Women’s Hockey: Law secures OT win, edging out Northeastern 3-2

Featured image by Spirit Veron

By Lydia Murray

The No. 14 Boston University Terriers (19-8-1, 16-4-1 HE) faced a daunting task Tuesday night as they prepared to take on the No. 13 Northeastern University Huskies (18-10-1, 13-8-1 HE) without stars Lilli and Luisa Welcke, who are playing for Germany in the Olympic qualifiers, forcing them to roll with an unusual 11F-8D lineup.

The first three meetings (including the Beanpot championship) ended in a 4-0 score, but this was finally the tightly contested game you’d expect between two talented rivals. The Terriers nearly blew the lead in the third period, but thanks to goaltender Callie Shanahan’s brilliance, they found a way to pull off the 3-2 overtime win, becoming the first team to hit 50 points this season in Hockey East. This concluded the season series between the two, with the Terriers taking it 2-1.

“Unbelievable,” BU head coach Tara Watchorn said postgame. “That’s the Callie we know and she made them earn every goal that they got. They were Grade-A goals that they did and she’s the reason we were in it.”

Both teams struggled to get shots on the goaltenders to open this one. Finally, at 7:24, BU’s Sydney Healey landed the game’s first shot on goal, which Northeastern netminder Lisa Jönsson turned aside. 

That shot opened things up a bit for the Terriers. Over the next four minutes, they landed three more shots to the Huskies’ two until finally, Kaileigh Quigg scored BU’s first goal in the past 73:49 minutes of action against Northeastern. Sydney Healey fed the puck over to Lindsay Bochna during a 2-on-1, and she fired it on Jönsson, who made the save. However, she uncharacteristically left the rebound right out front, and a crashing Quigg poked it home to open the scoring.

Each team took a turn shorthanded over the rest of the period, but neither was able to take advantage, so the Terriers took a 1-0 lead and 9-4 shot edge back to the locker room. 

The Terriers opened the second with six seconds remaining on the power play and were able to get into the zone, but they didn’t hold it long. The ice tilted heavily in the Huskies’ favor for the next six minutes, partly due to an Ani FitzGerald penalty. However, BU did a good job of stepping in front of shots while Shanahan was ready to make the save for the ones that got through.

Three power plays in the second half of the period helped the Terriers get back on track offensively. It included 1:18 of a 5v3, which BU did not convert on, but with three seconds remaining in the final advantage, Clara Yuhn used Husky defender Tory Mariano as a screen while she sniped one past Jönsson to double the Terrier lead. 

The third period was one to forget for BU. They landed just one shot on goal while taking two penalties and letting up 15 shots until finally, the Huskies figured out how to crack Shanahan at 14:10. Captain Taze Thompson fired off a shot from a bad angle, which Jules Constantinople collected from just outside the crease and sent back on goal from behind her back. This time, a streaking Ella Blackmore collected it and sent it home to cut the Terrier lead to one. 

Just 1:23 later, Tuva Kandell sent a long shot in on Shanahan, who kicked out a huge rebound that went right to Allie Lalonde, and she beat Shanahan to tie the game.

When asked postgame about what caused the third-period breakdown, Watchorn said she looked forward to reflecting on it with her group because she did not think it was any one thing.

“I think that’s going to be the fun part about debriefing it and going back, reflecting with the players,” Watchorn said. “I think there’s no one answer, obviously we were playing with a bit of a short bench, so that probably played into a little bit, but lots to figure out.”

That did it for regulation, so for the first time in the season series, these two headed to overtime.

Northeastern dominated the first 3:05 of overtime and jumped out to a 3-0 shot advantage. However, Shanahan remained a brick wall, which eventually allowed BU to get possession. Then, just as one was beginning to wonder if this game was destined to end in a shootout, Alex Law turned on the jets and lasered the game-winner past Jönsson with just 30 seconds remaining. The final shots were 35-31 Huskies.

Overall, Watchorn was pleased with her team’s bounce back after a difficult loss in their last meeting.

“I had the thought coming into this, what a great unique opportunity to be able to play them again this close to a game that we obviously wanted not too long ago,” Watchorn said. “I liked our bounceback in terms of the confidence we brought to start the game, discipline to our game plan [for] I think the first half of the game, [then] we let it slip a little bit down the stretch, but lots to learn.”

The Terriers will be back in action Friday night when the University of Connecticut Huskies descend upon Walter Brown Arena. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. ET, and you can find the game on ESPN+.