Jan. 9, 2009

GameTracker | Game Notes

BOSTON - After falling to Northeastern, 2-0, on Thursday, the ninth-ranked Boston University women's ice hockey team (9-6-5, 6-3-0 HEA) will turn its attention to another pack of Huskies, visiting Connecticut (13-6-2, 6-4-0 HEA) in a Hockey East clash on Saturday (Jan. 10) at 1 p.m. in Storrs. The Terriers will be up against the hottest team in Hockey East, facing a UConn squad that has won seven straight games.

GameTracker live stats of the game will be available through Connecticut.

BU will be kicking off a four-game road stretch tied with the Huskies for third place in the Hockey East standings with 12 points, one point ahead of Providence and one point behind New Hampshire. The Terriers will look to regain momentum in the conference after suffering back-to-back shutout losses in league play for the first time since 2005.

The Huskies are in the midst of a 12-game homestand and will be looking to extend their seven-game winning streak after taking a pair of games against Vermont last weekend. Connecticut boasts the highest-scoring offense in Hockey East, averaging 3.38 goals per game, powered by two of the league's top scorers in juniors Dominique Thibault (18g, 9a) and Michelle Binning (13g, 11a). Binning is the reigning Hockey East TPS Hockey Player of the Week after notching four points (2g, 2a) in the weekend sweep of the Catamounts.

Senior Brittany Wilson has handled the bulk of the netminding duties, posting a 1.83 goals-against average and .918 save percentage to go with a league-best 9-2-1 record.

Head coach Heather Linstad is in her ninth season at the helm of the Huskies, where she has gone 114-132-32. The former Northeastern head coach has a career record of 275-203-59 in her 17th season overall.

The Huskies swept last year's three-game season series and own a 6-2-1 advantage in the all-time series against the Terriers. Senior Gina Kearns has tallied four goals and an assist for BU in nine career games against Connecticut, including an overtime game-winning goal at the Mark Freitas Ice Forum in 2007. The Terriers' last three meetings with the Huskies in Storrs have each gone to overtime, resulting in a 1-1-1 record for each side.

Four of the five goals BU scored against UConn last season came on the power play, an area in which the Terriers have struggled this season. BU has converted 13.6 percent of power-play opportunities this season and has come up empty on its last 16 chances.

Junior Melissa Anderson leads the Terriers in scoring with 20 points (5g, 15a), and her 15 assists are second-best in Hockey East. Freshman Jenelle Kohanchuk is just behind with 19 points (8g, 11a), the second-best scoring totals for a Hockey East rookie this season.