Backcheck
No partisan rooter, interested observer, or fervent promoter can say the Comm. Ave. cohabitants didn’t deliver in their revamped rivalry’s first weekend of action. They split the loot, effectively verifying one another’s status as the hottest two teams in Hockey East, and they were bolstered by their VIPs in their respective victories.
Cases in point: BC sizzler Kelli Stack (hat trick) joined the Terriers top two centers, Marie-Philip Poulin (2 goals, assister) and Jenn Wakefield (playmaker hat trick), in the three-point club as part of the Eagles’ 6-3 triumph at Walter Brown Arena Saturday. Not to be overshadowed by the old guard, one of Stack’s understudies, second-line center Mary Restuccia, charged up three assists of her own, including one on freshman Taylor Wasylk’s game-clincher.
When BU returned the visit and the slight on Sunday, Wakefield would be the lone skater to appear on the scoresheet, inserting an unassisted strike in the first period en route to a 1-0 win. Outside of that, Schaus (24 saves Saturday) and Terrier freshman Kerrin Sperry each repelled 22 shots. Their efforts garnered the league’s weekly defensive and rookie awards, respectively.
Granted, the first 35-plus minutes of the weekend didn’t exactly constitute the ideal titanic tilt, what with the Eagles chasing Alissa Fromkin out of her cage in favor of a debuting Braly Hiller as they sculpted a 5-0 lead on their hosts. But then again, BU owned the scoreboard, 4-1, for the remaining 85 minutes.
See, that’s what coaches mean when they talk of things balancing out in the long run.
With the ice chips all settled and plenty of recovery time before their next engagement on Jan. 15, the Eagles’ (8-2-4) and Terriers’ (9-2-3) shared position at the pinnacle of the New England Eight pyramid is just a little thicker than it was Saturday morning.
They each have a mere two losses on their tab, fewer than their collection of ties. BU stayed pat at No. 5 when USCHO revised its rankings on Monday while BC nudged closer, ascending from the seventh to sixth rung.
Stack, Poulin, Wakefield, and Restuccia are the league’s top four point-getters. Wasylk, who splashed her season-worst three-game scoring drought on Saturday, is still the league’s second-highest freshman scorer behind Poulin.
Schaus now holds a double-crown among Hockey East goaltenders with a peerless goals-against average (1.29) and save percentage (.943). She is second in the way of winning percentage behind, guess who, Sperry.
But most critically, and stirringly, each party is not quite satisfied. They simply want to pluck a little more away from each other.
Said BU skipper Brian Durocher on his program’s YouTube channel after Part I: “I thought that the competitors were in maroon and the non-competitors were wearing white and red.” But then, when his pupils responded, it was Eagles’ coach Katie King’s turn to sneak in some kicking words.
“Anytime we play BU, we get excited,” King told the BC Heights after Sunday’s bout. “It’s easy to come out with a bit of fire. We have to learn to do it two days in a row.”
This is one of those products that should come with an advisory to enjoy in moderation. Nonetheless, Jan. 15 need not necessarily take its time arriving.
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An already well-established rivalry –namely the Northeastern-Providence matchup that had nothing until the simultaneous advent of goaltenders Florence Schelling and Genevieve Lacasse two-plus years ago- had its own extreme seesaw sway over the weekend. The Friars inhaled the first wind of exultation on Saturday, putting a program-best four pucks behind Schelling as part of a 4-1 win at Schneider Arena.
In Part II at Matthews Arena, the Huskies –chiefly puckslinging pups Katie MacSorley and Claire Santostefano- slugged a program-best five biscuits passed Lacasse, concocting a 5-1 victory. MacSorley, who tipped home the lone NU goal on Saturday and nailed a hat trick Sunday, had a hand in all six strikes on the weekend, accelerating her transcript from 6-1-7 in her first 13 games to 10-3-13.
Meanwhile, PC’s own top gun, Kate Bacon, scraped out two goals Saturday and a helper Sunday, giving her at least one point in her last three outings and 13 out of 16 contests this season.
***
Sooner or later, Connecticut is going to need to spice up its strike force. It cannot continue to subsist on fewer than 20 shots on goal and two shots in goal per night the way the Huskies have in their last three ventures.
But, hey, for the moment, they are reeling in the much-needed wins, following up on their sweep of New Hampshire with a 2-0 squeaker at Vermont on Saturday. Despite a cumulative five goals worth of support in her last 180 minutes, goaltender Alex Garcia has stayed alert as she ought to against some of the other lightweight offenses in the league, stopping 85 of 86 shots.
This weekend, of course, is a detour to the annual Nutmeg Classic. But afterwards, Heather Linstad’s will have a cramming session on their hands in preparation for a visit from Boston University Dec. 4. They have opportunistically used what they have in the first third of their schedule to move into a tie for second in the league with BU, but a motivational spark to prepare for the heavyweights is in order.
Forecheck
Maine is the last team lacking a win against New Hampshire in the Hockey East era, going 0-25-3 against their border rivals in the last eight years. But with the Black Bears’ gradual game-by-game improvement (two-game tie streak) and the Wildcats’ newfound slump (three straight losses), there has been no better opportunity to reverse this trend than this Tuesday night’s twig-lock in Lewiston.
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
Weekly scoreboard
Tuesday, November 16
Dartmouth 3, Providence 2
Saturday, November 20
Connecticut 2, Vermont 0
Providence 4, Northeastern 1
Boston College 6, Boston University 3
Sunday, November 21
Northeastern 5, Providence 1
Boston University 1 at Boston College 0
Upcoming schedule
Tuesday, November 23
St. Lawrence at Vermont, 7:00 pm
New Hampshire at Maine, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, November 24
Dartmouth at Boston College, 7:00 pm
Friday, November 26
Providence at Brown, 4:00 pm
Maine at Robert Morris, 7:00 pm
Princeton at Boston University, 7:00 pm
Connecticut vs. Yale, 7:00 pm
Saturday, November 27
Maine at Robert Morris, 2:00 pm
Vermont at Clarkson, 2:00 pm
Princeton at Boston University, 3:00 pm
Connecticut vs. Sacred Heart of Quinnipiac, 4:00 pm/ 7:00 pm
Sunday, November 28
Boston College at New Hampshire, 2:00 pm
Brown at Northeastern, 2:00 pm
Vermont at Clarkson, 2:00 pm
Union at Providence, 4:00 pm
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