With major changes to the Northeastern women’s hockey roster this season — including the graduation of Megan Carter and Katy Knoll, who helped power the Huskies’ defense and offense — the group must acclimate quickly as the season kicks into gear. It isn’t the first time the Huskies have leaned on new starpower due to roster turnover, and one athlete in particular knows how to handle the pressure. Senior forward Skylar Irving, 2024 Beanpot MVP and Hockey East Third Team All Star, heads into her last season as a Husky, hopefully saving her best performance for last.  

Off to a hot start already, Irving earned Hockey East Player of the Week after a four-point performance against Quinnipiac University Oct. 4 — including the game-winner.

Irving was skating before she could walk, and her family’s love for hockey began even earlier. Both her dad and brother played the sport, and her house was filled with hockey equipment and memorabilia from an early age. She credits her dad for always being her biggest inspiration and supporter; he put Irving in skates at just 14 months old, and she was learning hockey by the time she was three years old.

“I can remember I could skate better than I could walk,” Irving said. 

Growing up in Kingston, Mass., only 40 minutes south of Boston, Irving was engulfed in the excitement surrounding both the men’s and women’s Beanpot tournaments far before she was a college student. Pairing the energy of that tournament with the proximity to home and the rich history of Matthews Arena, Irving knew exactly what college she wanted to attend.

“Once I toured here, there was no doubt about it that I wanted to play for Northeastern,” she said.

Nick Carpenito, Northeastern women’s hockey’s associate head coach, has followed Irving since her freshman year in high school, and said he was immediately stunned by her physical talent. 

“This was a player that was just head over heels physically better than everybody on the ice,” he said. “She had great speed. She had great skill. She had a good size for that age. She was just someone that aggressively stood out.”

Carpenito had high hopes for Irving from the get-go. He recalls Irving’s high school coach, Jean-Yves Roy, telling him, “You check out this Irving kid. She’s going to be the absolute real deal.”

When Irving is on the ice, she makes it known. In her first year with the Huskies, Irving outperformed all freshman Huskies, tallying 15 points for the season. She appeared in 38 games, and potted a goal at the Frozen Four against Minnesota Duluth in February of 2022. And she just kept getting better.

Graduate defender Lily Yovetich, who has been playing with Irving since Yovetich’s sophomore year, echoed this sentiment. 

“She has so much tenacity, and her feet, I feel like they are always moving. That’s something that really sets her apart from all the other girls out there on the ice,” Yovetich said. “She’s just such a power forward and always calling for the puck.” 

Last season, Irving earned a career-high 13 goals, four of them being game-winners, making her an indispensable player for Northeastern.

Her most notable tally was a game-winning goal in overtime at the 2024 Beanpot Championship game.. 

“When you shoot, you think it’s going in, all the time. So especially in tight moments, I know that [the] puck is going to hit the back of the net,” Irving said. 

The 2024 Women’s Beanpot was the first time the women’s championship game was held at TD Garden instead of rotating between the four competing teams’ rinks, while the men’s teams have been playing there since 1953. Not only were the Huskies able to bring home the championship trophy, but Skylar Irving was awarded the Beanpot MVP title. 

“To be able to play at the Garden was incredible,” she said. “Seeing the guys do it my whole life and to finally have that opportunity was super special to me.”

Following the team’s bean-filled success, they flew through the Hockey East quarterfinal and semifinal, winning both games 4-1, against Merrimack and New Hampshire, respectively. The team fell short in the final against UConn in overtime, 0-1. 

However, Northeastern’s start to the season has been less than ideal. The Huskies sit at 3-3, with their most recent game being a shutout loss at Boston University Oct. 12. Out of their three matchups this season, each first game was won by the Huskies by at least two points. In her best game against Quinnipiac, Irving scored one goal and tallied three assists for four points. The  second game in each series has resulted in  a loss, varying in score — at Penn State, the Huskies only lost by one, but the BU shutout saw a four-goal performance from the Terriers.

Despite this setback, the team is looking ahead and not dwelling on their previous games as they prepare to face Holy Cross Oct. 18 and 19. 

“We’re preparing as we always do, but just making sure in the back of their minds that they understand it’s two games,” Carpenito said. “We might need to shift our mentality a little bit going into the weekend, just making sure that we still have our legs and our attitude for game two. But all that while balancing, not looking past that first game.”

The team’s 3-3 record does not fully convey its camaraderie and chemistry on and off the ice. 

“I feel like this year, we’ve gelled really quickly,” Yovetich said. “I feel like there’s been a lot of chemistry that’s been built over the past couple of games, and it’s going to continue in a really positive direction.”

Irving reflected on how she wants to contribute to the team her senior season. 

“Just being able to help the younger kids in whatever ways I can. But also on the ice, being an impactful player all the time [and] setting the tone everyday is something I definitely want to bring,” she said. “As you get older, there are definitely more roles that you fulfill and more pressure that comes with it, and I look forward to having that pressure on my back.”

As Irving looks beyond Northeastern, there is a chance she may continue to play if she elects to enter the PWHL draft next summer. 

“That’s definitely an end goal that I want, but that’s the big picture goal. Right now, the goal is in front of me whenever I’m wearing the jersey with the Husky logo on it.”