CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — BU does a lot of things better than its arch rival from down the road. The Terriers forecheck better than Boston College, they sustain possession better, they break out of their defensive zone better.
The two things Tara Watchorn’s team doesn’t do better, though, are the two most important things a team can do on a sheet of ice: score and prevent goals.
And ultimately, for as well as BU adhered to its identity in this season’s Green Line Rivalry series — and for as unethical as the Eagles’ identity might be — scoring and preventing goals are the two reasons BC went 3-0 against the Terriers.
Tara Watchorn’s team, to no one’s surprise, enjoyed a significant ice tilt at Conte Forum in Saturday afternoon’s regular-season finale. The Terriers had more shot attempts, won far more draws than they lost and barely had to defend in their defensive zone for extended periods of time. They still lost 4-0.
Because every time BU made a mistake, BC and its lightning-quick, hyper-talented group of forwards were there to make BU pay. When the Terriers were controlling possession on the power play early in the first period? They lost one puck battle and the Eagles were suddenly surging in transition, a play that ended with star freshman Ava Thomas potting her 19th goal and 44th point of the season. When BU was controlling play again midway through the second? It allowed an odd-woman rush and BC senior Emma Conner was tapping her 22nd point into a vacated net. When BU failed to break out of its zone moments later? Eagles’ sophomore Alanna Devlin sniped the top corner of Michelle Pasiechnyk’s net.
At the other end, meanwhile, BC senior Grace Campbell easily saved all of BU’s 24 shots on goal. The Terriers, who have struggled to generate high-danger chances all season, hardly tested Campbell, one of the best goalies in Hockey East.
It was a hauntingly predictable game script, one so very similar to BU’s two losses to the Eagles (16-17-1, 14-9-1 HE) back in November. That pair of defeats dropped the Terriers to 2-10, the culmination of a brutal start to the season. The loss at Conte on Saturday dropped them to 10-20-3 (8-14-2 HE), the conclusion of a late-regular-season collapse.
A year after winning Hockey East as the No. 2 seed, BU will enter the postseason as the eighth seed of a 10-team league tournament. The Terriers will host No. 9 Providence, whom they beat 3-1 on Friday night, at Walter Brown Arena on Wednesday in the first round.
Here are two takeaways from Saturday’s defeat:
The Terriers need to score.
Obviously. You can’t win a hockey game — which, from now on, BU has to do to keep its season alive — without scoring a goal. But the Terriers have now been shut out in four of their last six games.
Part of that is BU’s futility when it has possession in the offensive zone. The Terriers still sustain possession fairly well (though certainly not as well as Watchorn would like), but they just don’t do much with it. They are constantly forced to the outside in the offensive zone. As a result, they settle for wristers and one-timers from above the circle, the kind of shot Watchorn doesn’t support, and the kind of shot BU doesn’t have the personnel to reliably score on. The problem is similar on the power play, where the Terriers have scored just eight goals this season.
As a result, BU has appeared to refocus its gameplan towards creating chances in transition or off turnovers on the forecheck. Watchorn has alluded to “simplifying” the identity for her reeling team, and while she’s been coy about what that means, she did say on Friday night she likes transition chances because defenses aren’t organized.
The Terriers have been creating a fair amount of them, but they’ve scored almost none. That was a problem best illustrated early in the second period on Saturday, when sophomore Lola Reid and freshman Mia Vergilli had a golden 2-on-1 chance. Reid elected to shoot herself, and she placed it on Campbell’s chest.
In other words: a Grade A-plus chance that ended with an entirely routine save.
Watchorn has a decision to make in goal.
Pasiechnyk started her third consecutive game on Saturday, after an excellent performance against UConn a week ago and another solid showing in Friday’s 3-1 win over Providence. Had Pasiechnyk played well again, she likely would’ve been in line to start BU’s postseason opener.
But Pasiechnyk wasn’t great. She didn’t control rebounds well and allowed four goals on 24 shots on goal.
Watchorn has alternated between Pasiechnyk and junior Mari Pietersen all season. Normally, a performance like Saturday’s from Pasiechnyk would lead to Pietersen starting the following game
But with BU’s next outing a do-or-die tilt, Watchorn is faced with an enormous decision. Starting Pietersen for the first time in a week and a half would be a gamble.