To be sure, the final 4-0 read on the Conte Forum scoreboard was not completely indicative of Saturday’s grudge match. The visiting Boston University Terriers were safeguarding a 1-0 lead until beyond the halfway mark of the third period and thrust in the last two goals within the final minute.
Then again, what does it say about the Boston College Eagles when they let their heads drop and yield brownie biscuits like that?
OK, a relatively minor intangible aspect that head coach Katie King will indubitably stress behind closed doors going forward. But in the aftermath of a finished three-game season series between the two projected Hockey East playoff finalists, there is no more doubt as to who wins the top dog coin toss.
The chief, if not only reason that the Eagles were previously clutching a share of this author’s first place crown was otherworldly goaltender Molly Schaus. Naturally, sound stopping is a bare essential to success and Schaus is still the leading candidate for the league’s goaltending championship.
But Schaus has now lost two games this season, both against the Terriers and both on home ice. In the other crease, her fellow Assabet Valley product, Kerrin Sperry, is still undefeated at 13-0-2 overall and has let nothing through in 120 minutes played on the hostile pond of Conte Forum.
Translation: the rookie Sperry is the only goaltender to have outdueled Schaus and the only one to have kept BC’s other senior Olympian, Kelli Stack, off the scoresheet this season. And she has turned both tricks in each of her last two tries.
On the league leaderboard, Schaus and Sperry are neck-and-neck in every department. Entering Sunday’s action, the BC senior boasts a leading 1.43 goals-against average, places third with a .936 save percentage, and owns the second-best individual record at 13-2-2. Sperry tops that with her 13-0-2 transcript and is No. 2 in both GAA and save percentage at 1.45 and .937, respectively.
All that in mind, the most natural difference maker is an extra layer of depth and additional energy in Brian Durocher’s capstone class. BC pelted Sperry with 21 shots in the first 40 minutes on Saturday, and then mustered only one in the third. Stack and sophomore Ashley Motherwell combined for 12 of those stabs while another seven Eagles combined for 10. Perhaps most frightfully, five of those puckslingers were defenders while eight forwards took an aggregate zero SOG.
Conversely, the Terriers had seven different forwards and two blueliners pitching in towards a bushel of 25 shots, including nine in the third, including six on the power play. Two of their shotless defenders, Kathryn Miller and Catherine Ward, still picked up an assist. The top three centers –Holly Lorms, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Jenn Wakefield- all bagged yet another multi-point game. And the often eclipsed winger Jillian Kirchner inserted the eventual game-winner to extend her carry-over point streak to five games.
One more strike by Kirchner and two more by Lorms, and the Terriers will soon have four double-digit goal-getters.
Maybe most critically, though, BU verified its supremacy on both sides of the special teams’ spectrum. Although they whiffed on their first three of five opportunities, they also took two shorthanded stabs during their first penalty kill late in the opening frame.
Meanwhile, the Eagles spilled an invitation to draw a 1-1 knot when Terrier defender Louise Warren went off for tripping at 7:38 of the third period. On its second and final full-length power play of the day (the other lasted only 54 seconds), BC failed to test Sperry even once, and 21 seconds after Warren’s jailbreak, Meagan Mangene received her own tripping citation, granting the Terriers another advantage.
Lo and behold, the rookie Poulin deposited the long-awaited insurance on her fifth power play goal of the year with only 9:19 to spare.
A quick check now at the latest team stats leaderboard. BU still leads its conference cohabitants in the way of offense (3.82 goals per game), defense (1.73 goals against), power play (21.1 percent success rate), and penalty kill (94.1 percent).
While the Eagles are still a not-too-distant second in the first two categories, their special teams are suddenly lagging a little more. Their power play ranks third in the conference at 17.8 and their penalty kill is No. 4 with an 87.5 success rate.
And lately, with the exception being a three-strike night against Maine Jan. 8, BC’s power play has gone arid in six of the last seven games, beginning with its previous loss to BU prior Thanksgiving. Even when they stomped the Terriers, 6-3, at Walter Brown Arena Nov. 20, they converted but one of seven opportunities, including a 1:43 5-on-3 segment.
Conversely, during its active nine-game winning streak, BU has had at least one power play conversion in seven outings and likewise killed all of its penalties in seven ventures.
The pennant race, and even the two-way race for home ice, is not nearly over. But as the homestretch ignites, the evidence is too vast to ignore the upper hand.
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
No comments:
Post a Comment