PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Over a month ago, back in the locker room at Agganis Arena after the Boston University women’s hockey team’s 7-1 season-opening victory over Merrimack, head coach Tara Watchorn made what felt like an overzealous declaration.
“BU hockey upgraded?” she asked her group. “Check.”
It seemed a tad too soon because, after all, it was only Merrimack.
The sentiment stuck around, even as BU continued to stack wins. After a sweep two weekends ago, it was only Maine. Last weekend’s sweep: It was only Syracuse.
But this weekend it was Providence. A team picked to finish ahead of BU in the Hockey East preseason poll. A series Watchorn said midweek was “going to be a great benchmark.”
And after the Terriers (8-3-0, 6-1-0 HE) completed the two-game sweep of the Friars (5-5-0, 2-4-0 HE) with a 3-2 win on Saturday at Schneider Arena, it’s becoming harder and harder to poke holes in Watchorn’s proclamation.
BU won its seventh straight — its longest win streak since the 2013-14 season — and continued its fastest start to a season in a decade. And after finishing seventh and bowing out in the first round of the tournament last year, the Terriers lead Hockey East with 18 points after seven games.
Junior forward Luisa Welcke, who hadn’t scored this season despite playing on BU’s top line all year, poked home a rebound through PC goalie Hope Walinski’s near post at 18:11 of the second period to win it for the Terriers. Welcke scored an empty-netter at 18:45 of the third to seal it, and a 6-on-5 goal from the Friars a minute later was only a consolation.
Junior forward Clara Yuhn potted the game’s opening goal at 6:32 of the first, punching home a deflected shot from senior Christina Vote on the power play. Yuhn, BU’s top returning point scorer, has now scored thrice in the last four games after netting only one non-empty net goal over the first seven.
The goal continued a mini resurgence of the Terriers’ power play, too, which went 0-for-24 after the season opener but is 4-for-11 over the last five games.
The Friars equalized midway through the second on the power play themselves, as sophomore forward and leading goal scorer Audrey Knapp buried a wrister from the circle past BU senior netminder Callie Shanahan, who was screened on the play.
Nursing a 2-1 lead in the final period after getting outplayed in the second, BU found an extra gear. It killed off an early Providence power play without allowing a shot on goal. Then, midway through the frame on another skater-advantage for the Friars, a routine save for Shanahan squirted into the mouth of goal, but the Terriers’ top-line kill found a way to clear it at 9:57.
The Terriers tied the Friars in shots, 11-11, in the third stanza despite protecting a lead and defending almost three minutes of 6 on 5.
Like in a 5-1 victory at Agganis in the series opener on Friday afternoon, BU didn’t dominate, but it weathered the Providence storm when it needed to, got clutch saves from its stalwart senior goaltender, and scored two enormous goals in ways it had mostly struggled to do so.
This story will be updated.
