By Matt Foster
The puck just won’t fall the right way for the women’s hockey team.
The Huskies traveled to Canton, N.Y. to play top-ranked St. Lawrence on Sunday, only to leave empty handed, 3-0. The loss dropped Northeastern to 1-8-1 while the Saints extended their undefeated record to 7-0-0.
Despite the loss, the Huskies considered Sunday’s game one of their finest.
“The whole team came together as a family and played amazing defense,” said senior goalie Marisa Hourihan. “They were confident, and I could see them coming into the game thinking they would smoke us. We just went in so focused and ready to play.”
Hourihan was the highlight for the Huskies, stopping 54 of the 57 shots that came her way.
“Marisa was just unbelievable,” said sophomore forward Nikki Petrich on the star goalie. “When you’re playing, it feels really good to have her in net. The game wouldn’t have been as close without her.”
The game was tough throughout as the Huskies were outshot 57-12 and went 0-3 on power plays, but the defensive play was inspiring against the top-ranked women’s team in the country.
“We had nothing to lose,” said Petrich. “We were clearly the underdogs and we gave it our all.”
However, the positive attitude wasn’t enough to stop the two goals from senior forward Emilie Berlinguette and one from freshman forward Lisa Batchelor.
The rookie would strike first, scoring at 12:29 into the opening period when sophomore defender Annie Guay assisted on her top-shelf goal over Hourihan. Berlinguette would add to the lead just eleven seconds later, scoring on a hard shot from the right side of the ice.
The second period would be all grit and sacrifice, as both offenses would fail to push a puck into the net. Hourihan collected an impressive 12 saves in the period, the same amount Saint’s sophomore goalie Meaghan Guckian stopped in the entire game.
“It looked like she was on,” Petrich said. “She was confident and was on top of her game.”
Freshman forward Colleen Sandborn tried her hardest for Northeastern, sending three shots towards Guckian but to no avail. The Huskies had their best opportunity in the second period when the offense amassed a total of seven shots against the stingy Saint defense.
The Saints would score their third and final goal of the game 8:19 into the third. It was Berlinguette again, scoring her second of the game and fourth of the year after she lifted the puck over Hourihan’s head.
Hourihan, who was the first female goalie to lead a boys’ hockey team to a Massachusetts state title in high school while at Hanover High School, attributes her success in goal to her pre-game preparations.
“It takes a lot of hard work,” Hourihan said. “You have to stay focused in goal for 60 minutes. The most important thing is to be mentally prepared from start to finish.”
The Huskies look to gain ground when they host two Hockey East opponents at Matthews Arena. NU will host Vermont on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. and will face Connecticut on Sunday for a 3 p.m. afternoon conference.
The Catamounts, in their first season in Hockey East, should prove an easy target for the upbeat Huskies. The Cats are winless in Hockey East play after finishing last season with a 5-26-3 record.
