Women's Hockey vs. Boston College (12/6/07)
by Jeremy Binckes
When sophomore forward Jonnie Bloemers collected the pass from Melissa Anderson halfway through overtime, one thought entered her head: “Just shoot the puck.” And so, she did. Through traffic of two teams clustered in front of the net.
The puck traveled on a straight line, slicing Terriers and Eagles in half, then went through the legs of Boston College (7-4-3, 4-4-1 Hockey East) goaltender Molly Schaus (35 saves), before ricocheting off her right pad, and into the net to give the Terriers (5-9-2, 3-3-0 HE) a 3-2 overtime victory against their archrivals.
Bloemers didn’t even see the puck. She saw a red light go on, and then was tackled by Anderson and the rest of her teammates. “I wanted to win so bad,” Bloemers said. “We deserved to win. We played better than them.”
BU head coach Brian Durocher told his players to use the boards to their advantage. “We’re not as fast as [the Eagles],” he said. “We can’t get into a track meet.” Also to the Terriers’ advantage was a new system which allowed the forecheck to remain strong, but kept the defense on their toes and ready to regroup at a moment’s notice. This kept the Eagles’ top two lines—as well as Terrier-killer Allie Thunstrum—off the scoresheet, and away from the one-on-one opportunities.
“We didn’t make [junior goaltender] Allyse [Wilcox] make 40 saves,” Durocher said, alluding to Wilcox’s 20 saves,” so that was nice.”
BU struck first on the evening. After a Gabrielle Beaudry penalty for checking in the second period, Sarah Russell took a shot from the left point which beat Schaus top-right to give BU a 1-0 lead.
Under a minute later, the Eagles’ first line of Kelli Stack, Deb Spillane, and Meghan Fardelmann retaliated when Stack, who had a 3-on-1 with only sophomore defender Sarah Appleton to beat, skated left and took a shot on Wilcox, who was unable to follow the BC sophomore’s shot. As quickly as that, the Eagles had knotted it up.
In the third, once again on the power play, the Terriers excited the crowd when junior defender Amanda Shaw scored her 4th goal of the season.
“I was aiming for the right post,” Shaw said. She focused on getting something low on Schaus, hoping for a tip-in somewhere. Instead, the puck went clear through traffic, hitting the inside of the right post, and lighting the lamp. Shaw, who was a healthy scratch for Sunday’s game against Vermont, was glad to tally the score in her return.
“I wanted to show [the coaches] that I belong out there,” she said.
“Shaw played awesome [sic],” Bloemers said.
Once again, though, the Eagles responded when Deb Spillane made a beautiful lateral move to beat Wilcox right side at 10:25 in the third.
“That’s a play that’s reserved for very few players in the league,” Durocher said.
BU began the fourth stanza with just under 90 seconds left on the power play, due to BC being called for too many men on the ice late in regulation. Durocher said that BU’s power play (2-for-7) excelled at passing the puck “two, three, four times,” before being shot in order to fatigue the defense.
The Terriers peppered Schaus with six shots in a two-plus-minute span. Schaus made five saves, but couldn’t come up with the sixth. After BU dumped the puck into the BC defensive zone, Anderson fetched the puck from behind the net and made the pass out to Bloemers, who made the shot. After the red light went on, Bloemers was immediately surrounded by Terriers all around her. Soon, they were on top of her. And more came out from the bench.
“It felt great,” Bloemers said. “I’ll tell you that much.”
Terrier Notes:
- BU went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill this game, and have not allowed a goal with the man disadvantage since November 20th at Maine. Since that game, BU has killed off 24 of its last 25 penalties.
- With the win, the Terriers move to 3-3-0 in Hockey East, and have won every game in Hockey East other than the three games against the #1 UNH Wildcats, who are undefeated in Hockey East.
The Terriers’ last game of 2007 will be on Saturday, as they host the Sacred Heart Pioneers. Last year, the Terriers beat Sacred Heart, 8-0. Tune into WTBU at 2:40 for Terriers Today, with the game set for a 3 p.m. start.
