by Jack Hodge, news staff
Coming back from a devastating Beanpot loss Tuesday to Boston College (BC), Northeastern women’s hockey took on the Eagles in Chestnut Hill and got retribution with a 2-1 win.
The first period was a battle between the two teams, with neither able to maintain control of the puck long enough to score. Both teams were equally matched in the first period with no score heading into the second period.
The match heated up when the Huskies scored the first goal 9:42 into the second period. Senior forward Paige Savage won the faceoff and passed the puck to sophomore defender Maddie Hartman, who took a wrist shot from the right point and scored.
BC was shut out until the third period by sophomore goalie Brittany Bugalski. Bugalski made a career-high 46 saves during the game, surpassing her previous record of 42 saves set in Tuesday’s Beanpot match.
In the third period, the Red and Black fought hard against the Eagles and increased their lead. Junior forward Shelby Herrington passed the puck to freshman forward Andrea Renner, who then rebounded and scored her first collegiate goal, putting the Huskies in the lead 2-0. At the end of the period, BC scored a retribution goal with their power play line and ended the match 2-1.
When asked about Northeastern ending their 63 home game winning streak, BC head coach Katie Crowley recognized the rarity of the milestone but maintained that it didn’t add any extra pressure.
“I mean our juniors have never lost in this rink, neither have the sophomores, neither have the freshman,” she said. “That’s really hard to do when you look back on it […] it really wasn’t something that was weighing on us at all.”
Junior forward Denisa Krizova was unable to attend the match because she joined the Czech Republic national team in their attempt to qualify for the Olympics. Krizova, who was the Czech team’s leading scorer, was named player of the game after scoring twice in the Czech team’s 5-0 win against Norway.
“We started a bit slowly, some mistakes and nervousness could be seen,” Krizova said in a press conference translated from Czech. “After the first goal, however, we started to play our game and it went well.”
Krizova notched an assist in the team’s win over Denmark as well as in the team’s 4-1 loss against Switzerland. The loss cost them their spot in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic tournament. Northeastern alumna Florence Schelling (2009-12) and Lucie Povova (2011-15) also competed for the Czech team.
This win against the Eagles places the Huskies in the number two seed for the Hockey East tournament coming up later in the month. The Huskies take on Boston University this Friday at Walter Brown Arena.
Translations by Veronica Cihlar
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
