By: Amanda Devaney, News Staff
For the first time in school history, the women’s hockey team defeated the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Wildcats twice in the same season following a 4-2 victory in Durham, N.H. Sunday.
The win for the Huskies was their second-straight against UNH since snapping an 0-26-1 losing streak against the Wildcats. Flint and his team were victorious Dec. 1, when they won 4-0 in Durham.
When asked what the difference was when playing the Wildcats this year, head coach Dave Flint said, “I think it’s our confidence right now. For a long time, UNH has had the longest home winning streak, so winning [the first time] gave our team a little boost.”
Coming into the season, the last time the Huskies beat UNH was March 15 when they picked up a 2-0 victory in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Eastern semifinals.
This time around, senior goaltender Leah Sulyma filled in for starting goaltender, junior Florence Schelling, who was making her way back from representing Switzerland in the MLP Nations Cup held in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.
“It was pretty nerve-racking going in after not playing all year but I feel like I had the whole team behind me, so that gave me a lot of confidence,” she said.
Sulyma finished with 26 saves on the night.
Flint said he was pleased with Sulyma’s performance, especially in a league game.
“She was great – she was in a tough situation, she hasn’t played much this year,” Flint said. “It was a big league game for us and we had to throw her right in and she did a great job. In the third period, she held strong for us.”
Sulyma made 10 saves in the final frame of play.
Sophomore defenseman Casie Fields scored her first goal of the season three minutes into the opening stanza to give Northeastern an early lead.
Three minutes later, sophomore forward Siena Falino scored and gave the Huskies a 2-0 advantage.
Senior forward Kristi Kehoe scored her fourth goal of the season and the Huskies third of the period and took a commanding 3-0 lead into the break.
In the second period, UNH forward Kristine Horn managed to end the shutout four minutes into the period when she lit the lamp for the Wildcats.
However, the Huskies struck again at the end of the period and took back their three-goal lead when sophomore forward Casey Pickett scored a power play goal.
Flint said he is proud of the way his team has come together as a unit, rather than one player carrying the weight of the team.
“You look at some teams and their success relies on one or two players,” he sad. “But we spread it out and I think that’s a good thing.”
At the beginning of the month, the Huskies participated in the Easton Holiday Showcase in St. Cloud, Minn., losing their first game 7-2 to the University of Wisconsin and winning the second game 2-1 against St. Cloud State.
“I thought we played OK – I don’t think we played great hockey,” Flint said. “It was tough because we didn’t get everyone back; we didn’t even have a practice.”
In the game against St. Cloud Jan. 2, graduate student and forward Dani Rylan scored her first Division 1 goal, breaking the 1-1 tie with only 3:36 left in the third period.
“At first I was really excited because it was my first goal, and then I realized we still had three and a half minutes left so we had to continue to work hard since we are only up by one,” Rylan said. “The rest of the game was pretty hectic, we had 10 shots on goal in the last three minutes and Florence made a bunch of ridiculous saves.”
Along with Rylan’s game-winning goal, senior forward Alyssa Wohlfeiler’s goal just 10 seconds into the second period made the final score 2-1.
The Huskies resume action at Matthews Arena where they host the University of Maine at 2 p.m Saturday.
