A top-10 opponent with a nation-leading goaltender may be intimidating for some teams, but the No. 6/7 Boston University women’s hockey team brought its best effort to the table in a 4-1 win over No. 3/4 Quinnipiac Wednesday night at Walter Brown Arena.
The Terriers (15-5-2) wasted no time in solving Quinnipiac goaltender Chelsea Laden, who, coming into this matchup, led all of NCAA Division I women’s hockey in wins (20), shutouts (12) and goals against average (0.91).
“We did a nice job, and we got some timely goals,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “The power play goal was big and then to have [junior wing Sarah Lefort] get her own rebound and put that one in to start the third, where even though they got the one quick goal after, we still had a cushion.”
Freshman forward Victoria Bach opened the scoring 5:26 into the game when she danced into the left-wing circle and fired one high over the glove of Laden. The Terriers added to their lead later in the first when senior captain Marie-Philip Poulin set up junior forward Kayla Tutino with a feed across the slot for an easy tap-in on a 4-on-3 advantage.
BU barely outshot Quinnipiac (20-2-3) in the opening period, but seven blocked shots and seven saves by sophomore goaltender Victoria Hanson kept the Bobcats off the board in the first.
Hanson continued to keep Quinnipiac at bay in the second period. The Stoughton native deflected a breakaway shot from forward Nicole Kosta to the end glass early in the period, while senior Erica Uden Johansson rang the crossbar behind Hanson with under a minute left in the frame. The shots remained tight with the Terriers holding a slight 15-13 advantage.
Both teams opened the final period with quick tallies. Lefort buried her own rebound in front to give the Terriers a 3-0 lead early in the period, but Kosta would finally beat Hanson with a shot from the low slot just 26 seconds later. BU then went to work to regain its three-goal advantage as Poulin netted a wrister from the goal line that beat Laden on the short side.
“All in all, the kids are playing well, and we’re getting a lot of top-heavy production from the big line, but the other lines are getting chances and opportunities, and if they keep doing that, they’ll score their goals,” Durocher said.
Hanson played a solid game in net for the Terriers, but her team’s defense made her task easy all night. The BU goaltender made 21 saves in the game, while the rest of the Terriers blocked 19 Bobcat shots.
“People were working hard and getting in lanes and getting out to the points with defense and helping out,” Durocher said. “That’s another aspect of the game that you have to have. They did get some flurries. When they did get some chances, we were there. A little bit of that’s luck, but a lot of that is really hanging in there, showing the courage and showing the conviction to make that an important part of the game.”
The newly formed Terrier top line of Lefort, Poulin and Tutino accounted for three of four goals and seven of the 12 total points in the contest. Both Durocher and Poulin said they are pleased with their progress.
“It’s been pretty good,” Poulin said. “We’ve been reading each other pretty well, and we try to talk it up and try to feed off each other. We try to play as hard as we can.”
BU has now won back-to-back games and will look to carry over that momentum into a weekend series with the University of Vermont.
“It’s a real positive,” Durocher said. “Winning the game gives you a lot of confidence. Playing well gives you confidence. If this thing ended up a 1-1 tie or a 2-2 tie or something, we still might have had the confidence. To get a solid victory, it’s a real positive, and now you get a couple of wins in a row, and we’ve got to build on that and wait for Vermont to come here this weekend and see if we can get on a little bit of a run.”