Women’s Hockey: Terriers tie, fall to Merrimack in shootout

By Owen Gund

The Boston University Terriers (3-0-2, 3-0-2 HE) dropped a 5-4 decision against the Merrimack College Warriors (0-5-1, 0-1-1) at Walter Brown Arena on Friday night. The game will go into the standings as a 4-4 tie, but the Warriors emerged victorious in a seven-round shootout.

The game certainly felt like a loss for the Terriers.

“Not overly excited about the way we came out of the gate,” BU head coach Brian Durocher said after the game. “We can’t be learning lessons too many nights here.”

“We should know how to play. I think we’re coached well enough, and I think we have enough leaders. We just need to execute.”

BU’s execution was notably poor to start the game, as the Terriers struggled to break the puck out of their end, and much to the surprise of the home crowd, let Merrimack spend the majority of the first ten minutes of the game in the BU zone.

With 11:32 to go in the first period, the Warriors broke through and got on the board first. Merrimack sophomore defenseman Raice Szott ripped a shot from the right point, which BU goaltender Kate Stuart kicked aside. The rebound squirted out toward junior forward Kate Kaufman, who dove to knock in the loose puck.

The Warriors outplayed the Terriers for the opening 20 minutes, but Stuart kept BU in the game with eight saves. The Terriers headed to the locker room trailing 1-0.

The Terriers couldn’t generate any momentum coming out of intermission, and with 14:27 to go in the middle stanza, the Warriors added to their lead with a highlight-reel goal. Sophomore defender Teghan Inglis gained the BU blue line, cut towards the middle past BU defender Alex Allan, and chipped one over the shoulder of Stuart bar down to put the Warriors up 2-0

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Following Inglis’ tally, the Terriers had back-to-back power play opportunities but failed to solve Merrimack goaltender Emma Gorski, who was sharp early on.

With 4:43 to go in the second period, a surprising goal-scorer broke through for the Terriers.

Boston University junior forward Haylee Blinkhorn tallied her first career collegiate goal. Blinkhorn skated the puck across the Merrimack goal line, toe dragged around Inglis, and ripped the puck just inside the far post to cut the Terrier deficit in half.

Just when the Terriers seemed to have some momentum, the Warriors snatched it with a massive goal from their captain. Graduate forward Dominika Laskova parked herself above the right hash mark and one-timed a feed from freshman forward Alexa Pongo before Stuart could position herself to make the save.

With time winding down in the second period, a late goal from senior forward Courtney Correia injected new life into the Terriers. With 13 seconds to go in the second, Correia peeled off the right wall, skated to the high slot, and snapped one high glove on Gorski to pull the Terriers within one.

The physical play continued as the third period started up. BU defenseman Madison Cardaci took a big hit behind the BU net and was slow to skate over to the bench. The game started to get chippy when Laskova rocked Catherine Foulem in open ice just inside the BU blue line.

An avalanche of penalties occurred following the hit on Foulem, and Merrimack earned a four-on-three power play with Julia Shaunessy and Nadia Mattivi in the box for BU. It did not take long for Merrimack to capitalize. Inglis buried her second goal of the game when she uncorked a hard slap shot from the point that beat Stuart high on the blocker side.

Just when it looked like Merrimack had put the game to bed, the Terriers clawed their way back once again. With 7:18 to go in the contest, Correia blasted down the left wing on a two-on-one opportunity, patiently waited, toe dragged, and roofed one for her second goal of the game.

With 3:21 to go in the game and the Terriers on the power play, junior forward Julia Nearis tied it up in a mad scramble in front of the net. The puck pinballed around after a shot from senior forward Brooke Ersoy, and eventually, Nearis was able to put home the loose puck.

“She understands quick releases and things that are tough for the goalie before they get set up,” Durocher said about Nearis after the game. “There are a lot of really subtle strengths for her, and it’s great to see her on a roll,” he added.

With 3:33 to go in overtime, Nearis took a tripping penalty for the Terriers. At times in the ensuing Merrimack power play, it appeared that BU was holding on by a thread with Stuart kicking out several dangerous opportunities. Nevertheless, the Terriers survived the penalty and came away with a tie.

The shootout was a seven-round affair in which both goaltenders were stellar, but the Warriors prevailed thanks to a snipe from Merrimack graduate forward Courtney Maud in the seventh round.

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Next Friday, the Terriers will head to Troy, New York to take on the RPI Engineers at 6 p.m.

Featured Image by Patrick Donnelly

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