No. 3 women’s hockey sends winning streak to 10 games with 6-1 win over UNH

Jordan Baron

The Huskies notched six goals on the day in their thrashing of UNH.

George Barker, news staff
February 13, 2021

The Northeastern No. 3 women’s hockey team has only left two games this season without a win, with one back on Jan. 9 at UNH’s Whittemore Center Arena, where the Huskies tied the Wildcats. Today, they were able to avenge that tie and knock off the Wildcats 6-1 and continue their lengthy win streaks, which now sits at 10 games.

NU’s (14-1-1, 14-1-1 HEA) shutout streak of 425 minutes finally came to an end today, but the Huskies still were able to secure a commanding win. Outside of the first 10 minutes of the third period, NU really controlled the contest, with UNH (6-12-1, 6-12-1 HEA) unable to defend their home ice. Junior winger Chloé Aurard and sophomore blueliner Megan Carter each scored two goals, while junior center Alina Mueller earned a goal and an assist in the contest. Mueller and Aurard each lead Hockey East scoring categories now, as Mueller claims the assist crown and Aurard carries the goal crown. 

NU’s fearsome top five skaters woke up and chose goals again this afternoon, with their first tally coming just two minutes and 38 seconds into the game. Mueller was the scorer on this one, after receiving a beautiful centering pass from her right wing redshirt junior Maureen Murphy, who had to use the full length of her stick to protect the puck from a pressuring freshman UNH defender Charlie Kettyle. The goal was Mueller’s eighth of the season.

Aurard was next up for the Huskies to give them a 2-0 lead 12 minutes into the first stanza. After receiving a pass from Mueller, Aurard slowly glided toward the right post of UNH redshirt junior netminder Ava Boutilier, hesitating just long enough to shake UNH freshman winger Nicole Kelly’s attempted shot block attempt. Once Kelly was dispatched, Aurard sent a quick wrister top shelf past Boutilier for her team leading 10th goal of the season. Mueller’s pass earned her her 20th assist of the season, which is far and away the most in Hockey East as her closest conference competitors, two BC skaters and her teammate senior defender Skylar Fontaine, carry 12 assists each.

Carter continued her run of highlight goals, following up a monster slapshot from NU’s last game with a sneaky elevated power-play backhander six minutes into the second. Carter burst into UNH’s zone with the puck and came at Boutilier with velocity, looking like she was going to wrap around the net and set up a play for a different skater. Instead, she took the puck to her backhand just in front of the net and popped the puck up and in for her this goal of the season. 

“[Carter] has always had some offensive upside and it’s starting to click the last couple games. Today, her first goal was a highlight goal, it was really nice and then took advantage of the empty net at the end,” said head coach Dave Flint. “She can contribute offense from the back end, and it’s been good to see.”

Five minutes into the last period, a loose puck behind the NU cage made its way to a freshman Wildcat winger Nicole Kelly at Frankel’s right-side post. Her shot was stopped by Frankel, but the puck remained loose in the crease among a chorus of UNH and NU sticks. Finally, over 400 minutes since the team’s last mistake, an opponent managed to get one past Frankel and into the net. Freshman winger Chavonne Truter was able to elevate the loose puck past Frankel to push the game to 3-1 and secure her fourth goal of the season.

“To be honest, we came out flat in the third period, and they were coming at us hard. They didn’t think the game was over, and I think we kind of thought it was. They outworked us, they popped one in and then all of a sudden we realized, ‘Oh, we’ve got we’ve got a game here,’” Flint said. “We ramped it back up and did what we needed to do, but we can’t do that, especially down the stretch in when you’re playing against good teams.”

The Huskies got a bit of revenge though, with less than three minutes left to push the score to 6-1. UNH went to an empty net to try to get back in the game, and sophomore center Katy Knoll and Carter were the Huskies fortunate enough to add a goal to their season totals, which now sit at nine and four, respectively. NU even got an even strength goal as well. Aurard and Mueller teamed up as a net front presence on a point shot from junior defender Lauren MacInnis, and Aurard was able to tip the puck in for her 11th goal of the season, which leads Hockey East. 

“The only thing I keep talking to the team about is I don’t want them to get up, two, three or four goals and then and then let off the gas. They got to put teams away,” Flint said.

NU’s next game comes tomorrow at 5 p.m., when they will face off against UNH at home.