BOSTON - Senior captain Jenn Wakefield notched a hat trick and added an assist en route to collecting her 200th career point, as the No. 9 Boston University women's hockey team routed New Hampshire, 9-1, in a Hockey East quarterfinal round on Sunday afternoon at Walter Brown Arena.
BU (21-13-1, 14-7-0 WHEA) will play second-seeded Boston College on Saturday (March 3) in the second Hockey East semifinal game in Hyannis, Mass. That game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Providence and Northeastern will meet in the other semifinal contest.
Wakefield became the second player in Hockey East Tournament history to record a hat trick and the first player to accomplish that feat in the quarterfinals. She is also the second skater in league history to reach the 200-point plateau, joining Kelli Stack of Boston College.
It was also a record-setting day for the Terriers, as they set a program best for most goals in a single postseason game. They also tallied three shorthanded goals, which is a Hockey East Tournament record. BU is now 2-1 all-time against New Hampshire (4-22-3, 4-15-12 WHEA) in postseason play.
Junior Isabel Menard (1g, 3a), junior Kathryn Miller (2a), sophomore Marie-Philip Poulin (1g, 2a), freshman Kayla Tutino (3a), senior Carly Warren (1g, 1a) and sophomore Louise Warren (1g, 1a) all each had multiple-point afternoons. Sophomore Kerrin Sperry made 19 saves to earn her first career Hockey East Tournament win. She also collected her second assist of the season.
The game was never in doubt for BU, as the Terriers scored three times in a span of 1:55 in the opening frame. Junior Jill Cardella made it 1-0 at the 9:02 mark of the period when she took a feed from Wakefield and slipped through the five-hole of Wildcat goaltender Jenn Gilligan (six saves).
Freshman defenseman Shannon Stoneburgh made it 2-0 just 55 seconds after Cardella's strike. Junior Taylor Holze sent a low shot towards goal from the top of the left circle, and Stoneburgh redirected it past Gilligan for her second goal of the season.
Wakefield used an impressive individual effort to make it 3-0 at the 10:53 mark of the frame. The play began when Miller retrieved the puck from behind the BU net and dished to Tutino. Tutino passed it from the Terriers' blue line to Wakefield on the UNH blue line. The senior captain then skated through two Wildcat defenders and lifted a backhander over a helpless Gilligan.
The Terriers concluded the first period with a power play goal at the 14:54 mark. Menard and Poulin cycled the puck to Wakefield, who fired a shot from the bottom of the left circle that beat Gilligan.
Menard put BU ahead, 5-0, just 1:23 into the second stanza. She was positioned between the circles when she tipped home a Carly Warren shot past Lindsey Minton (21 saves), who replaced Gilligan to start the second period.
UNH made it 5-1 at the 8:04 mark of the period with a power play goal, nearly made it 5-2 with about three minutes remaining in the middle session. Jenna Lascelle carried the puck into the BU zone on a 2-on-1 rush, but Sperry made a blocker save to keep the Wildcats from taking any momentum into the third period.
Wakefield completed her hat trick with a shorthanded goal at the 11:58 mark of the third. She picked the puck up in her own zone and skated hard past two defenders before cutting hard at the top of the crease and forcing Minton to commit herself. The Pickering, Ont., native finished into the wide open net for her third goal of the game and 200th career point.
Poulin made it 6-1 with the Terriers' second shorthanded strike at the 14:50 mark of the period when she converted on a 2-on-1 rush with Louise Warren. Warren took a shot after Poulin passed her the puck, and Poulin batted home for her seventh goal of the season.
It became an 8-1 game just 30 seconds later when Carly Warren completed the shorthanded trifecta. The senior defenseman took a shot from the top of the right circle that beat Minton to her glove side. It was the first goal of the season for Warren. Louise Warren finished the scoring when she converted a rebound off of a Tutino try. It was Warren's seventh marker of the season.
In total, 13 different skaters recorded at least one point for the Terriers. BU also held UNH to just 20 shots on goal; it is the eighth straight game that the Terriers have held their opponent to fewer than 30 shots on goal.
BU and BC will meet for the third time in the Hockey East Tournament, with each team having earned a win. The Terriers won the most recent contest, a 3-1 victory in the 2010 quarterfinals. BU went on to win the Hockey East title that season.