That has been the case all too often over the past two weeks. Riding a three-game losing streak entering the series finale against Vermont, BU fell in listless fashion, 2-1. The Terriers, who were surging just a week and a half ago, are now 7-15-3 and 5-9-2 in Hockey East.
Tara Watchorn said her team’s 5-2 loss Friday night “didn’t look like us.” BU didn’t look much better at Walter Brown Arena less than 24 hours later.
The Terriers scored on the first shift of the game, with star senior Sydney Healey burying her 13th of the year on a breakaway. They were dominated the rest of the period and Vermont junior Stella Retrum finally equalized with a wrister from a tight angle.
Retrum scored again on the power play late in the third, the fourth PP goal of the series for the Cats and their power play in 18th place (they also scored a shorthanded goal on Friday). BU’s penalty kill, which topped the NCAA a year ago, ranked 22nd among the 45 teams participating in the game.
But special teams weren’t the problem for Watchorn’s group. The Terriers were again poor at even strength, being thoroughly outplayed in the first period and even when they found more offensive zone time in the second and third periods, the quality of their scoring opportunities barely improved. The Cats defeated BU 33-28.
Michelle Pasiechnyk started in goal for BU for the second straight game and made 31 saves.
Here are four takeaways:
What happened to BU?
Less than two weeks ago, the Terriers submitted the all-time verdicts when they defeated Northeastern in the Beanpot semifinals. Watchorn called it one of her proudest moments in three seasons as BU’s head coach.
Her team has lost four straight since then. And while the Terriers deserved to win Tuesday’s Beanpot final, the other three losses, all at Walter Brown, were pretty ugly. Suddenly, BU looks closer to the team that started the season 2-10, as it puts together the kind of lifeless performances that the Terriers seemed to have left behind in the past.
It’s a puzzling decline, especially considering it comes right on the heels of the pinnacle of the Terriers’ recovery this season. That overtime victory over the Huskies felt like proof that Watchorn’s third team had arrived. 10 days later, it seems like a blip on the radar for an eight-game group under .500 – Sam Robb O’Hagan
The Terriers’ forecheck was not good in the first period.
The Terriers pride themselves on carrying teams to the fore. It’s part of their offensive identity. If they can’t do that, they struggle to create chances, and that was clearly visible in the first period.
At the end of the first 20 minutes, BU faced a 17-6 shot-on-goal deficit as it could not hold a single puck on the cross.
Even BU’s so-called “energy line,” which kept BU in the fight against Northeastern because of its foresight, couldn’t crack the Catamounts. The Terriers barely managed to get the ball out of contention, and when they did, they couldn’t keep the puck inside the blue line.
For a team that took down NU and competed with Harvard for its forechecking, BU is now a far cry from the form they showed just a few weeks ago. — Hannah Connors
Welckes official of the Olympic Games
The Welcke-less world of BU arrived a day earlier than expected. Senior forwards Luisa and Lilli Welcke were scheduled to play Saturday and leave for the Olympics on Sunday, but their original flight was canceled, according to BU Athletics. They flew away on Saturday and therefore fell out of the lineup.
BU was left with three forward lines and four defensive pairs. Watchorn reunited her established top line (Healey, sophomore Kaileigh Quigg and senior Clara Yuhn) and her original “energy line” (freshmen Lexie Bertelsen and Anežka Čabelová and junior Greta Henderson). Junior Neely Nicholson focused freshman Mia Vergilii and sophomore Lola Reid, who had seen few shifts on BU’s fourth line for most of the season. On Saturday they were placed in the regular rotation.
BU’s first game without the German twins wasn’t great, obviously, but that felt less like causality than correlation. The Terriers just didn’t play well. Still, the Welckes were arguably BU’s two best skaters through the first three weeks of the second semester. Replacing it only adds to the sudden list of problems on Watchorn’s desk. – Robb O’Hagan
Special teams continued to struggle
BU gave up three goals on the penalty kill and one goal on the power play on Friday. The special teams breakdown lost the game for the Terriers, so you would think adjustments would be made.
Vermont’s first power play showed the same struggles. The Terriers couldn’t clear the puck and the coverage inside the slot was poor. Vermont’s players were stationed low, ready to take advantage of rebounds and their attempts from outside were of high quality.
BU was fortunate to hold off the Catamounts for the first 90 seconds of the penalty kick, and when the Terriers inevitably allowed a goal, it came from a poor breakaway attempt from the start.
Senior captain Maeve Carey threw a pass to the front of the net in an attempt to break out the puck for a put-out, and junior forward Stella Retrum intercepted the puck and easily buried it past Pasiechnyk.
The Terriers went 0-for-4 on power plays, including a minute and a half of 5-on-3, and failed to convert. BU’s power play ranks as the third worst in the country. — Connors
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