Either way and where BU found the transition is anyone’s guess. But for a team trying to bounce back from a rough 2-10 start to the season, Tara Watchorn’s group will take the final period and a half of a 2-2 tie and a shootout win over Quinnipiac on Friday night as proof that it can still make something of 2025-2026.
And it would be hard to blame them. After trailing by two goals to the eighth-ranked team in the country, the Terriers generated Grade A chance after Grade A chance in a rabid comeback bid. Bobcat sophomore Felicia Frank was strong in net, but BU (4-11-3) just kept coming.
Sydney Healey, of course, was the one who finally broke the dam. Midway through the second, she lifted a backhander into the roof of the net after Frank made an excellent save from Kaileigh Quigg. After Frank kept out a slew of BU chances in the rush to start the third, Healey buried a wrister from the right circle in transition, the senior assistant captain’s 10th goal of the season.
After a scoreless overtime period in which BU killed a Quigg hooking penalty and netminder Mari Pietersen held on against a slew of quality chances for the Bobcats (14-6-2), senior forward Lilli Welcke scored the lone goal in the shootout. BU advances to play Harvard, which upset Minnesota-Duluth in the finals earlier Friday.
It was BU’s third tie and shootout win in the last four games. Pietersen, who has now made six consecutive starts, has been excellent in all cases.
The Bobcats, who had a huge advantage in shots on goal early in the second, finished with 38 to BU’s 21.
Here are three lessons from the game:
The Terriers were thin on the blue line, and it showed.
Freshman defensemen Lucy Thiessen and Avery Supryka were noticeably absent from BU’s lineup Friday night. As no explanation was given prior to the game, the reason for their absence remains unknown at the time of publication.
Thiessen and Supryka are both solid additions to an inexperienced Terrier blue line group; Without them, BU would have a lot of work to do. Watchorn had just three pairs of defenders on Friday, with Keira Healey and Maeve Carey as the top pair, Ella Belfry and Maeve Kelly second and Kate Meinert and Tessa Demain third.
The Terriers struggled to contain Quinnipiac’s speed in transition, leading to oddball rushes for the Bobcats. With all the speed Quinnipiac possesses, it was especially difficult for BU to keep up while fielding just six defensemen.
Thiessen brings speed to the backend, and Supryka brings size – both of which the Terriers would have benefited from against the Bobcats. But as the game dragged on, BU didn’t break defensively. – Eli Cloutier
Sydney Healey sparked BU’s comeback.
Senior assistant captain Sydney Healey scored two of BU’s goals during the match
Healey provided a much-needed spark at the 11:48 mark of the second period when she scored on a rebound from sophomore forward Kaileigh Quigg. After this goal, the Terriers started playing the type of hockey they had been striving for all season. They maintained puck possession, peppered shots off rebounds and slowed Quinnipiac’s breakouts.
In the first period, BU made four shots compared to the Bobcats 27, and all the opportunities came from transition – mostly generating single-player efforts. Midway through the second period, Quinnipiac extended that lead to 35-4 (17-4 in shots on goal). But in the second half of the second period, the Terriers closed the shot differential, recording 15 total shots.
It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but after Healey’s goal, BU brought and maintained an energy that was completely absent in the first frame.
The Terriers remained competitive in the third frame, registering nine shots on goal to Quinnipiac’s twelve.
At 11:37 of the third, Healey tied things up for BU, breaking out of the neutral zone on a pass from sophomore defenseman Tessa Demain. Without Healey’s performance, BU would not have sent the game to overtime. — Hannah Connors
Mari Pietersen continued her strong form.
The junior netminder, who has played in BU’s last six games, was once again impressive in net. She kept the Terriers in the game after a lackluster opening 30 minutes and made several fantastic saves in overtime, allowing BU to evade a 4-on-3 power play.
Junior forward Kahlen Lamarche, the country’s leading goal scorer, had a 1-on-0 against Pietersen in the waning seconds of overtime and came up empty.
Pietersen received a lot of criticism and conceded 38 shots on goal. She saved 36, good for a save percentage of .947.
In the shootout, Pietersen stopped all three bids, sending the Terriers to the Friendship Series championship game. She was greeted with “Mari! Mari! Mari!” chants from the Terrier faithful as the BU band shouted “Hey Baby!” played
Pietersen was named Player of the Game. — Henry Dinh Price
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