Backcheck
Twenty-one out of 56 total Hockey East regular season games have required overtime already this season. Six apiece have included either Boston University or Providence College, the latter of who have habitually made a nightly regimen of a 65-minute grind plus a shootout in the wee days of November.
Between a visit to Connecticut last Sunday, an excursion to Maine the subsequent Friday, and a home date with Northeastern this past Sunday, the Friars have drawn three official ties to morph their overall record to a peculiar 3-4-5. And in those three games, they have won two of the three Hockey East shootouts to effectively draw a three-way knot for first place with NU and New Hampshire (9 league points apiece).
As it happened, Sunday’s shootout unfolded in a manner that only the celestial goaltending card of Genevieve Lacasse and Florence Schelling can concoct. The Friars needed 13 rounds (translation: 10 sudden death innings) before sophomore defender Christie Jensen inserted the clincher and forcefed the Huskies their first “non-win” within Hockey East action.
Apart from Jensen, only NU’s Danielle Kerr and PC’s Alyse Ruff tuned the mesh during the one-on-one marathon, both of their strikes coming in the seventh round. For Ruff, it was poetic redemption having the chance to salvage the Friars immediately after Kerr nudged them halfway over the cliff. After all, two nights prior, Ruff was in the same must-score situation in the third round of a shootout versus Maine, but was foiled by goaltender Brittany Ott.
***
Boston College bolted out with near-sweeping invigoration upon ending a timely two-week hiatus from game action last Monday. Fifteen days removed from a shootout win over Maine that rendered them an iffy 2-1-4 overall, the elastic Eagles nipped cross-Commonwealth rival Boston University, 2-1 –on the uncharted ice of Walter Brown Arena, no less.
Reeling right off that triumph, BC returned home Friday to snuff a struggling Vermont team, 3-0. The relatively starting line of Allie Thunstrom, Ashley Motherwell, and Mary Restuccia all but singlehandedly took care of the scoring with a combined two goals, four assists, and 11 of the team’s 25 shots. Apart from the top forward trinity, only rookie defender Blake Bolden factored in to the scoresheet, thrusting home an insurance strike midway through the third period.
The kicker: Friday’s result amounted to the Catamounts’ fourth consecutive loss and third straight venture without a goal. Accordingly, a carbonated buildup of incentive not unlike what the Eagles had fostered broke free on Saturday, Vermont slugging in three unanswered power play goals in another one of its second period scoring sugar rushes en route to an eventual 5-1 triumph in Part II of the series.
It was the Catamounts’ first knockoff of BC in 13 total tries since the two programs became conference cohabitants in 2005.
***
BU likewise had to take a few clips to the jaw –first the aforementioned 2-1 dip before BC and then a 4-3 home loss via New Hampshire on Friday- plus an unpleasant first period plunge deep into Lake Whittemore before they bit back on Saturday.
Trailing 3-0 through the first intermission on their visit to UNH, the Terriers gradually and patiently whittled their way back over the latter 40 minutes of regulation. They shriveled the deficit to 3-2 within the middle frame, induced three unanswered Wildcat penalties to commence the third, finally got around to converting a power play for the equalizer at 10:54, then threatened to claim a landmark first regulation victory at the Whittemore Center by any visitor in Hockey East history.
That wasn’t exactly to be. Courtney Birchard –who finished the weekend with two goals, two, assists, and a league-leading plus-10 rating (tied with Connecticut’s Jessica Lutz)- reknotted the game with 54 seconds to spare. But BU did lay claim to the extra point in the shootout.
Forecheck
Connecticut just pulled off another fleeting offensive outburst in a 7-2 thrashing of Maine on Sunday. In the coming weekend, as Heather Linstad’s strike force tries to establish a more consistent groove, it shall both test and be tested by BC’s reliable rookie stopper, Corrinne Boyles, who is currently tied with the aforementioned Lacasse for the league’s second-best overall save percentage (.924).
Weekly scoreboard
Monday, November 2
Boston College 2, Boston University 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_bu_1.n02
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110209aaa.html
http://www.goterriers.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110209aab.html
Friday, November 6
New Hampshire 4, Boston University 3
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbu_unh1.n06
http://www.unhwildcats.com/sports/wice/2009-10/releases/20091106dxx2xn
http://www.goterriers.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110609aaa.html
Maine 3, Providence 2 (SO)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wmneprv1.n06
http://goblackbears.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110609aaa.html
http://www.friars.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110609aaa.html
Boston College 3, Vermont 0
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_ver1.n06
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110609aaa.html
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15380
Saturday, November 7
Vermont 5, Boston College 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_ver1.n07
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15382
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110709aab.html
Boston University 5, New Hampshire 4 (SO)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbu_unh1.n07
http://www.goterriers.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110709aaa.html
http://www.unhwildcats.com/sports/wice/2009-10/releases/20091107d7ucu0
Sunday, November 8
Connecticut 7, Maine 2
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wconmne1.n08
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110809aab.html
http://goblackbears.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110809aab.html
Providence 2, Northeastern 1 (SO)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wnoeprv1.n08
http://www.friars.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/110809aaa.html
http://gonu.com/whockey/2010/wh10-10.shtml
Upcoming schedule
Wednesday, November 11
Vermont at Boston University, 7:00 pm
Saturday, November 14
Boston College at Connecticut, 1:00 pm
New Hampshire at Vermont, 2:00 pm
Maine at Northeastern, 2:00 pm
Providence at Boston University, 2:00 pm
Sunday, November 15
Connecticut at Boston College, 12:00 pm
Boston University at Providence, 2:00 pm
Maine at Northeastern, 2:00 pm
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