Women’s Hockey: Stuart shines as Terriers break through to defeat Yale 3-1

By: Daniel Multz

In a game that started off scoreless for the first 30 minutes, the BU Terriers  (7-3-1, 3-3-1 HEAW) ended up tallying three goals to down the Yale Bulldogs (5-2, 3-1 ECAC) 3-1 last night at Walter Brown Arena.

The game remained scoreless until midway through the second period, when junior Kristina Schuler broke through Yale’s tight defense to score her third goal of the season. This would be the only goal of the game until the third period.

Once the final period began, BU jumped ahead 2-0 after Nara Elia chipped in a center pass from Deziray De Sousa past Yale Goalie Tera Hoffman. By the end of the game, BU’s second line of Schuler, de Sousa and Elia tallied five total points: two goals and three assists.

In the final four minutes, Yale first year Grace Lee put the Bulldogs on the board and ended goalie Kate Stuart’s bid for a shutout. Now 2-1 Terriers, BU got their revenge in the final minute. Yale pulled Hoffman and once Sammy Davis landed a pass to Jesse Compher, the star junior took off down the ice and scored on the empty net.

After missing the first month of the season, seeing Compher earn her first point was a a moment of true excitement for the Terriers. “[She] plays as hard as anyone on this team and that’s the type of thing that’s easy for a coach to like and for a teammate to respect,” Head Coach Brian Durocher said.

“A total momentum builder,” added goalie Kate Stuart.

3-1 Terriers would be the final as BU put together a strong all-around effort to overcome the Bulldogs. In her third start of the season, Stuart shined saving 30 of 31 shots and holding the Bulldogs scoreless for the first 57 minutes of the game.

“She made a ton of real good saves, continues to play as she did last year,” Durocher said.

“I felt like the defense really controlled them to the outside so I was able to see a lot of the shots,” Stuart Added. While she may not start very often, BU is now 5-2-1 in the 8 games with her in net.

One aspect of their play Durocher knows the team needs to build on is the power play, which the Terriers failed to capitalize on during any of their five opportunities agains Yale.

“We’ve got to try to take advantage of it . . . we really didn’t, relative to power play goals. We took less penalties, so that was a good sign,” Durocher said.

Yale will continue their road trip by heading to Cornell for a Friday matchup against the Big Red while the Terriers will prepare for a marquis home contest with rival Boston College on Friday.

Durocher knows that with an important game coming that this win will greatly help with team confidence as they face another tough opponent: “We all need confidence, we all need results,” he said. “Any time you can get some type of confidence rolling, it’s really important.”