Women’s Hockey: Compher shows peak form as Terriers dominate in bounce-back win over No. 9/9 Harvard
BOSTON – After 60 minutes of intense play last night, the BU Terriers (8-4-1, 3-4-1 HEAW) defeated the Harvard Crimson (5-1, 5-0 ECAC) 6-2 at Walter Brown Arena
The first period nearly went scoreless thanks to strong starts by the defenses and goaltenders Lindsay Reed and Corrine Schroeder. That changed with 30 seconds remaining when Terrier co-captain Sammy Davis scored a power play goal to end the period at 1-0 Terriers
The second period was a slugfest. Crimson sophomore Kristin Della Rovere took a perfect center-pass from Keely Moy and sneaked one past Schroeder to tie the game up at 1-1. From there, Jesse Compher and the Terriers took off. Compher scored BU’s second power play goal of the night shooting past Reed and a line of defenders to give BU the 2-1 lead.
Four minutes later, Compher was on the assist for a Nara Elia power play goal that gave the Terriers a 3-1 lead. Power plays aplenty had the Terriers up by two heading into the third.
When the final period began, Compher was at it again. This time in a shorthanded situation, she deked Reed and backhand to the left corner of the open goal to put BU up 4-1. This capped off a two-goal, three-point game for BU’s star forward, whom the Terriers had been waiting nearly two months to return to this level of performance.
“We knew we had to work hard, stick together as a team and I think we did that today,” Compher said. “My linemates worked hard, our power plays worked hard. We talked about doing the little things right and I think we did that tonight.” Compher added that she “felt pretty good” about her game and “pretty happy about the win”
Shortly after Compher’s shorthanded goal, Harvard capitalized on their power play thanks to Moy scoring a goal of her own to close it to 4-2. After Moy’s goal, BU put the game out of reach when Kristina Schuler and Deziray de Sousa, two-thirds of BU’s white-hot second line, worked BU’s first 5-on-5 goal of the night to go up 5-2.
Finally, Freshman Julia Nearis put the cherry on top of the sundae with the Terriers’ fifth power play goal. Now 6-2 Terriers, having reached a season-high for goals scored, that would be the final. BU improved to six-straight unbeaten matchups against the Crimson going back to 2016.
The first line head their best game of the season, racking up five points (4g, 1a), and head coach Brian Durocher couldn’t have been happier about it. “I was excited because they’re real good hockey players… they had a real good night tonight,” Durocher said.
On top of the first two lines, Terrier goalie Corrine Schroeder had another phenomenal performance saving 30 of 32 shots. “She’s finding some of the long shots and the stars are lining up pretty nicely,” Durocher said. “Schroeder stood on her head again tonight, [and] that helped us a lot,” Compher added.
Next up for BU is a two-game weekend set at the University of Vermont while the Crimson will return home for a Saturday matchup against the UNH Wildcats. Coach Durocher knows that this win will be huge as months of Hockey East play loom for his squad. “It’s nice to gain that type of confidence, and give ourselves a little bit of momentum going forward.”