Women’s Hockey: Three takeaways from BU’s season-ending loss to Providence

By Patrick Donnelly

The Boston University Terriers (6-6) fell to the Providence College Friars (11-6-1) by a final score of 4-3 on Sunday in the Hockey East Quarterfinal.

The loss marked the end of BU’s season and playoff hopes.

Freshman defender Julia Shaunessy scored her first two collegiate goals, while senior forward and  assistant captain Kristina Schuler tallied a goal as well. Senior goaltender Corinne Schroeder made 17 saves on 21 shots in the first 40 minutes, while junior Kate Stuart stopped all 10 shots she faced in the third period.

Here are my three takeaways from the game – all opinions are my own:

Julia Shaunessy caps off impressive rookie season

The freshman blueliner finished the season quarterbacking the second power play unit and seeing significant even-strength minutes on the second pair. From the first game of the season, Shaunessy’s mobility and poise with the puck impressed me, considering her size at 6-foot-1. She has a pretty decent shot too.

Shaunessy put her skating ability on display for her first goal, dancing into the Providence zone and scoring with a nice wrister. She showed it off again late in the game as she walked the blueline and scored with another strong wrist shot from range.

Last weekend against Boston College, Shaunessy nearly scored on a strong net drive as she jumped up in the play. Her sense of when to activate offensively, and her belief in her abilities clearly improved as the season went on.

With her individual skillset and size, Shaunessy certainly has a lot to build on next season. BU has a good one here.

Corinne Schroeder deserved better this season

By her standards, the senior netminder had a disappointing season. She posted a .911 save percentage, a 1.84 GAA, a 3-5-0 record and two shutouts – all very much average numbers, but not spectacular numbers like we’re used to seeing.

Schroeder looked like her usual self in the vast majority of her games, but there were a few losses that stick out, between Sunday’s defeat at PC, a 4-0 loss against Vermont, and a 4-1 loss at UConn. In those three games, she got absolutely shelled.

Sure, there were goals she should have had, but by and large, BU played poorly in front of her. Not only that, but for whatever reason the Terriers seemed to play better with Stuart in goal – they scored two goals and mounted a valiant comeback attempt in the third period, after only scoring one goal in the first two periods with Schroeder in net.

BU scored six goals with Schroeder in net for eight appearances – just 0.75 goals per game. With her in goal, BU was outscored 6-16.

With Stuart in goal, BU outscored opponents 18-7. In her five appearances, the Terriers scored 3.60 goals per game, a far cry from the production Schroeder had in net.

Schroeder was the victim of little to no support from her offense, and growing pains on a young defense. The latter was on full display on Sunday when the Friars scored their second of the game. Schroeder made two great saves, but could not do anything against the Providence skaters swarming her crease, outnumbering BU with three players to one – Schuler, a forward.

The team defense as a whole in front of Schroeder was subpar this season, exemplified by Providence’s 3-0 goal on Sunday. All four BU penalty killers focused in one the puck, leaving Friars’ attacker Hayley Lunny completely undetected.

By my math, barring she uses her extra year of eligibility, Schroeder will finish with the best career save percentage (.929) and GAA (1.98) in program history, the second-most wins (49), and the third-most shutouts (8). The Elm Creek, Manitoba, native is third in most saves in a single season (846 in 2018-19), second in most shutouts in a season (4 in 2019-20), first and second in single season save percentage (.943 in 2019-20, .933 in 2018-19), and first and fourth in single season GAA (1.54 in 2019-20 and 1.90 in 2018-19) for BU.

She’s best goaltender in program history, in my opinion, and she deserved more this season.

Too little too late for offense

Stop me if I’ve said this before, but BU struggled to produce offense all season as senior co-captain and forward Jesse Compher was the team’s only consistent source of production with seven goals and four assists for 11 points in nine games.

Julia Nearis, who had not played since Dec. 11 against UConn, still had the third-most goals (2) and the sixth-highest point total on the team (3). BU had too many inconsistencies offensively, this season, and it hurt them again against Providence.

The Terriers did not get on the board until Providence has a 3-0 lead. By then, BU had to be absolutely perfect for the remainder of the game if they wanted to come back, but they weren’t. The Friars quickly made it 4-1, and the Terriers were back to square one.

Schuler scored early in the third to make it 4-2, and Shaunessy pulled BU within one with 10.6 seconds left (with Stuart in net, mind you), but by then, it was too little, too late.

Featured Image: Freshman defender Julia Shaunessy controls the puck in a loss against Maine at Walter Brown Arena on Jan. 24, 2021. Photo by Patrick Donnelly.

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