By Madeline Sattler, News Staff
Despite being neck-and-neck with Cornell University for most of the game, the Northeastern women’s ice hockey team found itself on the losing end of a 4-2 score at Matthews Arena on Saturday.
Sophomore forward Kendall Coyne and senior forward Rachel Llanes each had a goal for the Huskies, but they couldn’t get past No. 4 Cornell.
“I thought it was a good game – fast paced and exciting,” head coach Dave Flint said. “I think it could’ve gone either way if it wasn’t for a couple of bounces.”
Sophomore goalie Chloe Desjardins was tested early as the Big Red came out with a few quick shots, but the Huskies matched the intensity of their opponents. Midway through the opening frame, Coyne and senior forward Casey Pickett had a two-on-one opportunity, but the senior couldn’t handle her teammate’s pass and the game remained scoreless.
“We came out strong, which we haven’t done yet this year, so that was a positive part of the loss,” Coyne said.
Just over 11 minutes into the game, Cornell turned the puck over in the defensive zone. Llanes sent the puck to Coyne who was waiting on the left side of the crease to put the Huskies ahead.
The second period opened up with the Huskies on the power play. Cornell, however, came out on top as they tied the game up early in the middle frame. Junior forward Jessica Campbell put the Big Red on the board with a shot that took a strange bounce over Desjardins’s stick.
“Definitely a goal like that first one is hard to take mentally, but we have to be mentally strong and be able to regroup from that goal,” Coyne said. “We have to come together as a team and get that back because that’s not how you want to lose this game.”
The short-handed goal was the first the Huskies have allowed all season.
“We’ve got to get the power play going again,” Flint said. “We were really struggling the last couple games with that, so we’ll be working on special teams.”
Coyne and Llanes teamed up to score the second goal of the game. With the puck in their own defensive zone, Coyne sent a pass to Llanes who carried it from her own blue line down the ice and pushed a shot past junior goalie Lauren Slebodnick.
“When we do get everything all together, you’ve seen it before, our team is pretty unbeatable,” Llanes said.
Late in the middle period Campbell scored her second goal of the game to even the score at two apiece.
Junior Alyssa Gagliardi added a power play goal with Llanes sitting in the box for slashing and Cornell took the lead.
In the final period, the Huskies had several opportunities to tie up the game. Junior forward Claire Santostefano sent a cross to sophomore forward Chelsea Goll who was waiting in front of the net. Slebodnick came up with one of the ten saves she had in the period.
Just over five minutes into the final frame, Cornell added to their lead. Desjardins blocked the original shot from sophomore forward Jillian Saulnier. Junior forward Brianne Jenner picked up the rebound, but Desjardins could not come up with the save.
“We were with them up until that third period,” Llanes said. “It’s just that, we make those one or two mistakes and great teams like Cornell are going to capitalize on them.”
Another fluke bounce later in the period almost cost Northeastern another goal, but Desjardins was able to get her stick in front of the puck as one of her 25 saves on the afternoon.
With 1:30 left in the game, the Huskies pulled Desjardins for an extra attacker, but Cornell was prepared and Northeastern did not get any good opportunities.
The Huskies opened up their 2013 campaign playing four of five games against ranked opponents, and Cornell was no different, tied for fourth in the pairwise.
“I told them they just got to stick together as a team and deal with the adversity,” Flint said. “If we can do that and stay together as a team through a tough point in the season, it’s going to help us at the end of the year when we need it most.”
The bad luck continued for Northeastern Wednesday night at Boston University, as they fell to the No. 5 Terriers 5-4.
The team was trailing the Terriers 5-2 with under three minutes left to play before they mounted a comeback, scoring twice within ten seconds.
Coyne cut the BU lead to two goals when she scored with 2:07 left on the clock, and freshman forward Paige Savage followed it up, netting one of her own. But the Huskies couldn’t get the tying goal to force an overtime period.
Despite the loss, junior goaltender Kelsey O’Sullivan made a career-best 17 saves when she came in to relieve Desjardins, who made 16 saves of her own.
After the two losses, the Huskies sit fourth in Hockey East behind Boston College, BU and Providence College.
They will take on the Providence Friars at home on Sunday at Matthews Arena as part of Skating for Strides. The Huskies will wear commemorative jerseys and admission will be free of charge.
