By Caroline Ingram, news staff
In the last game of the 2017 calendar year for the Northeastern women’s hockey team, the Huskies made it count.
The Huskies battled Hockey East foe University of New Hampshire for the third and final time of the regular season, coming away with a win to secure a 2-1 record against them over the three games.
First-year goalie Aerin Frankel got the start in net over third-year Brittany Bugalski, who took the loss in a Friday night game against UNH where the Huskies fell in overtime 2-1.
The game started with an evenly matched opening, with first-year forward Veronika Pettey getting a prime offensive chance early on a 3-on-1, but missed the shot with the puck sliding off the blade of her stick.
After the game, fourth-year defenseman Lauren Kelly spoke about the high-intensity energy the team was feeling prior to puck drop.
“We had a lot of energy going into the game because of what had happened on Friday,” Kelly said. “We realized that it was our last game for a while so we knew that we had to give everything that we had. It started in the locker room before warmups and translated into the game.”
The Huskies got on the scoreboard first at 8:33 into the first period, after third-year forward Tori Sullivan was able to bury an ugly rebound goal. The Huskies passed the puck from the high point to the low corner before fourth-year defenseman Ainsley MacMillan fired a wobbly low shot from the point. With first-year UNH goalie Ava Boutilier sprawled out of position in the crease, Sullivan was able to smack the puck home for the goal.
Moments later, UNH was able to tie it up with a similarly ugly rebound goal of their own. A shot was fired from the point by fourth-year forward Carlee Toews, and then it was second-year forward Meghara McManus in front who was able to get the rebound past Frankel.
NU struck again in the first, this time on the powerplay, with a shot from first-year defenseman Brooke Hobson which rattled off of Boutilier and was buried away with a top-shelf shot by Kelly.
Not long after, NU extended their lead to two after a 2-on-1 chance allowed second-year forward Andrea Renner to charge into the offensive zone, ripping a high shot past Boutilier for the unassisted score.
Kelly noted how the team excelled at working together throughout the game, something they had struggled with in Friday’s game.
“When we played on Friday there was a lot of individuality going on in the game, whereas today we did a lot better job of working together as a team,” Kelly said. “We were moving and handling the puck well today.”
In the second frame, UNH went on a 5-on-3 advantage early after Hobson was called for a tripping penalty just eight seconds into the period. The double-man advantage led to a UNH goal by fourth-year defenseman Amy Schlagel.
UNH got the tying goal at 12:07 of the second with another goal by McManus, who was just barely able to get a stick on a quick pass from Toews, diving by the post of the net to sneak the puck by Frankel.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued with another NU goal to close out the period, this time coming on the power play after a shot from third-year forward Kasidy Anderson. Kelly was again in a perfect netfront position in order to bury the rebound from the shot which was deflected off the pads of Boutilier.
Heading into the final period with just a one-goal cushion, the Huskies were determined to close out 2017 with authority.
“We had a give-everything-you-have mentality,” Kelly said. “We have nothing for a month, so we wanted to just leave it all on the ice. We wanted to play for each other.”
The Huskies were able to overcome an unfavorable call against them early, in which a Renner goal was disallowed because of high sticking.
However, that didn’t seem to matter, as moments later fourth-year forward McKenna Brand rocketed home her 11th goal of the season, putting NU up 5-3.
The Brand goal proved to be more than enough, as Frankel and the defensive unit were able to keep UNH at bay for the period, securing the win.
Kelly noted the win felt all the more sweet knowing that a long, well-deserved break is in store for the team. The team was able to do exactly what they set out to do in the final game of 2017 – play for each other.
“We always have a common mentality coming into the game of just going out hard and leaving everything on the ice,” Kelly said. “Our motto this season has been ‘compete together’ and I think we did a good job of achieving that today.”
After the stretch against the University of New Hampshire, Frankel was named Hockey East Goaltender of the Month for November. Throughout the month, Frankel produced a 3-2-1 record, with one of those wins coming in a 39-save effort against No. 1 University of Wisconsin Nov. 24.
Frankel is currently ranked 13th in the country, posting a 1.93 goals against average.
