By Kimberly Peterson
A 6-3 loss is no way to ring in the New Year, and the Northeastern women’s hockey team found this out the hard way as they let a 2-0 lead dissipate to Providence College.
The Huskies (5-9-2) brought one of the best first periods that they have had all season to the ice last Friday. They skated, they passed and they even scored. NU looked as if they had all the ingredients to pull a huge upset over the fifth-ranked Friars (10-4-3).
“We scored two goals and that hasn’t happened a lot for us this year. We scored a total of three goals and that hasn’t happened a lot for us this year either. I am excited by what the team showed,” said coach Joy Woog.
Senior Brooke White gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead at 8:39 of the first period as she dug up a loose puck from behind the net and shot in a beautiful angled shot that left Providence goalie Jana Bugden looking behind her. NU went ahead 2-0 at 13:24 when senior Michelle Lorion picked up a loose puck and scored after banging home her own rebound.
“We just wanted to come out and step it up, bring our game to another level, but the penalties in the game just killed us,” said White. “On five on five we dominated.”
It became clear after the first period that both of these teams wanted blood, especially after some controversial calls by the referee. Both teams were the victims of disallowed goals, but the real controversy came about over Northeastern’s score as the officials of the game claimed that the net was dislodged from the moorings before the puck went in.
“You can’t blame losing a game on the referees. Sometimes calls go your way, sometimes they don’t. Today, obviously they did not go our way, but you have to play the game through bad calls,” said NU junior goalie Chanda Gunn.
Providence would go ahead to score five goals, thoroughly outplaying the Huskies for the rest of the game.
The Huskies would not get on the board again until 9:22 of the third period, on yet another great effort by White. Providence lost sight of the puck and were caught with their defenders out of position, sophomore Lori DiGiacomo took full advantage of the breakdown and sent in White, who had no problem faking out Bugden and sliding it in right behind her.
With the loss, the Huskies have the new problem of pondering what went wrong with their penalty kill. Five of the Friars six goals came on NU’s top penalty killing unit as PC had Northeastern in knots on the man advantage. Gunn made 46 saves, as the Huskies were outshot by an embarrassing 52-15 margin.
“After the second period we talked about having to play consistently and play hard no matter what happens, because the other team may get some breaks, and they may take it to us for a while, but we have to weather the storm, we have to stay on an even keel. We can’t be cocky and high when were ahead and devastated when we are behind,” said Woog.
From here it does not get any easier for the Huskies, as this coming weekend they will play nationally-ranked New Hampshire at Durham. UNH has become one of the top teams in the nation, but in their last meeting the Wildcats walked away with just a 1-0 win.
The Huskies had just better hope that they can stay out of the box.
