Women’s Hockey: Terriers open season with statement win over Merrimack

Featured image by Will Bowers

By Joe Eachus

Usually, they don’t ask how you score your first, but they might want to for Lola Reid. Two nifty moves: one around her defender, a second around the netminder, and just had to nudge it across the goal line. 

The towering freshman’s first career tally wound up being the start of a three-goal second period and a six-goal run for the Terriers (1-0-0, 1-0-0 HEA), not looking back in the season opener against Merrimack (0-2-0, 0-1-0 HEA) at Agganis Arena on Tuesday night.

Tamara Giaquinto, donning the “C” for the BU women this season, picked up a career-high three points on the night (two goals and an assist), seeing extensive work on special teams and anchoring the top defensive pairing.

“We had a little bit of time after our exhibition game [against Concordia] to really dive into some special teams last week, talked about some transition,” coach Tara Watchorn said. “We had our buckets all preseason focusing on contact, focusing on our first touches on the puck, making them offensive and creating quality scoring chances.

Seven goals marks the highest scoring output of the Watchorn era, and the highest overall since February 2022 against Harvard in the Beanpot.

“We had a lot of depth last year, and this year as well. It’s still early, but it’s buying into the identity in every way,” Watchorn added. “We focus so much on making our offense goalie-proof and creating quality scoring chances.”

Mari Pietersen was remarkably solid in net, turning aside 16 of 17 shots and opening her year with a victory.

“[Mari] playing with that poise and confidence was really cool to see,” Watchorn said. Expected starter Callie Shanahan was out for maintenance, but was still able to impact the game. Pietersen’s mask lost a clip in the third period, and with the equipment staff struggling with a repair, Shanahan loaned her mask to Pietersen for a stretch of the third.

The first frame was a tale of power plays and penalty kills, with six combined between the two squads. Managing an extended 5-on-3 opportunity, captain Tamara Giaquinto tallied the first goal of the season. Lilli Welcke held the puck behind the goal line, finding a wide-open Giaquinto at the top of the right circle for a quick shot past Merrimack’s Calli Hogarth.

Merrimack did not register a shot on goal until over three-quarters of the way through the first, as former Terrier Madison Cardaci was sprung on a near-breakaway that Pietersen turned aside.

The Warriors finally got on the board at 17:03 of the first, with Solveig Gisler’s shot blockered by Pietersen almost directly into the skate of Gabi Jones, and took an awkward bounce across the goal line.

Reid’s highlight-tape-worthy score early into the second was the momentum push BU needed, as they went on to score two more in close succession.

Lindsay Bochna, after heading down the tunnel a minute in following an elbow to the head, also tallied her first Terrier goal on the power play from a Vote cross-crease feed.

A Giaquinto howitzer from the point made it 4-1 BU and chased Hogarth from the pipes. Replacing her was freshman Margaux Favre.

Clara Yuhn’s third-period tally, after Vote found her cutting between the hashes, all but sealed the victory for BU, but they weren’t quite done yet. Ani FitzGerald made it a touchdown, and Kaileigh Quigg’s first career goal added the extra point for an emphatic Terrier victory. 

Next up is a major test, a two-game series against the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-0-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) in Minneapolis.

“We get to feel good about the things we did well, and now it’s time to upgrade again,” Watchorn said. “It’s where we want to be. We want to play for national championships, and I’m really excited for our group to see what it takes and to play one of the best.”

This weekend’s games will both be available to stream on Big Ten+. 

 

Share this: