Women's Hockey vs. Quinnipiac (11/7/07)

by Jeremy Binckes

After the Boston University Terriers (2-5-2, 0-2-0 Hockey East) defeated the Quinnipiac University Bobcats (1-6-1, 0-4-1 ECAC) 6-1, BU Head Coach Brian Durocher said something, while deep within the bowels of Walter Brown Arena, something counterintuitive to the Durocher school of hockey, something he hadn't said all year.

Durocher’s jovial mood ended for just a nanosecond. His words echoed with fire.

“We’ve shown people that we can get some goals here.”

The Terriers have scored 12 goals in two games against weak ECAC opponents; precisely what they needed to do after being stymied by New Hampshire.

Just as in Saturday’s game against Union, the Terriers exploded in the second; this time scoring only three goals.

In the first period, the Terriers seemed to try the Quinnipiac offense, looking for holes to exploit later. BU controlled the tempo of the game for most of the first period, but a lucky bounce led to the first goal of the game.

With just over 3:30 left to play in the period, Bobcats forward Elyse Cole found a puck that had just bounced off the boards and away from a Terrier-Bobcat scrum to BU netminder Allyse Wilcox’s (16 saves) right. Cole took two strides towards Wilcox, who was caught unaware and unable to cut the angle. The puck flew top shelf to give the ‘Cats a 1-0 lead heading into the second.

It’s not that the Terriers didn’t try to score in the first period. BU had its opportunities throughout the game. Freshman forward Lauren Cherewyk alone had two clear-ice breakaways one-on-one with Jamie Miller (37 saves), but each time, Miller put her body in front. In all, BU had at least 4 clear breakaways in the game.

“[Miller] stood on her head most of the time,” freshman forward Holly Lorms said.

It took under 5 minutes for the Terriers to capitalize in the second. Lorms found the puck just off the boards, took a few strides in, and fired a slap shot to beat Miller.

“All week, we’ve been working on getting the puck to the net,” Lorms said, “and I had coach in my ear saying ‘Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck!’, so I figured I’d shoot the puck and see what happens.”

90 seconds later, sophomore forward Melissa Anderson scored to give the Terriers a 2-1 lead. They were firmly in the driver’s seat.

Lorms got her second goal of the game just before the halfway mark in the second period when she drove a shot from the doorstep past Miller to give the Terriers a 3-1 lead.

After that, the Bobcats tightened up, and played better defense. They put a wrench into BU’s offense, and forced the Terriers to regroup often.

The score remained 3-1 through 20 minutes after the goal, until 10:14 in the third period. Anderson came around the net to Miller’s left, and instead of going for the backhand shot (which would have been horribly offline), decided to go with the pass back to senior defender Julie Poulin, who ripped a shot from the left point. Miller, who was beautifully screened by junior co-captain Gina Kearns, had no clue that the puck was coming until it passed her, glove side.

With just under 6 minutes to play in the third, Quinnipiac opted for a different strategy; they pulled Miller, leaving an empty net. This phased the Bobcats alright; they played strong 6-on-5 hockey, leaving the Terriers unable to get anything going. However, Durocher was pleased about one aspect of those 5 minutes.

“I think sometimes the perfect play was that everybody wanted to be unselfish,” Durocher said. “Maybe they were being too nice.”

But sophomore forward Jonnie Bloemers put an end to the 6-on-5 when she chipped the puck from the red line into the net.

Just 20 seconds later, freshman forward Jillian Kirchner scored on a beautiful tic-tac-toe pass from Kearns through the crease from Miller’s right to her left. Kirchner tipped the pass in the air, and found the back of the net.

5:13 of empty net without scoring a goal. 20 seconds of goaltending, same result. Go figure.

Terriers Notes:

- Once again, the Terriers kept themselves in check and out of the penalty box. BU went on the penalty kill twice, both successfully. They were on the power play only once, for just under a minute (Kallie Flor went into the box during junior forward Erin Seman’s penalty).

- The Terriers outshot the Bobcats 37-16. Their two-game total now stands at 87-24.

- Holly Lorms became the second Terrier in as many games to be on the doorstep of a hat trick.

- In the third period, Lorms found a loose puck in a 6-on-5 situation, but decided to pass off to junior forward Laurel Koller, who may have had the better shot. The pass was too far out in front of Koller, and drifted to the corner.

“I put it ahead of her,” Lorms said, “It wasn’t a great pass, but I was trying to get all people to touch the puck.”

-The Terriers will finish off their march through the ECAC on Saturday afternoon against Princeton. Gametime is at 3 p.m., and you can tune in to WTBU’s alternate stream for coverage starting immediately after the men’s soccer game.