BOSTON - Senior Jenelle Kohanchuk notched a career-high five points, including two goals and three assists, to help lead the No. 7 Boston University women's ice hockey team to a 7-1 victory over Providence on Friday night at Walter Brown Arena.
This was the first time BU (8-3-1, 4-2-1 WHEA) and Providence (7-5-2, 5-2-1 WHEA) had met since the Terriers topped the Friars, 2-1, in double overtime of the 2012 Hockey East title game. BU has now won six of its last seven games against Providence.
The Terriers scored seven goals for the first time since March 10, 2012, when they tallied seven against Cornell in the NCAA tournament. It was the first time BU had seven goals in a regular-season game since Oct. 15, 2010, against Wayne State.
Junior co-captain Marie-Philip Poulin notched two goals and two assists, while freshman Sarah Lefort lit the lamp once and had helpers on two other goals. Sophomores Shannon Stoneburgh (1g, 1a) and Kayla Tutino (1g, 2a), along with junior Louise Warren (2a), each had multi-point efforts to help give junior goaltender Kerrin Sperry (19 saves) plenty of support. Sperry held the Friars to just one goal for the third consecutive contest.
Kohanchuk scored the lone goal of the opening 20 minutes with help from her linemates, Lefort and Poulin. Lefort got the puck in the left corner and passed it to Poulin, who was stationed behind the net. Poulin then slid the puck to Kohanchuk, who sent a wrist shot past Sarah Bryant (18 saves).
It took just 3:37 of the second stanza for BU to strike again. Junior Shannon Doyle began the play by getting the puck to Kohanchuk in the neutral zone before going off for a line change. Kohanchuk then fed Poulin, who cut across the offensive zone before feeding Lefort for the freshman forward's ninth goal of the year.
A little over four minutes later, Kohanchuk and Poulin combined to make it a 3-0 game. Kohanchuk stole the puck from a Friar defender behind the Providence net and found Poulin in front for the junior's first goal of the game.
The Terriers scored their first shorthanded goal of the season at the 15:07 mark of the stanza. Kohanchuk helped force a turnover in the neutral zone before Poulin picked up the puck and raced in alone on Bryant before she scored her sixth goal of the year.
The Friars cut the lead to 4-1 at the 16:43 mark, but BU responded quickly and scored just 1:06 later. Senior Isabel Menard began the play in the neutral zone and started a rush with Warren. Warren entered the offensive zone and got below the left circle before she dropped the puck back to Tutino. The sophomore forward's wrist shot beat Bryant for her second goal of the season.
Stoneburgh extended her point streak to four games with her third goal of the year just 1:50 into the final frame. Tutino and Warren assisted on the goal.
With 1:58 remaining in regulation, Kohanchuk concluded her historic night when she got the puck between the circles and beat goaltender Allie Morse (8 saves), who replaced Bryant to begin the third period. Lefort and Stoneburgh earned assists on Kohanchuk's fifth goal of the season.
BU will be back in action on Sunday afternoon when the Terriers host fifth-ranked Harvard at Walter Brown Arena. Game time is set for 3 p.m..