No team has played the No. 3 Northeastern women’s hockey team quite as tight as the UNH Wildcats have this season, a surprising fact as the Wildcats are unranked nationally and sit near the basement of the Hockey East standings. Regardless of the extra effort needed by NU tonight, the Huskies were still able to come out on top in a very physical contest by a closer than it looks margin of 4-1. 

“We had to grind it out, they made us really work for it. That’s good sometimes. We’re not always gonna have lopsided victories, and I liked our compete level and how we had to fight and grind it out,” said head coach Dave Flint.

While today’s game was a Valentine’s Day special, there was absolutely no love between the two squads. The teams combined for 12 penalties and 24 minutes in the box, with sophomore defender Megan Carter following her two goal contest from yesterday with one of great physicality, drawing and committing multiple penalties in the contest and acting as the team’s enforcer to counter UNH’s (6-13-1, 6-13-1 HEA) sizable freshman wing Chavonne Truter. In the end, UNH’s physical brand of defense was effective, but not perfect, with senior defender Skylar Fontaine getting the Huskies (15-1-1, 15-1-1 HEA) a second period lead which NU piled onto late in the third to push an otherwise close game out of reach in the waning moments. 

“It was probably the most physical game I’ve seen in awhile, and that’s what they got to do to try to slow us down,” Flint said. “I liked our team composure during all that. They played hard, and they’re gonna be a little bit sore tomorrow, but they found a way to win the game.”

Both netminders performed admirably today, with UNH redshirt junior netminder Ava Boutilier keeping her team in the game at points and NU senior netminder Aerin Frankel holding off UNH when they got their forecheck going. Frankel had 20 saves on 21 shots, while the opposing Boutilier worked hard to keep her team in it with 38 saves on 42 shots, keeping NU limited until the final moments of the third. 

The Huskies were plagued with a bit of a slow start, as UNH limited NU to only seven shots in the first. NU matched their defensive intensity, as Frankel only had to make six saves in the first 20 minutes, but UNH’s forecheck stole the show early on. They did an excellent job stacking skaters at NU’s blue line and kept them pinned in their own end for minutes at a time, but Frankel’s play in the crease and UNH’s lack of willingness to shoot the puck allowed the Huskies to escape the first period unscathed. 

NU took control in the second period, coming hot out of the first intermission and upping the physicality of the contest a bit. NU was finally able to get on the board as well, and through strong special teams play, they outshot UNH 22-12 in the second and broke the forecheck dam. 

“We were trying to make big plays and stretch passes, and we were feeding into what they were doing. I just told him to simplify everything, and I also told the [defensemen] to move their feet a little bit more, instead of trying to force long passes,” said Flint on what changed between the first and second periods. “I think once we did that, we started to get going a little bit, and I thought our second and third period were definitely better than our first.”

Fontaine rewarded their efforts on the power play just under five minutes into the middle period, cashing in a backdoor chance set up by junior center Alina Mueller. Mueller worked toward Boutilier’s right-side post, drawing the eyes of the UNH goaltender and just about everyone in the rink, but right when onlookers assumed she would shoot, she instead passed it across the crease to Fontaine. Fontaine sent the puck in immediately upon receiving it, as even the best possible reaction from Boutilier couldn’t stop her. The goal was Fontaine’s ninth of the season and the assist was Mueller’s 21st. 

The third period was more of the same, as both teams remained physical. Fortunately for NU,  senior forward Tessa Ward was able to give her team some insurance by stealing the puck in the neutral zone and blazing past UNH’s Annie Berry for a backhand unassisted short-side goal with ten minutes to go. 

“When you’re out-playing your opponent … and their goalie keeps coming up big or their [defensemen] were getting a stick on the puck, now everybody starts gripping their sticks a little bit tighter,” Flint said. “They start pressing a little bit, and when Tessa came up with that big goal, I think everybody was like, ‘Okay, here we go.’ It loosened things up for us a little bit, we weren’t playing as tight and we just went at them and then popped in two more.” 

After the goal from one of NU’s most physical forwards, the finesse players grabbed one seconds later. Mueller earned her second assist of the game by putting a shot off Boutilier from close up, allowing her junior linemate Chloé Aurard to punch it in before Boutilier could seal the ice with her pads. The goal was Aurard’s 12th of the season, which is the most in Hockey East to go along with Mueller’s 22nd assist, also the top in Hockey East. To add insult to injury, junior wing Micaela Sindoris piled on two minutes later with a hard shot from the left wing that Boutilier couldn’t quite grab with her glove, pushing the score to 4-0. 

UNH continued to work hard and played an edge even down in the game, and with under four minutes to go, UNH freshman winger Avery Myers was able to sneak one under Frankel’s pads. Myers’ goal was her fourth of the season. 

“They got us hemmed in, and they got the puck down low behind the net, and I think our defensemen got beat off the wall,” Flint said. “They made a nice pass and it was a nice goal, I think that line was exhausted. They got stuck out there and couldn’t get the puck out. It was just a nice hard work goal by UNH.”

The game also represented senior night for senior forward Veronika Pettey, who was honored by videos from recent graduates Paige Capistran, Matti Hartman and Codie Cross, as well as her parents. In the final minute of the game, with NU on the power play, her teammates made every effort to get her a goal. When Pettey’s shot went just over the net, the bench erupted in cheer for her shot. 

“Before they even went out there [for the power play], they all had in their minds ‘Let’s get her a goal.’ That’s how much she means to the program, how much her teammates love her,” Flint said. “She’s done so much for this program, and I’m really fortunate to have coached her. I told her today ‘Thanks for everything.’ This win today was for her, but we still got a lot more to accomplish.”

NU’s home-and-home sweep of UNH gives them a bit more cushion atop the Hockey East standings, with the Boston College Eagles trailing them with a 13-3-0 record. Hockey East will announce NU’s next games Tuesday.