By Maddie Sattler, News Staff

The Northeastern women’s hockey team knew Cornell University would be an early challenge for the squad as the Huskies headed to upstate New York to take on one of the top women’s hockey programs in the country.

The Big Red lived up to that challenge, defeating the Huskies, 6-2, Saturday evening before blanking Northeastern, 3-0, Sunday afternoon.

“I thought we played well in spurts, but we didn’t compete for the full 60 minutes in both games,” head coach Dave Flint said.

Senior defender Sonia St. Martin and senior forward Katie MacSorley both scored their first goals of the season in the losing effort.

Cornell got off to a quick start Saturday with two goals in the first 3:37 of game action.

Cornell added to its lead with a power play goal about halfway through the opening period, prompting Flint to make a change in net. He pulled junior Chloe Desjardins and gave freshman Sarah Foss her first minutes of the season.

“The first game, we came out in the first 10 minutes and we were spectators and before you knew it, we were down 3-0,” Flint said. “You can’t dig a hole for yourself like that against a team like that.”

The Huskies finally found a way to generate some offense late in the first period. St. Martin took the pass from sophomore forward Paige Savage and buried it home. Freshman Hayley Masters was also credited with her third assist of the season.

Just over one minute into the second period, junior forward Lucie Povova found senior forward Katie MacSorely skating down the ice. Povova fed the puck to her teammate who scored a shorthanded goal to pull the Huskies within one.

The shorthanded goal was the Huskies’ fourth of the season. They have yet to score on a power play.

As the game progressed, the Cornell power play proved to be less friendly for the Huskies. The Big Red extended their lead to 4-2 with a goal on the man-advantage, pushing the lead to 4-2 at the 14:50 mark in the second period.

Cornell added another goal before the frame ended and a third power play goal in the third period.

“We got into some penalty trouble and they made us pay for it,” Flint said. “So the first game, too many penalties and we didn’t come out ready to play.”

Desjardins had five saves in her brief appearance and Foss stopped 16 shots.

The Huskies hoped to put the 6-2 loss behind them the following day, but Cornell played a well-rounded game yet again.

The Big Red were able to score a goal in each period. The Huskies did, however, shut them down on each of their six power plays.

“I thought the second game, I thought we played really well and it could’ve gone either way,” Flint said. “A couple of their goals were just bad bounces and we didn’t get any luck in our end.”

Desjardins made 26 saves in net while the Huskies had 23 shots on goal in the game.

The Huskies are 3-3 in the first six games of the season, but those six games have all been against out-of-conference opponents.

The Huskies will open up Hockey East play this weekend against the Providence College Friars. Providence was ranked fourth in the conference’s preseason polls, just behind Northeastern.

Flint is looking for his team to play a complete game and try to get something going on their own power play.

“We’ve got to work on cleaning up our defensive zone a little bit, we’ve got to work on our power play,” Flint said. “We’ve got to tweak a few things, try and get some set lines going and prepare for Providence.”

The Huskies will welcome the Friars to Matthews Arena Friday night at 7 p.m.