By Jenna Ciccotelli, sports editor
Despite beating the University of Maine in their last four meetings, the Northeastern University (NU) women’s ice hockey fell to the Black Bears twice last weekend. The Huskies outshot UMaine in both contests, but NU could not find a way to win in Orono, moving to a 13-9-3 record on the season.
UMaine scored twice in the opening period of Friday night’s game and again with just under two minutes remaining to take a 3-0 lead.
“That first period […] was a period that we’d love to have back,” associate head coach Jeff Pellegrini said to GoNU. “We came out flat and really didn’t execute our game plan by any means.”
Hayley Scamurra spoiled the shutout effort with 59 seconds remaining in the game, scoring her 100th career goal on an assist from freshman forward Matti Hartman. Scamurra became the 27th player in program history to reach the milestone, and the first since Kendall Coyne. However, the achievement didn’t erase the disappointment; with the win, the Black Bears bested the Huskies for the first time since Nov. 1, 2014.
NU sought revenge the next afternoon, but despite a third period rally the team could not carry itself over UMaine. All three Husky goals in the 6-3 defeat came in the final period on power plays. This is the fifth straight game in which NU has scored on a power play goal.
In a repeat of the day before, Maine scored twice in the first period and again midway through the second to give the Black Bears a familiar three goal advantage heading into the last period of play.
Pelligrini understands the importance of a hot start, but he was not entirely disappointed with his team’s performance.
“That’s always tough to grind back,” he said. “I felt like we started off pretty well. I thought we put a good second [period] together.”
Sophomore forward Kasidy Anderson scored for the Huskies one minute into the final period, but Maine’s sophomore defenseman Alyson Matteau fired back two minutes later to make it a three goal game once more.
The Huskies were nothing if not resilient, putting up a late fight. At the 10:23 mark, junior forward Denisa Krizova scored on a rebound following an attempt from Hartman. Krizova followed up 12 seconds later with a slap from the left circle to make it 4-3. Matteau scored again for the Black Bears shortly after, causing the Huskies to pull senior goaltender Sarah Foss. Maine senior forward Emilie Brigham scored on the empty net in the final minute of the game, leading to a final score of 6-3.
“I thought [Maine] played really hard,” Pellegrini said. “They deserved to win.”
Despite being held off the scoreboard over the weekend, junior forward McKenna Brand still leads the nation with 19 goals on the season, maintaining a one-goal advantage over two other players.
The Huskies will look to redeem themselves this weekend with two games against the University of Connecticut, heading south on Friday before returning to Matthews Arena on Saturday at 3 p.m.
File photo by Jerry Yu
