Maybe, in a universe where it executed its golden chances early and sustained its play late, BU would’ve had enough to again topple mighty Northeastern on Friday night.
But the Terriers didn’t score on those looks and didn’t play well for 60 minutes. The No. 5 Huskies did. And that, ultimately, is the difference in quality between Dave Flint’s NU, already Hockey East’s regular-season champion, and Tara Watchorn’s reeling BU, which has now lost six of eight.
The Huskies are relentless and ruthless, and they were again in a 5-2 victory at Walter Brown Arena. The Terriers are inconsistent and just not terribly dangerous in front of goal — despite a bevy of first-period chances, it took until Clara Yuhn’s second-period tally for BU to break a 153-minute stretch of scoreless hockey. The senior’s breakaway goal, her first non-empty netter since Nov. 21, put the Terriers in a one-goal deficit and gave them a legitimate chance to win. But BU’s play slowly tailed off from there. The Terriers recorded only nine shot attempts (four of them on goal) in the third period.
“Lack of commitment to our gameplan,” Watchorn said of the final frame, and the problem for BU — the reason it’s 9-18-3 and 7-12-2 in Hockey East — is that its coach says that far too often.
Sure, the Terriers were far better Friday than last Thursday and Saturday, when they were shut out by both Vermont and Maine. Watchorn flatly admitted after that 3-0 loss to the Catamounts that BU essentially ignored the strategies it had discussed in practice, whereas against Northeastern, she called her team’s breakdowns “subtle.” Still, that’s a fault of consistency and discipline, and at a certain point, an inconsistent and undisciplined team is also a bad one.
And BU has now played 30 games. There’s probably a good team in there somewhere (Northeastern can attest to that), but the Terriers haven’t found that version of themselves often. They looked good for a period on Friday and didn’t for the other two, and it’s hard to defend a Hockey East title when playing well a third of the time.
“I was proud of our group and how we were able to execute in a high-end way when we did,” Watchorn said. “It shows — obviously, we’ve been saying it all year — that we are capable. But it’s being committed for a full 60 minutes.”
She’s right about that. They’ve been saying it since the very first series of the year. It was an acceptable place to be back then; it’s hard to argue the same when there are three games left.
And look — Northeastern is an insane team. Only two conference opponents have beaten the Huskies this season (and BU was one of them!). Their top line of Lily Shannon, Stryker Zablocki and Éloïse Caron had a combined 98 points entering Friday, and it didn’t find the scoresheet until Zablocki’s empty-netter with less than a second to go. NU still scored four even-strength goals. Junior Allie Lalonde and seniors Mia Langlois, Lily Brazis and Jules Constantinople all scored on snipes BU netminder Mari Pietersen was powerless to stop. And both Lalonde and Brazis should’ve scored on other high-danger looks.
To expect BU to win on Friday, or even to criticize it simply for losing, would be unfair. That’s how deep these Huskies are.
“There’s wave after wave,” Watchorn said of NU.
But there was more the Terriers could’ve done to stop the unstoppable force. Asked how to handle NU’s talent, Watchorn said BU needed to “manage the puck.” She felt her team did that at times, and in her view, that was why the Huskies’ top line was so quiet. Had BU played like that against Flint’s other three lines, Northeastern wouldn’t have finished with five goals.
“We weren’t giving them those opportunistic rushes. They had to earn it,” said Watchorn of Shannon, Zablocki and Caron. “But if we don’t stay disciplined shift, after shift, after shift, they have the depth that can score.”
BU doesn’t, even at full strength. But with seniors Luisa and Lilli Welcke in Milan, freshmen Lucy Thiessen and Avery Supryka both out with injuries (Watchorn said they’re day-to-day) and junior Ella Belfry out due to “roster management,” per Watchorn, the Terriers only had nine forwards and five defenders on Friday. BU’s fourth-year coach acknowledged the challenge that presented, but she wasn’t willing to lean into that excuse.
“That’s where you have to be even more mindful of the momentum you have,” Watchorn said. “It’s knowing that, if you get hemmed in, that’s going to impact your next shift. And there’s nowhere to hide. I thought they did a pretty good job of managing and understanding that. But it could still be better.”
It could still be better. Watchorn is saying that about nearly every part of BU’s game right now.
Which is why — even if the Terriers played fairly well on Friday, at least by their standards — they still weren’t all that close to the team on the other side.