By Kathryn Uggerholt, News Staff
In their third meeting this season, the Huskies and the Boston College Eagles played a hard 65 minutes of hockey and ended within a 1-1 draw at the Eagle’s Conte Forum arena Tuesday.
It was a battle of the goaltenders as senior Florence Schelling stopped 31 shots on one end of the ice and BC junior Corinne Boyles made 40 saves at the other.
“I don’t think this team would be where they are unless we had her on the team,” co-caption and senior defenseman Stephanie Gavronsky said. “Florence is just a clutch player in our system. She’s definitely one of those players that you look up to.”
The first period ended scoreless, proving a test of both penalty kill teams. Freshman defenseman Ann Doherty took a checking penalty at 8:43 to allow Boston College to test the then-United States College Hockey Organization (USCHO) No. 4 ranked Northeastern penalty kill. The unit lived up to its rank with no shots or opportunities allowed in the span of two minutes.
The Huskies had their own power play opportunity late in the period, but failed to score.
Another power play early in the second had the Huskies shooting for the back of the net, but they came up empty. Freshman forward Lucie Povova prevented a shut-out at 10:02 when she buried a rebound for her sixth goal of the year. Sophomore defenseman Maggie Dimasi had wristed a shot at Boyles. Povova picked up the rebound to light the lamp to make it 1-0.
The Huskies risked their lead just a few minutes later when they found themselves doubling up in the penalty box. Dimasi took a tripping penalty and senior defenseman Stephanie Gavronsky took a checking penalty to give the Eagles a two man-advantage for 1:28.
BC had six opportunities on the power play but came up empty as the Huskies penalty kill and goaltending came through to keep it 1-0 going into the second intermission. Following the game, the Northeastern penalty kill is now ranked first in the nation by USCHO.
The Eagles scored at 6:38 in the final period when junior forward Ashley Motherwell caught Schelling out of position to tie the game, sending it to overtime.
Northeastern forced Boyles to make three saves during overtime, but neither team found the back of the net, ending in a draw.
Prior to the midweek match-up, the Huskies scored two consecutive goals to come from behind to edge the Providence College Friars 2-1 at the Bog in Kingston.
Schelling denied 26 shots to Providence’s goaltender Genevieve Lacasse’s 34 saves.
The Huskies had scoring opportunities in the opening stanza but all 13 shots were denied by Lacasse. The Friars got on the board with a goal at 11:22 in the first period, in which Schelling faced only four shots, junior forward Jessica Vella beat the goaltender to put her team up by a goal.
“It really helps us as a team to know that the backbone is Florence,” freshman forward Kendall Coyne said Tuesday afternoon in a phone interview. “It gives us so much more confidence and that has helped us be so successful.”
Providence took two late penalties to give Northeastern the man advantage to raise its chances but they failed to convert on either power play.
Two more power play chances for the Huskies in the middle frame brought their shot total on the power play to 12, but the visitors scored to tie the game during a five-on-five bout. Junior forward Rachel Llanes kept up her effort and knocked in her own rebound to make it a 1-1 game.
“Providence is a kill unit, they are very aggressive,” Coyne said. “We have not seen as an aggressive style in prior games. That was one thing that we struggled with.”
Northeastern almost let the game get away in the final 20 minutes with penalties. After three unsuccessful power plays, Providence kept their power play goal total for the season at nine when they could not beat the then-fourth ranked Northeastern penalty kill.
Coyne gave Northeastern the go ahead goal at 10:41. Coyne’s 17th goal of the season brought her point total to 30 in just 19 games. She leads freshmen in scoring in not just Hockey East but in all of NCAA Division I women’s hockey.
Schelling denied a late flurry of shots as Providence tried their best to tie the game for overtime. The goaltender just back from playing with the Swiss International team stood tall to keep the score at 2-1 to give Northeastern the win.
The Huskies take the ice at home for back-to-back games this weekend. Saturday’s game against University of New Hampshire will be the first-ever ESPN broadcast of a women’s college hockey game ever. Puck drops at 2 p.m. at Matthews Arena and on ESPN3.com. Sunday’s game is also slated for 2 p.m. at Matthews against the University of Vermont.
