{"id":36212,"date":"2023-01-27T11:18:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T16:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=36212"},"modified":"2023-01-27T11:18:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T16:18:51","slug":"womens-hockey-terriers-face-merrimack-vermont-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/01\/27\/womens-hockey-terriers-face-merrimack-vermont-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Hockey: Terriers Face Merrimack, Vermont This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sasha Abrams<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Boston University Women\u2019s Hockey (8-15-2, 7-12-2 HE) will face two Hockey East opponents this weekend at Walter Brown Arena, with the first contest against Merrimack College (7-19-1, 4-15-1 HE) on Friday night, followed by hosting the University of Vermont Catamounts (17-9-1, 12-7-1 HE) on Saturday. <\/span><\/p>\n

The puck is set to drop Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers last faced Merrimack on Oct. 28 and 29, splitting the weekend with the Warriors after a 5-2 loss on Oct. 28, and a 5-2 win on Oct. 29.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can count on them to work extremely hard and also be a hungry team because they want to put themselves in the best position playoff-wise,\u201d BU Head Coach Brian Durocher said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With three matchups last week, BU was able to capitalize on each of them with two extra points following shootout wins against Providence College and the University of Maine, and a 3-1 win against the University of New Hampshire. Merrimack\u2019s record last week was 0-2, facing Northeastern and Holy Cross.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be important to start fast, maybe get that first goal,\u201d Durocher said. \u201cYou put a little more pressure on them because maybe they\u2019ve got to forecheck a little harder or take a couple of chances and that\u2019s when sometimes a one-nothing game can turn into a three-nothing game.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BU\u2019s leading scorer is senior forward Julia Nearis with 18 points (9g, 9a) after she posted a goal in each game last week. Behind her is junior forward Lacey Martin, who found the back of the net against Maine to put her stat sheet at 14 points (5g, 9a).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Julia\u2019s got her feet moving and she\u2019s creating things with speed, she\u2019s awfully dangerous,\u201d Durocher said. \u201cShe has hands, she has a sense for the game, and she\u2019s a strong kid on her skates.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior forward Katie Kaufman leads the Warriors with 18 points (10g, 8a), four of which were from the series against BU earlier in the season. Kaufman is followed by sophomore forward Alexa Pongo who has 12 points (9g, 3a).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As always, the Terriers have two solid options for their weekend starter. Graduate Andrea Br\u00e4ndli has assumed the lead role with five starts in Terriers\u2019 last six games, and her .936 save percentage ranks eighth in the nation. Sophomore goaltender Callie Shanahan has played in goal for 11 games with a .906 save percentage and a 3.07 goals against average.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Merrimack\u2019s goaltending duo starts with senior Emma Gorski, who has started 19 games and has compiled a .891 save percentage and 3.48 goals against average. Her partner is freshman Calli Hogarth, who holds a .919 save percentage and a 2.83 goals against average in 12 games played.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After Friday night\u2019s contest with the Warriors, the Terriers turn around to face Vermont in a mid-afternoon contest at Walter Brown on Saturday. Ranking second in Hockey East, the Catamounts are coming off the same pair of matchups as Merrimack in Holy Cross and Northeastern, only taking a loss to the latter, the only team above them in the conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BU is 38-11-8 against the Catamounts all-time and 20-4-6 at home with each team claiming a win in the series in November. On the road, the Terriers lost 2-1 to Vermont the first night to then finish off with a 4-3 overtime win.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vermont\u2019s team leaders are junior forward Nat\u00e1lie Mlynkov\u00e1 and fifth-year forward Theresa Schafzahl, who are fourth and fifth overall in scoring in Hockey East. Mlynkov\u00e1 leads the team with 33 points (15g, 18a), while Schafzahl has 32 points (15g, 17a).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the goal for the Catamounts is junior Jessie McPherson, who has a .910 save percentage and a 1.87 goal against average in 26 games played. McPherson\u2019s goals against average rank 16th in the nation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After this weekend\u2019s matchups, the Terriers only have one more game before the 44th Annual Women\u2019s Beanpot begins on Feb. 4 at 4 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sasha Abrams Boston University Women\u2019s Hockey (8-15-2, 7-12-2 HE) will face two Hockey East opponents this weekend at Walter Brown Arena, with the first contest against Merrimack College (7-19-1, 4-15-1 HE) on Friday night, followed by hosting the University of Vermont Catamounts (17-9-1, 12-7-1 HE) on Saturday. The puck is set to drop Friday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19938,"featured_media":35952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1039,1041],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19938"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36214,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36212\/revisions\/36214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}