By Caroline Ingram, news staff
The Northeastern women’s hockey team was looking to close out its regular season with a win over the Providence Friars, but came up short with a final score of 0-1 on Sunday night at Schneider Arena.
The Huskies came out strong, firing off 13 shots in the first period. They went up on their only power-play of the period a little over eight minutes into the first, generating four quality scoring chances on the man advantage.
Fourth-year forward McKenna Brand entered the offensive zone with possession, passing over to first-year defenseman Skylar Fontaine, who fired a shot on net. The shoulder-level shot was bobbled by Providence goaltender Madison Myers, and Brand followed the rebound and fired off another backhand shot. It was a flurry of offensive pressure in the crease with both third-year forward Tori Sullivan and fourth-year forward Denisa Krizova jamming away at the loose puck, but Myers was up to the task and turned away NU’s efforts, keeping the game scoreless.
“We got a ton of chances in the first period, and that was definitely something we were looking to do right out of the gate,” head coach Dave Flint said. “It would’ve been nice to have gotten a goal there [in the first], but I thought we set a positive tone in the first with the offensive pressure early.”
In the second period, NU had another great scoring chance when Brand was able to tip a shot by second-year defenseman Codie Cross from the point, but Myers deflected it.
The Friars got on the board at the midway point of the game. Forward Blair Parent picked up the puck along the neutral zone boards, carrying into the NU zone in a 2-on-1 with teammate Cassidy MacPherson. Fontaine reached for the puck as Parent slid it to MacPherson, who held on for a split second and faked out NU goalie Aerin Frankel on the shot. MacPherson found Parent crashing the net behind Frankel for the goal.
“Their goal was a tricky one for us,” Flint said. “Heads up play by MacPherson to see that she had her teammate at the far post. Defensively, we could have played that one better. Frankel played great for us and it was too bad that they got that one by her.”
With Providence still holding the 1-0 edge in the third period, the Huskies went on the man advantage for the fifth time in the game. The Huskies were able to fire off seven shots on the power-play, including a great chance for first-year forward Veronika Pettey. Pettey collected the puck from third-year forward Kasidy Anderson and blasted a one-time shot which was stopped by an outstretched Myers sliding cross-crease to make the save.
The Huskies kept up the high-intensity offensive pressure throughout the rest of the game, but Myers was able to turn away all 35 shots she faced to earn her third shutout of the season. Frankel took the loss for NU despite saving 19 of 20 shots faced.
“It’s a very tough loss for sure. We’ve struggled all season in capitalizing on our opportunities, and it was no different here tonight.” Flint said. “We had plenty of chances, but the puck just didn’t seem to bounce our way.”
The Huskies wrapped up their regular season with a 15-16-3 record (11-11-2 in Hockey East). They will prepare for the Hockey East quarterfinals against the University of New Hampshire this weekend, beginning Friday at Matthews Arena with a 2 p.m. puck drop.
