Women’s Hockey: Terriers hang on against Holy Cross, secure first win in five games
By Stevie Potter
WORCESTER, Mass. — The Boston University Terriers’ (9-9-4, 8-6-3 HE) five-game winless streak came to an end Friday night in an exciting 4-3 victory over the Holy Cross Crusaders (3-20-0, 1-17-0 HE).
Senior Kate Stuart (23 saves) secured the spot of starting goaltender at the 6 p.m. pre-blizzard matchup at the Hart Center.
The youngest members of the Terrier squad stepped up tonight to squash the streak that has been plaguing the team since Dec.c 5 before the holiday break, with three out of four goals scored being tallied by freshmen.
The first period started off with BU’s Christina Vote, who later redeemedd herself, taking a penalty for goaltender interference. The Crusaders were unable to produce an early goal on this opportunity, a struggle that became a theme for them throughout the game.
Sophomore defender Julia Shaunessy opened the scoring for the Terriers at 13:52 in the first period to give BU a 1-0 lead. Sophomore forward Clare O’Leary and freshman. forward Kylie Roberts picked up the assists.
While BU had two back-to-back power play opportunities toward the end of the first period, they were unable to find the back of the net on the advantage.
The Terriers dominated the first 20 minutes of play, outshooting the Crusaders 22-5, and headed into the second period up 1-0.
Early in the second, Roberts scored to put BU ahead by two. Sophomore forward Tamara Giaquinto and senior forward Jesse DeVito earned the first and second assists on the goal. Throughout the rest of the period, BU took two more penalties, one for cross-checking and another for hooking, but killed both off to preserve the 2-0 lead going into the last period of play.
The third period had no shortage of action and was a battle down to the final five seconds of the game.
Vote scored a goal, assisted by Catherine Foulem at 6:50 into the period. Roberts’ second goal of the night came minutess later, putting the Terriers up 4-0.
Just when the game looked like secure for the Terriers, Holy Cross mounted a comeback, with Lilly Feeney scoring their first goal of the night to prevent the Terriers from recording a shutout. Then again at 14:48 in the third, Millie Sirum scored the second consecutive goal for Holy Cross with two Terriers, seniors Emma Wuthrich and Alex Allan, in the sin bin. The two were serving penalties for cross-checking and roughing, respectively.
As the period went on, the game became even more physical, with another pair of opposing players heading to the box for roughing penalties. This time it was Boston’s Courtney Correia and Crusader Emma Lange.
With under a minute remaining and Terrier DeVito serving time for a hooking call, Holy Cross’s Bryn Saarela scored the final goal of the game to put the Crusaders within one goal of BU. However, this effort proved unsuccessful as time ran out for Holy Cross, and the Terriers won the game 4-3.
BU outshot the competition 43-26 and dominated play for the majority of the game thanks to a solid effort from the whole squad, especially the freshman. Roberts in particular scored two goals and had one assist.
The Terriers will take on rival Boston College in their next game on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Walter Brown Arena.
Featured Image by Patrick Donnelly