend did not disappoint from an action standpoint for the BU Terriers (18-6-8, 13-5-6 WHEA) as the UNH Wildcats (13-15-5, 10-14-2 WHEA) fought hard but ultimately settled for one point in Hockey East play (0-1-1).

Saturday was the Terriers annual Agganis Arena showcase game. Where obviously the team is still technically “home” on Comm. Ave. but the facility is far different than at Walter Brown Arena, where the team plays every other home game of their season.

Coach Brian Durocher decided to give his workhorse goaltender Corinne Schroeder a game off after having played Tuesday in the Beanpot Championship. So freshman netminder Kate Stuart got the call.

Stuart has been no stranger to the crease for the Terriers, having made four starts previously on the year, she’s established herself as a very strong number two option for BU. With her season highlight proving to be a 42-save effort in a win over the then ranked No. 4 Boston College Eagles.

The Terriers broke open the scoring, and evenly distributed their goals with one each period, but the Wildcats were up to the test responding each time to tie the game.

It was the redshirt junior Taylor Wenczkowski who carried the Wildcats to their 22nd point in Hockey East play. With a hat trick on the day highlighted by a goal with 22 seconds in the third period, with the goalie pulled.

For BU, Scarpaci (1), Davis (23) and Compher (17) had the goals.

“It was the game after the Beanpot I guess.” said coach Durocher postgame, hinting at a bit of a Beanpot hangover for the team coming off the championship that ended a 38-year drought.

“We couldn’t quite seem to get our legs. We didn’t fight through it as well as I might’ve hoped.” said Durocher alluding to the team’s inability to put the game away with a lead three separate times.

However, coach Durocher was very complimentary of  the freshman netminder Stuart.

“Kate Stuart certainly gave us one heck of a chance to win today.” said Durocher, continuing in reflection of the season she has had, “you look at her save percentage–it’s a whisker under .950–that statistic is the one I look at for goalies.”

After splitting the points on Saturday, it was back to the usual suspects for Coach Durocher. Schroeder took to goal on Sunday afternoon in hopes of upstaging UNH on their senior day.

It was another quick start for the Terriers, as junior captain Natasza Tarnowski broke open the scoring in the first. After the game’s first goal it looked as if BU was clearly the better team on the ice.

In the second period, freshman Mackenna Parker scored her 11th goal of the season–leading all freshman on the team. Her mark was assisted by line-mates Compher and Davis. With points in both games over the weekend, Compher extends her point streak to 13 games and Davis pushes hers to 9 games.

UNH got a goal in third period from Meghara MacManus, but it just wasn’t enough down the stretch and the Terriers took the second game by a score of 2-1.

Coming into the weekend the Terriers power play was ranked fourth in the nation (23.8%) but against the Wildcats, who held a tie for the sixth-best penalty kill in the country kept BU at bay throughout the three opportunities they had.

The Terriers penalty killers were busy over the weekend. The team took nine minor penalties in the two games and killed all but one.

The Terriers will head into the final week of their regular season, before playing a game on the road against UCONN on Friday before coming home for their senior day on Saturday against Providence.