Jan. 26, 2010
Box Score
BOSTON - The Boston University women's ice hockey team skated to a 2-2 tie in its first matchup of the season with cross-town rival no. 6 Northeastern, with the Huskies taking the shootout win at Matthews Arena on Tuesday night. The result moves the Terriers to 10-7-9 overall on the season and 6-5-4-2 in conference action while the Huskies have a 16-5-4 overall mark and an 8-4-4-3 record in Hockey East.
Tied at 2-2, the Terriers started the overtime period on a power-play but heads-up defense from the Huskies saw the hosts kill it off to get back to even-strength. An untimely Terrier cross-checking penalty put Northeastern on the power-play for most of the remaining overtime period, but BU was able to hold tight to preserve the 2-2 score. A Melissa Anderson wrister with three seconds to go sailed just wide and the game went to a shootout. Alyssa Wohlfeiler netted a goal for the Huskies on the team's second attempt and Rachel Llanes iced the 2-0 shootout win with a goal on Northeastern's final attempt.
BU goalie Melissa Haber recorded 25 saves on the evening while Northeastern's Florence Schelling collected 22 in the game.
The Terriers had a handful of decent looks on net through the first four minutes of the opening period, but Schelling stood firm in the NU goal. BU's best opportunity came with just over three minutes to play in the first after multiple penalties saw three Huskies and one Terrier sent to the box to set up two minutes of 5-on-3 play for the guests. BU was able to keep it in the Northeastern zone for the majority of the power-play, but was unable to get any quality looks as the Huskies closed out the opening stanza with a gutsy penalty kill to keep the score at 0-0.
BU finally broke through at the 14:04 mark of the second period, just after the Huskies killed their third penalty of the game. Tara Watchorn controlled a pass from Kathryn Miller at the blue line and fired on net but Jill Cardella was able to redirect the puck past Schelling to put the Terriers up 1-0.
Northeastern was able to equalize late in the middle stanza, capitalizing on a costly Terrier miscue. Kelly Wallace picked off a pass behind the BU net and slid a pass to Annie Hogan whose slapshot beat Haber stick-side, knotting the score at 1-1. A Terrier penalty with under two minutes to go gave Northeastern some good scoring chances, but Haber held tight to preserve the 1-1 score.
The Terriers regained the lead on a power-play goal at the 14:34 mark of the third, the first man-up tally of the game. Watchorn collected the puck in her own end and wristed a pass to Melissa Anderson across mid-ice. Anderson took over from there, weaving between two NU defenders and beating Schelling with a backhand for a 2-1 advantage.
The lead was short-lived as the Huskies answered back with a power-play tally of their own. Lindsey Berman collected a dump-pass from BU and found Brittany Esposito who potted a top-shelf goal to even the score just a minute and a half later. The Terriers turned up the heat down the stretch but neither team was able to score a third goal in regulation, forcing the game to overtime tied at two-apiece.
Boston University's next game is on Friday, Jan. 29 as the Terriers welcome the Connecticut Huskies to Walter Brown Arena. Gametime is slated for 7 p.m.