When sophomore forward Jonnie Bloemers collected the pass from Melissa Anderson halfway through overtime, one thought entered her head: “Just shoot the puck.” And so, she did. Through traffic of two teams clustered in front of the net.
The puck traveled on a straight line, slicing Terriers and Eagles in half, then went through the legs of Boston College (7-4-3, 4-4-1 Hockey East) goaltender Molly Schaus (35 saves), before ricocheting off her right pad, and into the net to give the Terriers (5-9-2, 3-3-0 HE) a 3-2 overtime victory against their archrivals.
Bloemers didn’t even see the puck. She saw a red light go on, and then was tackled by Anderson and the rest of her teammates. “I wanted to win so bad,” Bloemers said. “We deserved to win. We played better than them.”
BU head coach Brian Durocher told his players to use the boards to their advantage. “We’re not as fast as [the Eagles],” he said. “We can’t get into a track meet.” Also to the Terriers’ advantage was a new system which allowed the forecheck to remain strong, but kept the defense on their toes and ready to regroup at a moment’s notice. This kept the Eagles’ top two lines—as well as Terrier-killer Allie Thunstrum—off the scoresheet, and away from the one-on-one opportunities.
“We didn’t make [junior goaltender] Allyse [Wilcox] make 40 saves,” Durocher said, alluding to Wilcox’s 20 saves,” so that was nice.”
BU struck first on the evening. After a Gabrielle Beaudry penalty for checking in the second period, Sarah Russell took a shot from the left point which beat Schaus top-right to give BU a 1-0 lead.
Under a minute later, the Eagles’ first line of Kelli Stack, Deb Spillane, and Meghan Fardelmann retaliated when Stack, who had a 3-on-1 with only sophomore defender Sarah Appleton to beat, skated left and took a shot on Wilcox, who was unable to follow the BC sophomore’s shot. As quickly as that, the Eagles had knotted it up.
In the third, once again on the power play, the Terriers excited the crowd when junior defender Amanda Shaw scored her 4th goal of the season.
“I was aiming for the right post,” Shaw said. She focused on getting something low on Schaus, hoping for a tip-in somewhere. Instead, the puck went clear through traffic, hitting the inside of the right post, and lighting the lamp. Shaw, who was a healthy scratch for Sunday’s game against Vermont, was glad to tally the score in her return.
“I wanted to show [the coaches] that I belong out there,” she said.
“Shaw played awesome [sic],” Bloemers said.
Once again, though, the Eagles responded when Deb Spillane made a beautiful lateral move to beat Wilcox right side at 10:25 in the third.
“That’s a play that’s reserved for very few players in the league,” Durocher said.
BU began the fourth stanza with just under 90 seconds left on the power play, due to BC being called for too many men on the ice late in regulation. Durocher said that BU’s power play (2-for-7) excelled at passing the puck “two, three, four times,” before being shot in order to fatigue the defense.
The Terriers peppered Schaus with six shots in a two-plus-minute span. Schaus made five saves, but couldn’t come up with the sixth. After BU dumped the puck into the BC defensive zone, Anderson fetched the puck from behind the net and made the pass out to Bloemers, who made the shot. After the red light went on, Bloemers was immediately surrounded by Terriers all around her. Soon, they were on top of her. And more came out from the bench.
“It felt great,” Bloemers said. “I’ll tell you that much.”
Terrier Notes:
- BU went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill this game, and have not allowed a goal with the man disadvantage since November 20th at Maine. Since that game, BU has killed off 24 of its last 25 penalties.
- With the win, the Terriers move to 3-3-0 in Hockey East, and have won every game in Hockey East other than the three games against the #1 UNH Wildcats, who are undefeated in Hockey East.
The Terriers’ last game of 2007 will be on Saturday, as they host the Sacred Heart Pioneers. Last year, the Terriers beat Sacred Heart, 8-0. Tune into WTBU at 2:40 for Terriers Today, with the game set for a 3 p.m. start.
posted by Chris Aliano at
10:55 AM
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