Women’s Hockey: Terriers continue slump with loss to Holy Cross

Since falling in the opening seconds of overtime at The Garden early last week, Boston University women’s hockey has struggled to return to their identity that had them on a hot streak. Saturday’s loss continued the trend, falling to last-place Holy Cross, 3-2.

The Terriers (11-13-3, 9-10-1 HEA) looked to close their in-season matchups against Holy Cross (8-16-2, 5-13-2 HEA) with a win on Saturday in Worcester, but instead recorded another loss. In an upset for the basement-dwelling Crusaders, BU now has only one win separating them from the University of Vermont and seventh place in Hockey East.

From the opening draw, Boston came out stronger than their previous two games despite Holy Cross having a strong first shift of their own. The Terriers had a few good shots on goal but spent much of their first power play in their zone. 

The offense’s communication issues shined through as the period raged on. Instead of a goal, every push to the net led to a missed pass, losing the puck behind their back, or being picked off. But, unlike the night before, Boston’s offense was able to organize enough to keep the puck out of their zone for the majority of the period. 

The Crusaders got on the board in the final seconds of the first period after Charlotte Sonntag scrambled the puck around Shanahan and into the right corner of the net. 

Boston quickly tied the score after sophomore forward Clara Yuhn hit the puck from the blue line and sent it bouncing off goalkeeper Brooke Loreanger’s pad. Yuhn left the game on Friday and didn’t return to congratulate the Crusaders on their win after sophomore defender Casey Borgiel boarded her, leading Yuhn to faceplant. 

Holy Cross took a shift toward the slot and freshman forward Emily Crovo called on Boston and took the lead with her first career goal. The Crusaders’ call was quickly answered when freshman forward Alex Law broke through the defense and went one-on-one with Loranger. 

The pace of the game picked up after the goal as both teams took attempts at the net. Both teams started to play with their highest intensity of the weekend tied at 2-2 going into the third period.  

Boston had successfully killed a penalty in the third after senior forward Catherine Foulem got sent to the box for a stick infraction, but Crovo beat around the Terrier defense to land another shot in the net. All eyes were on BU to tie the score like they had done two times before, but getting past Loranger would prove to be a challenge. 

The Terriers pulled Shanahan with two and a half minutes left to prevent underdog Holy Cross from another win. After spending almost a minute cycling the puck in their zone, BU got swept for the first time since their opening weekend in October. 

BU will return home to play Boston College at the Walter Brown Arena on Friday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. Gearing up against the team ranked second in the Hockey East, the Terriers will need to clean up their game to put them in a position to win.