BOSTON - St. Lawrence junior Tara Akstull scored two extra-attacker goals in the final three minutes of the third period to lift the sixth-ranked Saints to a 2-2 tie with the Boston University women's ice hockey team on Sunday afternoon at Walter Brown Arena. Junior Melissa Anderson and freshman Jenelle Kohanchuk scored for the Terriers, who move to 3-2-1 with their second straight result against a nationally ranked opponent.
Senior Allyse Wilcox made 31 saves in goal for BU, her most remarkable effort coming on the penalty kill in the third period with a high glove save on a rocket from Saints senior Marianna Locke. "I always want to put my team in a position to win and we only had a two-goal lead, so I didn't want to give that up," said Wilcox.
The Terriers struck first at the 7:15 mark of the opening period when senior Erin Seman sent a pass cross-ice to junior Melissa Anderson at the bottom of the right circle, where she was in position to net her first goal of the season.
BU appeared in control through much of the first two periods. Wilcox kept the Terriers in the lead with a nice glove save as SLU senior Alison Domenico crashed the net six minutes into the second.
After the first period elapsed without a single penalty whistled, freshman Jenelle Kohanchuk gave BU the lead on its first power-play opportunity of the night 13 minutes into the middle frame. Freshman Lauren Cherewyk set up Anderson, who took a shot that was saved by Saints junior Brittony Chartier, but Kohanchuk was there to bang in the rebound from close range and put the Terriers up, 2-0.
BU was unable to get another past Chartier, with the Terriers left frustrated after 22 seconds of five-on-three play early on in the third. St. Lawrence played its best hockey in the final frame, outshooting the Terriers by an 18-4 margin in the third.
Saints coach Chris Wells pulled Chartier from the net when BU was whistled for a penalty to create a six-on-four situation with just over three minutes remaining, a move that paid dividends when Akstull broke through at 17:11. Domenico had the initial shot that was saved by Wilcox, but the rebound went to Akstull, who had an open net to score and bring St. Lawrence within one.
With an empty net once again, Akstull tied the game on a similar play when she found a loose puck and scored from close range with 1:11 on the clock. BU held a 4-1 edge in shots on goal in overtime, but nothing got past the netminders in the extra frame. Chartier made 24 saves in the contest for the Saints.
"We did a nice job for two periods controlling the play," said Terriers head coach Brian Durocher. "We kept the little things going and we kept the flow going in the second period, came out of there in pretty good shape and took it all the way to three minutes left, but it's a little bit of a bitter pill that we didn't get the two wins here this weekend."
BU continues its six-game homestand on Thursday (Oct. 23) at 7 p.m., hosting No. 4 New Hampshire at Walter Brown Arena. Live streaming video is available for all home games this season through BU All-Access on GoTerriers.com.