By Julianne Desjardins, news correspondent
The Northeastern University (NU) women’s hockey team continued their hot streak last week, tying one game and winning another against Syracuse University over the weekend, and beating Boston University (BU) Tuesday night.
On Friday, Oct. 14, the game ended in a draw, with both the Huskies and Orange scoring two goals apiece.
The first period was pretty quiet as the defense was the star of the show. The Huskies then broke through a little over three minutes into the second period with a power-play goal from junior left wing Denisa Krizova and assists from senior forwards Hayley Scamurra and Paige Savage.
Syracuse then came back to tie the game on a power play with a goal from freshman forward Savannah Rennie.
Both teams scored again in the third period with junior right wing McKenna Brand scoring for the Huskies and junior forward Alysha Burriss scoring for Syracuse.
Saturday’s game was all about defense as the only goal of the game came from junior left defenseman Heather Mottau with assists from Krizova and Brand.
Sophomore goaltender Brittany Bugalski made 27 saves to secure the Huskies’ win over Syracuse.
Ahead of Tuesday’s game, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that Northeastern alumnae Kendall Coyne is a finalist for NCAA Women of the Year in a ceremony on Sunday in Indianapolis.
Coach Flint had nothing but high praise for the time he spent coaching Coyne.
“She was an amazing student athlete, and just an amazing person to coach and be around,” he said.
Tuesday’s game against Boston University (BU) marked the Huskies’ first game against the Hockey East division and it did not disappoint, with Northeastern downing the Terriers 6-2.
The Huskies started off the scoring with a power play goal just four minutes into the first period by junior center Shelby Herrington.
After BU answered back with a goal of their own by Natasza Tarnowski, the Huskies scored three straight goals in the second period.
Herrington started it off with her second goal of the night only two minute into the second period.
Junior right defense Ainsley MacMillan and freshman defense Paige Capistran also each scored a goal in the second period to give the Huskies a 4-1 lead over BU.
The Terriers scored their final goal of the night with a few minutes left in the second period to bring them within two goals of the Huskies.
The Huskies then surged ahead and scored two more goals in the third period, one from Krizova and Savage each to put them put them on top of BU 6-2.
With the tie and win against Syracuse and the win over Boston University, the Huskies season has changed dramatically since their struggles during the first weekend of the season. Despite their promising showing the past couple of weeks, head coach David Flint still believes that the team needs to make some improvements.
“We’ve got to be more consistent and score more goals,” he said. “We need to concentrate on cleaning up the D-zone.”
The Huskies are now 4-2-1 and will face-off at Dartmouth University on Saturday, Oct. 22 before heading to Boston University on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics.
