By Kimberly Peterson

There is no guarantee in hockey that more shots equate to more goals for a team. The Huskies (1-2-0) were conveniently reminded of this last Sunday as they walloped the University of Vermont (1-3-0) in a 3-0 shutout at Matthews Arena.

Northeastern pummeled the Catamounts with 45 shots on goal as Vermont’s Tiffany Hayes put on a show for the Northeastern faithful. She stopped rebounds, slapshots and wrap-around bids as NU looked for any possible way to beat her.

“I think we have a very young team and with that much pressure they expected to score more goals,” said coach Joy Woog. “I have told them before that goals aren’t easy to come by in this league.”

The Huskies were still able to bring a rather territorial game to the rink in the first period, controlling play in UVM’s zone and registering 15 shots in the first period. NU seemed to be doing everything but scoring.

Northeastern was finally able to get on the board, courtesy of a quick play by the newly formed duo of senior Brooke White and Pamela Pachal. Jumping into the offense was freshman defender Lindsay Snider. Snider picked the pocket of a UVM defender and sent the puck up ice to the stick of White. White let go a quick slapshot, and Pachal was able to get enough of her stick on the puck to deflect it past Hayes at 12:35 mark of the second period.

“You get so many goals from crashing, screening, deflecting, that is where you get the majority of your goals,” Pachal said.

Pachal, usually a defender for NU, was moved up to the center position on a line with White and sophomore Lori DiGiacomo.

“It was a move we had pretty much figured on at the beginning of the season, even last season we figured we would move Pachal up,” Woog said. “She is a very smart player, who is crafty and she uses her body well. She moves the puck well and she sees the ice extremely well.”

This weekend the trio proved to be a affective line for this team.

“It’s fun playing on a line with them. There both very fast,” Pachal said. “They are like a bunch of little hound dogs and they go like rabid dogs after that puck.”

Junior goaltender Chanda Gunn was not overly tested in the match-up, facing a total of 12 shots. When needed, she was there to deny Vermont any type of room in the game.

Northeastern did not score again until 16:10 of the third. Freshman Theresa Ella received a pass from fellow freshman Cyndy Kenyon at the blue-line and buried the puck for a 2-0 lead.

NU was able to put the game away on an empty netter by senior Michelle Lorion, as Vermont pulled Hayes to the bench. Lorion intercepted the puck and swiftly shot it on net with just 18 seconds remaining.

“Were stepping forward, last weekend we had a hard time getting shots, this weekend we had a lot more shots and maybe they didn’t all hit the net, but we still got a lot more shots. We now have to work on getting more shots that go in and on the net,” Lorion said.

The Huskies next real task will against seventh-ranked St. Lawrence on Sunday.

“It’s just a new experience for so many kids. It’s a lot of going over and hammering things into their heads, repeating over and over again what we need to do and how we need to work, the level we need to be at, how hard they need to skate, how well their passing needs to connect, all those things,” Woog said.