By Caroline Ingram, news staff
The Northeastern University women’s hockey team started the new year with a dominant 4-2 win against the University of Connecticut (UConn) Tuesday night at Matthews Arena. It was the first meeting between the teams in nearly a year. Northeastern won the previous eight matchups.
Following their month-long break from game action, the Red and Black looked to get going early and push the momentum in their favor. This resulted in two goals coming less than four minutes into the opening period.
“We wanted to come out fast since it had been a long time since we had last played,” fourth-year forward McKenna Brand said. “It was all about high intensity to get the legs going again and getting the wind back in our lungs.”
After the game, head coach Dave Flint said he was pleased with the team’s strong start.
“I thought we came out flying right out of the gates,” Flint said.” I wasn’t sure how long it would take for players to adjust to playing in game action [following winter break], but early on we looked great.”
Fourth-year defenseman Lauren Kelly put Northeastern ahead just 2:18 into the opening frame, firing a wrister from just inside the blue line past fourth-year UConn goalie Annie Belanger thanks to an NU screen in front of the net.
Moments later, third-year forward Kasidy Anderson stripped an idle UConn defenseman of the puck in the neutral zone, barreled down the ice on a one-on-one rush and fired a bar-down shot to extend the NU lead to two.
“Getting that early lead is always a huge deal, and it allows us to take that momentum into all areas of the ice, whether it be the D-zone, the neutral zone, or in creating offensive pressure,” Brand said.
Though the game seemed heavily tilted in NU’s favor in the early going, UConn was able to cut the deficit in half a little over halfway through the period. UConn’s first-year forward Natalie Snodgrass carried the puck down the ice on a two-on-one, elected to take the shot and beat third-year Brittany Bugalski high on her glove side. It was Snodgrass’ 12th goal of the season, adding to her team-high point total of 21 points.
Flint explained the team’s approach to shutting down a highly skilled player like Snodgrass.
“You have to take away time and space because if you give her either to operate she’s going to make you pay for it,” he said. “She’s a skilled player that we had to look out for every time she was on the ice.”
In the second period, NU struck early again: this time only 40 seconds in. Fourth-year forward Denisa Krizova fired a pass over to Brand, who cut into the high slot and blew a shot past Belanger for the score. The play was reviewed by the officials, but it was upheld and extended NU’s lead to 3-1.
UConn continued to hang around and was able to cut the deficit in half yet again after a point-blank shot and goal by first-year forward Morgan Wabick.
Flint said the team had to combat momentum swings in UConn’s favor following their second and third goals.
“One thing you have to be sure of is that you keep the pressure on after gaining an early lead,” he said. “I liked how we responded to their goals and how we didn’t panic. We outshot them by a lot in the second, but just weren’t able to find the back of the net.”
Entering the final period, Northeastern clung to a 3-2 lead and were looking to close out UConn with a dominant third period. Flint emphasized the importance of game management to his team as they headed into the third with a slight advantage.
“I told them how I wanted them to play smart and manage the game the right way — things like keeping shifts short and not getting caught out on the ice too long, as well as not taking bad penalties,” said Flint.
For the majority of the third, the teams exchanged offensive opportunities. However, it was NU that would ultimately seal the deal with an ugly rebound goal from third-year defenseman Maddie Hartman. Second-year forward Andrea Renner gained possession of the puck in the corner and brought it out front where teammates Hartman and first-year forward Veronika Pettey were creating traffic in front of Belanger. Both players jammed at the loose puck, but Hartman banged it home to cement the 4-2 victory.
With the first game of 2018 under their belt, the Huskies will look to focus on some key things for the second half of the season.
“For us, the big thing in the second half [of the season] will be consistency,” Flint said. “I say it all the time: We can play with anybody, but we can also lose to anybody. That’s something our players really need to understand and realize.”
In a similar manner, Brand noted the importance of making small adjustments as the team goes along.
“Keeping things simple is a big thing for us,” she said. “We know we have some things to clean up in our game before we face even stronger teams like Boston College coming up on Friday.”
The Huskies and the Boston College Eagles will face off on Friday at 2 p.m. in Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill. The following day the teams will play again at 12 p.m. in Matthews Arena. The Eagles currently hold a 1-0 season series lead after their 7-3 win over the Huskies on Nov. 28.
