Women’s Hockey: Donnelly’s game-winner lifts Terriers over Maine

By: Patrick Donnelly

ORONO – The Boston University Terriers (3-1-1, 2-1-1 WHEA) picked up their second-straight win on Sunday afternoon, taking down the University of Maine Black Bears (2-3-1, 0-2-0 WHEA) by a final score of 3-1 after shutting out UConn 1-0 on Friday evening.

“It was fantastic to get the two wins this weekend,” head coach Brian Durocher said following Sunday’s matchup. “They’re Hockey East wins and Hockey East road wins which are always hard to come by. When you look at the middle or end of the year and you think about these four points, they’ll be hard-earned and well-deserved and ones that definitely help you out with the standings.”

Junior goaltender Corinne Schroeder got the call in between the pipes once again for the Terriers as she stopped 27 of 28 shots that came her way, saving all 16 shots she faced in the third as well en route to her third win of the season.

“Corinne was real solid even though we didn’t have her quite as busy as Friday against UConn,” Durocher said of Schroeder’s performance. “Maine had some petty good looks and she had to make some real good saves today.”

Junior center Kristina Schuler started the scoring early on (1:06 into the game) as she was able to find the puck in the traffic in front, after Nara Elia deflected Brianna Scarpaci’s shot from the point, and slipped it by Carly Jackson for her first of the season, putting the Terriers up 1-0.

Almost midway through the second frame, sophomore Kaleigh Donnelly put the Terriers up 2-0, putting Elia’s cross-crease feed into the yawning cage to pick up her first of the year as well. Donnelly’s tally would prove to be the eventual game-winner.

Just 13 seconds after the Terriers earned a two-goal cushion, Teresa Vanišová got the Black Bears back to within one as she deflected Brittany Colton’s feed passed Schroeder for her fourth of the campaign. Taylor Leech picked up the secondary helper.

A hard-fought third period would ensue with the Black Bears applying the pressure to the Terriers, but Schroeder stood tall as Courtney Correia would go on to net her . first of the year to give the Terriers insurance after Maine pulled Jackson for the extra skater. The Black Bears’ netminder would finish the contest with 24 saves.

Durocher had been stressing the importance of more skaters finding the scoresheet for the Terriers in recent weeks as the team deals with the absence of top center Jesse Compher, who is nursing a lower-body injury, and depth-scoring was the name of the game for BU on Friday and Sunday.

Donnelly and Elia would go on to finish the afternoon with two points apiece–a goal and an assist for Donnelly and two assists for Elia. Senior defender Abby Cook extended her point-streak (1G, 2A) to three games with an assist on Correia’s goal.

“It was super important [to get the depth scoring],” Durocher continued. “To have those kids start to get on the scoresheet and generate a bit of confidence goes a long way. Hopefully we’ll say some type of snowball effect.”

The Terriers played a tight game defensively today as Durocher noted Schroeder did not see quite as much rubber as she did in her 38-save shutout on Friday evening. However, the BU bench boss knows there’s still room to improve.

“I think our team and our defense played a lot better than Friday,” the 15-year head coach of the Terriers went on. “I think we want to make sure that we’re getting better at some of our initial rushes, and we want to get everybody involved.”

“Rest is important too, though, since we have a fairly quick turnaround ahead of another pretty good trip this week. So, hopefully the kids can regroup and get themselves ready to go.”

Next up for the Terriers is another road trip this coming weekend as they will visit Penn State (3-2-3) for a two-game set. The first game of the series is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 3:00 pm with game two to be held on Saturday at 1:00 pm. Stay tuned for WTBU Sports’ preview for the weekend.

Featured Image: The Terriers skate out to congratulate Corinne Schroeder after a win last season. Photo by Gabi Turi.