Women’s Hockey: Welcke sisters score a goal each, powering Terriers to a 2-1 win over Vermont
Featured image by Spirit Veron
By Lydia Murray
No. 13 Boston University Women’s Ice Hockey (12-5-1, 10-2-1 HE) kept rolling Friday night as they kicked off their weekend series against the University of Vermont Catamounts (4-16-2, 3-10-2 HE) with a 2-1 win.
“That was really a road win,” coach Tara Watchorn said. “Cool environment here, I’ve gotta say, and it’s another great test for us to see if we can just put a performance together that gets us the result we want. I thought we started pretty shaky…I felt we did pull it together enough that we have an opportunity to upgrade it tomorrow.”
The Terriers wasted little time getting on the board. On the first shot of the game, just 1:01 in, Lilli Welcke sent a backhander past Catamounts netminder Jane Gervais to open the scoring.
The teams traded shots for the rest of the period, with UVM landing nine to BU’s five, but no one else found the back of the net.
The Terriers were not able to start the second period as quickly as the first and instead continued to trade chances with UVM. However, this time, they were the ones getting more chances, tallying nine shots to the Catamounts’ five through the first half.
UVM looked like they were going to get a chance to take back some momentum when Riley Walsh took a hooking penalty at 11:26. However, as the penalty wound down, Terrier captain Tamara Giaquinto and forward Luisa Welcke got an offensive 2-on-1, and with nine seconds left on the kill, Luisa Welcke slid one past Gervais to double BU’s lead shorthanded.
After the game, Watchorn spoke about how her team’s approach to the penalty kill helped them get that goal.
“No master plan other than that the message is always ‘let’s go get a shorty’,” Watchorn said. “I think just having that mindset gives you a purpose versus just playing on your heels, so that’s always our approach.”
Later, the Terriers got their first powerplay of the game, and the Catamounts nearly scored a shorthanded goal of their own. However, BU goaltender Callie Shanahan made the save to help her team return to the locker room leading 2-0.
Although they didn’t land many shots on goal, UVM surged in the final frame and got some of their best looks of the night. However, the Terriers almost made it 3-0 at 16:03 when they got a 4-on-1, but Gervais came up with a huge save to keep her team’s deficit at two.
That save turned out to be even bigger than it initially appeared when, just 17 seconds later, UVM finally solved Shanahan. Grace Nelles ripped a slapshot home to cut the deficit to one.
The Catamounts continued to search for the equalizer, but their comeback bid was damaged when Evelyne Blais-Savoie took a charging penalty with less than a minute remaining. They soon pulled Gervais to get it back to 5-on-5, but ultimately, the Terriers kicked off the weekend series with a win.
The win continues BU’s streak of not losing to any of the lower six teams in the Hockey East standings this season. After the game, Shanahan spoke about how the team has managed to pull that off.
“Still great teams,” Shanahan said. “We still have great games against them, but it’s important not to take anyone lightly. So it’s just honestly focusing ourselves, that’s a big thing that Tara preaches is just playing our game and focusing on ourselves and not really worrying too much about our opponent. We just focus on us.”
BU will be back in action tomorrow night when they take the ice at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, VT for a rematch with UVM. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. ET, and you can find the game on ESPN+.