Women’s Hockey: Terriers shutout by Northeastern in first game of home-and-home
Featured image by Spirit Veron
By Ryan Owens
Boston University’s Women’s Ice Hockey (1-3-0, 1-1-0 HEA) fell 4-0 to rival No. 12 Northeastern (3-2-0, 1-0-0 HEA) at Matthews Arena on Friday night.
“It starts with our standard, all the things you can’t see. It started with the pregame skate…the excuses of being tired and traveling…I think we let it slip this week, for the first time all year,” Coach Tara Watchorn said following the loss.
The Terriers had trouble generating consistent momentum throughout the game, which, combined with a 26-save shutout performance by Northeastern goalie Paige Tokarski and a two-goal performance by freshman Éloïse Caron, gave BU little chance to compete.
Caron’s first goal broke the score open early in the game as she scored off the rush to add a third tally to her season and give the Huskies a 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the first period.
The game continued mostly without stoppages, even as the intensity on the ice increased following the goal. The Terriers were able to start generating more chances during the middle of the period, although they struggled to maintain consistent offensive pressure.
With five minutes left in the period, Clara Yuhn drew a tripping penalty, giving BU their first powerplay opportunity of the night. However, the Terriers struggled to maintain offensive zone pressure throughout the man advantage and ended their power play with the same score on the board.
Northeastern generated immediate momentum after the powerplay, ringing a shot off the post and pinning the Terriers in their own end before Lindsay Bochna took a penalty for interference with 30 seconds left in the first. This put BU on the penalty kill, going into the intermission, looking to climb back from a 1-0 deficit.
The Terriers opened up the second frame, successfully killing the penalty. However, the Huskies maintained offensive zone pressure for several minutes following the powerplay, giving BU little breathing room on their own end of the ice.
That all changed when an interference call on Northeastern’s Lily Yovetich evened the ice to four-on-four hockey and provided the Terriers a minute of power play time. The team managed to maintain their first consistent pressure during this powerplay and in the minutes after, forcing Taborski to stand on her head as shots rained down.
The increased offensive pressure from BU led both teams to adopt a more physical style of play, resulting in rapidly changing momentum and a series of penalties that allowed the team with a man advantage to generate more pressure.
Fate decided to swing in Northeastern’s direction, as Holly Abela intercepted a pass in the Terrier zone, beating goaltender Callie Shanahan to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead with only 1:23 left in the second.
Less than a minute later, with 31 seconds remaining in the middle frame, Jaden Bogden made a crucial pass to Caron, who went on a breakaway to score her second goal of the game and make the score 3-0 Huskies entering the final period of play.
BU was looking to make changes in the final period, starting with pulling Shanhan and giving backup goaltender Mari Pietersen the nod in net.
“Giving a 3-0 on [Callie] at the end of the second show we weren’t really supporting her in there, either, So I think it’s a momentum shift, it’s to protect Callie a little bit and try and get a final push in the third,” Watchorn said about her decision to pull Shanahan.
The penalties resumed into the third, with Caron taking a tripping penalty less than four minutes in. The Terriers generated heavy momentum throughout the man advantage but could not convert on the scoreboard. BU continued to maintain pressure, generating odd man rushes but ultimately failing to get the puck past the seemingly unbreakable Taborski.
A post-whistle shoving match in front of the Huskies’ net, followed by a minor penalty for each team, led Northeastern to hold a four-on-three advantage, although every involved penalty ended without a change in score.
The final goal for the Huskies came off a deflected pass to the net, as Ella Blackmore found the puck and knocked it past Pietersen to make the game 4-0 for Northeastern.
BU continued to be held scoreless as the buzzer sounded for Taborski’s second collegiate shutout.
With this loss, the Terriers have now lost 12 straight games to the Huskies, who lead the all-time series 53-34-9.
The loss was notably problematic for the powerplay unit, who failed to score a goal despite having the man advantage six times throughout the game.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do…we were shooting ourselves in the foot, and I think that’s the takeaway,” Watchorn said about tomorrow’s matchup.
The Terriers will hope to bounce back in the second half of the home-and-home series.
Puck drop is set for Saturday at 3 p.m. from Agganis Arena and is available to stream on ESPN+.