Women’s Hockey: No. 10 Terriers tie rival Merrimack in 2019-2020 home opener
By Daniel Multz
BOSTON – In their first home game of the 2019-2020 season, the Boston University Terriers (1-0-1, 0-0-1 WHEA) tied the Merrimack Warriors (2-2-1, 0-2-1 WHEA) 2-2 to begin in-conference play.
As the pregame ceremonies wrapped up and the 2019 Beanpot championship banner was raised, the Terriers took the ice in front of home fans and in front of many former Terrier players looking to extend their dominance over Merrimack to 9-2-2.
After over eleven minutes of back and forth action down the ice, no goals had been scored. That changed when the Terriers jumped ahead 1-0 as freshman forward Julia Nearis’ scored her first career goal. “Being back around my hometown is definitely something special, parents in the crowd. It was a pretty fun experience,” Nearis said.
The lead would only last a few minutes as Merrimack would soon tie the game on a power play goal by Warriors forward Dominika Laskova: her first goal of the season. Three minutes later, the Warriors would take the lead back on an even-strength tally with forward Megan Fergusson putting one past Terrier goalie Corrine Schroeder to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead at the end of the first.
Just over four minutes into the second period, BU’s second-year captain Natasza Tarnowski would score her first goal of the season to tie the game up at 2-2. Throughout the rest of the game, both teams had many opportunities, racking up many shots on goal, but the game remained tied through the second period as well as the third and overtime, meaning the game would end in a 2-2 tie.
Physicality was at a high throughout most of the game as the two teams played their hearts out to collect the win. For the Terriers, forwards Deziray De Sousa and co-captain Sammy Davis had especially tough games. “Deziray had a bunch of blocked shots… and Sammy, that’s just her calling card,” head coach Brian Durocher said. He highlighted Davis’ knack for playing in traffic and playing in the tightest spots where she never backs down.
Next up for the Warriors is a road matchup against another Women’s Hockey East rival in No. 8 Boston College on October 18th. Next up for BU is a quick turnaround as they head to University of New Hampshire this afternoon to face the Wildcats for the first time this season.
“It’s the hockey thing that you don’t have a day off in between back-to-back games,” Durocher said. “But they’re used to it… they’ll go across, cool down and be ready to go tomorrow.”
Featured Image by Gabi Turi