Junior goaltender Chloe Desjardins made 43 saves for the Northeastern women’s hockey team on Sunday, but the Huskies’ skaters failed to come through offensively and Northeastern suffered a 3-2 loss at the hands of crosstown rival Boston College.
The Eagles came out strong and applied lots of pressure right from the opening face-off, but it was NU senior forward Katie MacSorley who gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead nine minutes into the first period. The puck found the back of the net for MacSorley’s team-best tenth goal of the season.
With a pass from Desjardins up the boards, sophomore forward Paige Savage was able to get the puck to MacSorley.
“[She] chipped it off the boards — it was kind of like a flutter puck — and it went through the girl’s legs, so I kind of just picked it up and shot it quick,” MacSorley said.
“MacSorley has a great shot,” Northeastern head coach Dave Flint said. “A couple strides in, she snapped it and got it to the back of the net.”
Desjardins was credited with the secondary assist along and Savage earned the primary. The last time Desjardins had an assist was October 2012, according to GoNU.com.
Desjardins’ assist was not the only way she shone in the losing effort. Her 43 saves set a new career high.
“[Desjardins] had a really, really good weekend,” MacSorley said. “We had her back and she had our backs. So it was nice to see that she was strong, which gave us lots of confidence too.”
The Huskies took a 2-0 lead early in the second period with a goal scored by redshirt senior forward Kelly Wallace. The goal came off of a give-and-go between Savage and Wallace as Savage picked up her second assist of the game.
“The second goal was just going to the net hard,” Flint said. “And [Savage] waited and waited. She drew the defender over and threw it over to [Wallace], which pretty much gave her an empty net.”
The Eagles were soon back in it with a goal scored by BC junior Emily Pfalzer on a two-man advantage, making it a 2-1 game.
BC came out in the third period looking for a goal to tie the game. Desjardins made great saves in an attempt to preserve Northeastern’s lead, but after a BC faceoff win in NU’s defensive zone, Eagles freshman Kristyn Capizzano managed to get the puck in the back of the net.
Short on numbers, Northeastern fought to regain the lead.
“We just ran out of gas in the third period,” Flint said.
With BC scrambling for another goal in front of NU’s net, senior Meagan Mangene finally put one past Desjardins, giving the Eagles the lead 11 minutes into the third period.
“I knew we were going to run out of gas at some point. We played one of the best teams in the country, back-to-back days, with [limited] skaters. It caught up to us,” Flint said. “You could see the difference in the third period.”
After a hard-fought game, both MacSorley and Flint thought the team played well.
“[BC] is one of the top teams,” MacSorley said. “So if we’re able to keep up with them, we should be able to beat a lot of teams and compete with a lot of teams. I think it’s a good turning point for us.”
With the end of the season getting closer, MacSorley said the team is trying to take it one step at a time.
“I just think continuously working on the little things, and we’ll come out on top,” she said.
“For our team, it’s just game-to-game,” Flint said. “We can’t worry about what’s behind us, we just have to show up and compete everyday.”
The Huskies looked to end their four-game winless streak on Wednes
day night as they took on the University of Connecticut at Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs, Conn.
Behind goals from MacSorley, redshirt-senior forward Brittany Esposito and freshman defenseman Heather Mottau, NU cruised to a 3-1 victory over the enemy Huskies.
Desjardins made 34 saves en route to her eighth win of the season. She held UConn scoreless for over 58 minutes until UConn junior Sarah MacDonnell ended the shutout.
Northeastern will be back in action on Sunday when they head across town to Boston University and battle the Terriers at 12 p.m at Agganis Arena in another important Hockey East showdown.
