Women’s Hockey: Terriers outplayed by UConn in penultimate regular season game
Featured image by Holly Gustavsen
By Claire Smieszny
Boston University Women’s Ice Hockey (21-10-2, 18-6-2 HE) fell to the UConn Huskies (20-11-2, 18-6-2 HE) 4-1 in their penultimate regular season game on Friday afternoon as the two teams battle it out for top spot in Hockey East heading into playoffs.
“I feel like we were dipping our toes in the water a little bit,” Head Coach Tara Watchorn said post-game. “We were playing our game plan, but it was just not all in in terms of confidence level.”
From the start of the game, it was clear the two teams were evenly matched with high skill sets, as play went back and forth quickly, with each team ringing off shots when given the chance. UConn got their play under control quicker than the Terriers and established some offense early on, leading to the first goal of the game going in their favor.
Just under seven minutes into the first period, the Huskies’ freshman forward, Sadie Hotles, sniped the puck through traffic from the left dot to beat BU’s goaltender, Mari Pietersen.
While it stood as the only goal of the period, it still spurred the Huskies forward with serious momentum. BU managed some chances after the fact to attempt to even the score, but UConn’s Megan Warrener was a brick wall in net, living up to her .946 save percentage this year.
The second period is where the Huskies managed to pull ahead and essentially put the game away. With a goal 2:42 into the period, UConn had doubled their lead with Hotles potting another.
After a scramble in front of the net, the puck got kicked out to Hotles in the high slot. A scattered Terrier squad couldn’t locate the puck before Hotles sent it sailing into the net for a 2-0 lead.
The siege on BU’s net continued, and about six minutes later, the Huskies struck again. Megan Woodworth swung around the back of the net with the puck before finding Martha Mobarak open in the slot for the goal.
The third goal seemed to wake the Terriers up as they got a handle on the puck and accounted for six straight shots following right after. Unfortunately, none of them found their way into the net.
The game continued on in the Huskies’ favor as with under five minutes to go in the period; they found their way to the back of the net again. Ashey Allard and Jada Habisch went back and forth with the puck as they streaked down the ice off the rush, with Habisch netting UConn’s final goal.
“We gotta be able to defend our lines and make them pay for the moments we do get up ice,” Watchorn said. ‘”They just sit people on that red line and they hit pucks in and make you back to work.”
The third period saw the Terriers finally get on the board just under three minutes in, with a goal from Lindsay Bochna, who split the wickets of Warrener off of Christina Vote’s rebound for a power play goal.
“I think we made the adjustments that we needed, and more so our environment and everything we’ve talked about all year and we started to see our game actually show through in the third,” Watchorn said.
Both teams continued to battle back and forth as BU seemed to have caught their stride, but the newfound energy and poise of play wouldn’t be enough to get them within striking distance of the lead UConn built.
As the period wound down, the score remained 4-1 and put the teams neck-in-neck in the Hockey East standings, heading into the series finale tomorrow.
Saturday’s game will be played at Walter Brown Arena, with puck drop set for 4 p.m. and streaming available on ESPN+.