By Gayle Simone
The Northeastern women’s hockey team watched its 3-1 lead over the University of Connecticut evaporate in the third period, due to a hat trick by Jaclyn Hawkins, and ended up skating to a 4-4 tie in the second game of the home-and-home series with UConn Saturday night.
NU struck first with two goals from Crystal Rochon in the opening period. But UConn fought back before heading to the first intermission. Alicia Ramolla brought UConn to within a goal with less than a minute to play in the first.
Nikki Petrich put NU up by two again with the only goal in the middle frame.
The lead stood pat until Hawkins scored two goals five minutes apart, one of them shorthanded to tie the game at three.
NU took the lead again midway through the third period when Petrich swiped a wrist shot past UConn goalie Kaitlyn Shain for her second goal of the night.
To avoid losing, UConn pulled Shain in favor of an extra attacker and capitalized during an NU penalty to tie the game at 4-4.
The game would end that way after the two teams skated in a scoreless overtime period. The tie earned NU one point in the Hockey East standings.
Shain made 17 saves in the game while her counterpart Marisa Hourihan made 48 for NU.
Hourihan now holds the Northeastern record for saves in a season with 872, passing Erika Silva, who made 858 saves in the 2000-2001 season. Hourihan also broke the record for saves in a game with 57 last Tuesday night versus Providence. Chanda Gunn previously held the record with 56.
The Dogs lost a tight game, 2-1, to UConn at Matthews Arena on Friday. Jessica Coppney scored the lone Northeastern goal.
Shain made the initial stop on an Ashley Bielawski shot, but the rebound was too much for Shain to handle. Coppney parked in front of the net and lifted the puck stick side to tie the game at 1-1.
Three minutes later, Hawkins scored an unassisted goal that proved to be the game winner.
Coach Laura Schuler pulled Hourihan with 2:30 left in the third, but Shain held NU off.
“I don’t know how we didn’t score at the end,” Schuler said.
“I mean we were all over them, peppering them with shots. It just didn’t go in for us.”
Getting the puck to the net is something Schuler has been stressing to her team since day one. The team had 63 shots attempted for the game, with half of them missing the mark or being blocked by UConn’s defense.
“Our goal for every period is 21 shots attempted,” Schuler said. “We were pretty much on the mark tonight, but I think their goalie played exceptionally well tonight.”
Shain had 31 saves on the night, while Hourihan made 42.
Schuler was happy with her team’s performance, but said changes had to occur for the team to get one in the win column.
“I’m very happy with the way the girls played tonight. We played solid for all three periods,” Schuler said. “But, we need to not wait until the very end to catch up. We need to come out with the lead. We need to quiet them up early.”
Defenseman Jennifer Beaudoin does not agree with her coach.
“We can’t come out of every game losing saying, ‘Good try’ anymore,” Beaudoin said. “It’s too late in the season, too late in Hockey East. We have to win now. It’s not a question of ‘Good job guys, we’ll get ’em next time.’ There is no next time it’s got to be now.”
NU is currently in last place in Hockey East with a record of 2-9-1 and 3-18-2 overall.
“Our record doesn’t show how hard we’ve worked this season,” Beaudoin said. “It doesn’t show that the games are close. We need to put points up on our boards to make it into the playoffs.”
NU has their work cut out for them when they host the University of New Hampshire Friday night at Matthews Arena. The puck is set to drop at 7 p.m.
UNH (8-1-2) is in first place in the Hockey East with 18 points and is ranked No. 8 nationally. This is the final meeting between the two clubs with UNH taking all three of the previous contests. The last game was decided 5-2 at Matthews Arena.
