By Madeline Sattler, News Staff
It was only the second time the Women’s Hockey East Association championship featured the Northeastern Huskies, but they were out-played by the Boston University Terriers losing 5-2.
The Terriers took advantage of defensive errors to cruise to their second consecutive Hockey East title.
“I think a couple of their goals, we got caught out there a little too long,” head coach Dave Flint said. “A team like that with the players they have, they’ll make you pay for it.”
The game opened up and both teams came out strong, but BU got on the board first with an early score.
Junior forward Louise Warren sent the puck central where senior forward Isabel Menard was wide open in front of the net. Menard fired the shot home over the shoulder of sophomore goalie Chloe Desjardins to put the Terriers ahead.
Freshman forward Sarah Lefort made it 2-0 with a breakaway down the left side of the ice.
The Huskies had their chances in the first out-shooting the Terriers 13-8.
The line of sophomore Kendall Coyne and seniors Casey Pickett and Rachel Llanes had a great scoring chance late in the opening frame. Coyne had the initial shot and the puck bounced out to her linemates. But the BU defense locked down and didn’t allow them to get solid shots off.
“I’ll give credit to my team, they played hard just like they have all year long,” Flint said. “They played hard for 60 minutes.”
The Huskies finally got on the board early in the second period.
Coyne came off the bench and skated towards the net. She took the cross from Llanes and fired it over the shoulder of Terrier junior goalie Kerrin Sperry.
With the goal, Coyne extended her scoring streak to a career-long 16 games.
The Terriers made it a two-point game early in the third period, but junior forward Kelly Wallace helped Northeastern pull within one. Junior forward Brittany Esposito’s initial shot bounced off the left post and Wallace hammered it home.
“I thought when we got 3-2 we had a good chance,” Flint said. “Then BU came back and answered right away.”
A mere 76 seconds later, Terrier senior forward Janelle Kohanchuk scored her second goal of the game giving her team a 4-2 lead. Kohanchuk was left alone in front of the net and Desjardins had no chance to stop her shot.
Sophomore forward Kayla Tutino added a power play goal for BU and they cruised to their second Hockey East title in as many years.
The Huskies were coming off a big win in the semi-finals over Boston College. They topped the Eagles 4-1.
Coyne and Pickett led the team in that game with two points apiece and Desjardins had 34 saves.
Following the tournament, Coyne was named to the All-Tournament team.
The Huskies now sit at 23-11-2 and dropped to 4-6 all time in the Hockey East tournament.
“I’m proud of my team for their effort,” Flint said. “They’ve been battling all year long and they battled today it just wasn’t in the cards today.”
