Women's Hockey vs. Union College (11/3/07)

by Jeremy Binckes

Revenge can really be a sweet thing. For a Boston University squad that had been on the short side of 7 straight games, Saturday’s 6-0 victory against Union was a slice of “it’s about time” pie.

Boston University came out of the box strong against a smaller, weaker Union team.

“What I liked was that at each period, we got better,” BU Head Coach Brian Durocher said.

In the first period, the Terriers broke through at the 7:48 mark in the first period when junior co-captain Sarah Russell, who missed the UNH game, fired a slapshot from the right point off a pass from senior defender Julie Poulin. The shot sailed past Union goaltender Lundy Day (30 saves) to give the Terriers a 1-0 lead heading into the second.

Russell and the defense were only getting started.

At 14:28 into the second period, Russell hit another slapshot, once again to Day’s right and from the point, once again finding the back of the net and giving BU a comfortable 2-0 lead.

“[The goal] wasn’t even a great shot, [Day] was just screened,” Russell said.

Lundy Day did not have the best of them this one. Just 41 seconds later, junior forward Caroline Bordeau found the puck sitting to the left of the crease after a shot from freshman forward Lauren Cherewyk. Day was on the ground, fully outstretched from goalpost to goalpost. The puck was a foot from her head, and she was lying on her glove side. Bordeau picked up the puck, and roofed it over Day’s body to give the Terriers a 3-0 lead.

“Lundy Day was playing tremendous,” Durocher said, “and then you get one that bounces off a skate, and a screen, and it’s 4-0. It’s good to have some luck once in a while.”

About 50 seconds later, senior forward Stephanie Armstrong, a transfer from Union herself, tipped a shot from sophomore defender Melissa Tetreau from the point in, to make it 4-0.

A full minute after Armstrong’s first goal of the season, sophomore forward Melissa Anderson redirected a shot from sophomore defender Sarah Appleton from the point.

“They weren’t really pressuring us,” Appleton said, “so we were free to make passes [near the blue line].”

The scoring barrage ended with 46 seconds to play in the second frame, when Appleton hit a strong wrister that once again beat Day. It was the last shot that Day would see; her day was done.

In came Danielle Kimble, who had allowed three goals in her one period of play for the season beforehand. However, the junior made 14 acrobatic saves in the third period.

The Terriers’ focus was on regrouping, Durocher said, and the forecheck didn’t apply full pressure. However, that doesn’t mean that Kimble didn’t have an easy go of it.

“She played great,” Durocher said.

The Terriers’ real dominance came between the blue lines, where they were able to destroy the Union offensive rush.

“In the second, we were able to control the neutral zone better than any time during the year,” Appleton said.

Terriers Notes:

-The Terriers’ 5 goals in a period is a program record, eclipsing the previous record of 4, which was last set in a 4-4 tie against Northeastern in February. In that game, the Terriers scored 4 goals in the third.

“I don’t know if you expect that [outburst],” Durocher said.

-In another instance of “shoe on the other foot,” the Terriers had 50 shots on net while allowing only 6. In the previous three games, the Terriers had been outshot 37-15, 55-36, and 38-9. In this game, junior goaltender Allyse Wilcox only had to face one shot in the first period, 5 in the second, and that was it.

- The Terriers were only in the sin box twice, and both times were early in the first period. Melissa Tetreau and Jenn Arms were called for hooking and interference, respectively, to break up Union odd-skater rushes.

“You don’t want to use the term ‘smart penalties’ too often,” Durocher said, “because you don’t want to be in that situation to begin with. But they were good penalties.”

- Welcome to the Terriers, Ashley Leichliter! In the third period, number 1 skated out on to get between the pipes for her first collegiate game. Unfortunately, the sophomore walk-on did not have an opportunity to turn aside any shots. Fortunately, though, she sports a GAA of 0.00 and an infinite save percentage.

The Terriers’ next game will be Wednesday, November 7^th, as BU welcomes Quinnipiac University to Walter Brown. Game time is 7 pm, and as always, you can tune into WTBU 20 minutes before the puck drops for the pregame show.