By Kathryn Uggerholt, News Staff
With two shutout wins over the University of Connecticut (UConn) this past weekend, the women’s hockey team is a perfect 3-0-0 in Hockey East play. Senior goaltender Florence Schelling posted her second and third shutout of the season, and has allowed two goals in her last 103 shots faced.
Schelling, who was recently named Hockey East Goalie of the Month, turned aside 24 shots en route to a 3-0 blanking of UConn Saturday afternoon.
Schelling is ranked No. 1 in save percentage, win percentage and goals against average when stacked up against her Hockey East counterparts. Her play is just part of what she calls a collaborative effort.
“If it would not have been a team effort, I would have to face a lot more shots, ” Schelling said following practice on Monday.
The play of the team as a whole – in part due to Schelling – has not gone unrecognized by teammates such as junior forward Casey Pickett, who said they have been playing as good as they could at certain points.
“I think that as a team, minus the first period on Saturday, we were really at our best up front and back,” Pickett said. “With the system we play, defensively you have to be very disciplined and we really played those positions well this weekend.”
The Huskies played a disciplined game, taking just two penalties in the entire contest, both coming in the opening period. The penalty kill unit warded off both and the teams were tied with no score going into the first intermission.
Pickett said the squad’s play was not necessarily altered to avoid taking penalties, but the speed of the game and skating helped. Pickett ultimately credited the referees for letting both teams just play.
“We could keep up with them speedwise so we didn’t have to hook or trip for the most part,” she said. “I think the reffing helped too. They let us play more on Saturday than they did on Friday or really any other games this year.”
Junior forward Rachel Llanes gave the Huskies a lead halfway through the second period with help from freshman defender Colleen Murphy and junior forward Kelly Wallace.
The team struck again two minutes later when sophomore forward Claire Santostefano took possession of the puck and got it to sophomore forward Katie MacSorley, who found the back of the net to double the Huskies’ total.
Though Pickett said the team got off to a slow start on Saturday, Schelling said that game was the stronger of the weekend contests because of a sturdy final period.
“All of the previous games in the third period is when we let our opponents come and we give them another chance,” Schelling said. “That’s where most of the time I face the most shots, the third period.”
UConn kept battling, but after outshooting Northeastern 11-6 in the first period, they were outshot 24-13 through the remainder of the game. Goaltender Alexandra Garcia (27 saves) was pulled in the last minute of play for the extra attacker, but the play worked against them when freshman forward Kendall Coyne got the puck in the empty net to make it 3-0.
Schelling started her weekend of back-to-back shutouts with a 3-0 win over UConn when she stopped 23 shots Friday at Matthews Arena.
The first goal came at the 14:44 mark of the first period when Coyne took a pass from junior forward Brittany Esposito and got the puck past UConn goalie Garcia (29 saves) to give her team the lead heading into the first intermission.
Though the first period saw no penalties, things changed when a checking penalty early in the second put the Huskies down a player for two minutes. With about 30 seconds remaining in the penalty, Coyne found Pickett, who lit the lamp shorthanded at the 2:26 mark.
Garcia was pulled for UConn and Coyne took advantage, making it a 3-point game when she tallied the final goal with 25 seconds remaining in the contest.
Both shutouts displayed the defensive aptitude the Huskies have showed this season, which has been a factor in the four-game winning streak they have earned.
“Obviously Flo [Schelling] is having a great start to the season and that’s big for us,” Pickett said. “I think that defensively we’re pretty strong, too. We have good core defensemen back that know how to play their position well. It also helps that our system with the left wingers back; we always have that third person always back helping us out.”
Northeastern will take on another Hockey East opponents when they face the University of Vermont Catamounts this weekend. The Huskies will be without their leading scorer, Coyne, who is rejoining the United States Women’s National Team to compete in the extra space Four Nations Cup Nov. 9-13 in Sweden.
In her absence, a line shakeup is mandatory. Pickett said that the situation could help offense trickle down to other lines.
“I don’t foresee any major issues with Kendall gone,” she said. “I think everyone else is completely capable of stepping up and filling in those shoes.”
