The No.15 Northeastern women’s hockey team (12-6-1, 10-4-1 HE) started the new year with the perfect weekend, facing off against the Merrimack College Warriors (6-14-1, 3-10-1 HE) and the Holy Cross Crusaders (7-11-1, 3-9-1 HE) in a home rink double header Jan. 3 and 4. The team has been in and out of national rankings all year, often carried by powerhouse freshman goaltender Lisa Jönsson, who holds the nation’s highest save percentage and goals against average after 10 starts, but it needed to step up offensively to show that it could hold its own toward the end of the season — and the seven point weekend did exactly that.
The Huskies had won every first game of the year for 10 seasons straight before they hit the ice Jan. 3, so the 2024-25 roster was only following tradition when it notched a 3-1 win over the Warriors Jan. 4.
Northeastern came out strong in the first period against the Warriors, the team shooting off 19 shots and dominating puck time. Despite this, a month-long break in games slowed the teams down initially, and the period’s shots became easy saves as both the Huskies and Warriors found their footing.
Notably, sophomore forward Allie Lalonde was back on the ice in her first game of the season. Assistant coach Nick Carpenito said he hopes Lalonde, who notched 11 points her freshman year, will serve as a vehicle for necessary secondary shooting going into the new year.
Lalonde is “going to be huge for us. She’s assessing the puck really well,” Carpenito said. “One thing that I thought was really positive is that she wasn’t shying away from physicality, which sometimes if you have a pretty long way up, that’s something you kind of lead yourself into a little bit.”
Properly warmed up going into the second period, both team’s shots were cleaner and netminders were finally put to the test. The period sped by, skaters racing to be the first to the net, but the scoreboard remained untouched. With 30 seconds to go, and another scoreless period knocking on the door, it was the Huskies who refused to turn in another empty hand after 24 attempted shots in two periods.
Senior forward Taze Thompson shot the puck into the crease from the left toward sophomore forward Ella Blackmore and junior forward Lily Brazis, who struggled with junior goaltender Calli Hogarth and two Merrimack skaters before Brazis found the space she needed and slid the puck past the stretched out pile of players for a 1-0 score.
“I saw Taze … we see each other well in the eyes. Just threw it to her, she saw me back and I guess you just never stop being at the puck to get it into the net,” Brazis said after the game.
With a goaltender like Jönsson, the team’s one-point lead felt like a win, but back on the ice for the third period Merrimack wasted no time wiping that illusion away. Two minutes into the period, junior forward Sophie McKinley swiped the puck to freshman defender Maggie Kime — a meter from the crease — as she whipped around the net. Kime gave it back to McKinley just as she came up behind the net to Jönsson’s right, knocking the puck in.
“I think we definitely have a little bit more rust we have to shake off, but we got progressively better as the game went on,” Carpenito said post-game Jan. 3.
Eight minutes into the third period, freshman forward Éloïse Caron was tripped by senior defender Hayley Chang, the first and only penalty call of the game. As the two minute power play ticked by, a puck in the net almost felt inevitable. Sure enough, junior defender Jules Constantinople sent the puck toward a ready and waiting senior forward Skylar Irving at the last second. Irving was the only Hockey East skater to play with the U.S. Collegiate Women’s Select Team at the Six Nations Tournament from Dec. 11 to 15 — and she played like it, skating down the ice from the right. She let the puck sail into the upper lefthand corner of the net, bringing the game to 2-1 with 10 minutes remaining.
As the final period edged on, the minutes felt longer. The Warriors were holding enough possession for nervous energy to fill the arena. The team launched nine shots in the second half of the third period, so it was Jönsson in the net that tightened the Husky win.
“[Jönsson] makes the save she’s supposed to make every time — that’s her super power. She makes saves that she shouldn’t make sometimes too, which makes her as good as she is,” Carpenito said.
The game ended at 3-1 after graduate student forward Jaden Bogden came in for an empty net goal after Merrimack pulled their goalie with 30 seconds to go, her fourth empty-netter of the season.
“Empty net queen. She’s just got size and speed and she’s got the ability to find open space in situations like that. We put her out there every time,” Carpenito said of Bogden.
When Holy Cross took the ice the following night, Northeastern looked like a different team. The game was double the speed of Jan. 3’s matchup — no warm-up period necessary. The Crusaders aren’t a cross-town rival, but going into the first period the teams played like they were, the two initially going toe to toe in physicality. After the teams exchanged 10 shots in the first four minutes, the period climaxed in a goal by Northeastern’s freshman forward Morgan Jackson, her second of the season. She sailed down the right side of the ice over junior goaltender Abby Hornung’s helmet, cementing herself as a player to watch as the score increased to one for the Huskies.
“[Jackson’s] starting to play with confidence and that’s what we need out of her,” head coach Dave Flint said post-game Jan. 4. “She’s a highly skilled player. She’s really good. I think it took her a little bit early in the season to get used to the college game.”
The game quickly fell out of Holy Cross’s favor, with the Huskies launching 37 shots in the period, compared to only nine from the Crusaders. Junior goaltender Abby Hornung was the team’s saving grace, putting on a show to keep up with the Husky offense and making an impressive 21 saves in the first period.
The initial energy dissipated slightly going into the second period, but shots were sharper as Northeastern sought the perfect opportunity to widen the difference. Jackson launched a pass from behind the net to freshman defender Tuva Kandell in the left face-off circle, who delivered a sharp shot to the top center, making the score 2-0 with two minutes left in the period.
The crowd had just calmed when Thompson decided she wanted in 40 seconds later. Blackmore passed to the crease, where Crusaders had their eyes on Brazis, who slid Thompson the puck. With a wide open goal, the captain nailed the finish for a 3-0 scoreboard.
The Husky offense was overwhelming their opponent, notching 91 shots by the end of the game, close to doubling the Crusader’s 56. Jönsson earned her fifth shutout after 10 starts, but the milestone was a smaller feat than most as the freshman only collected 10 saves compared to her game average of 24.4.
Thirty seconds into the third period, junior forward Lily Shannon swung in with the fourth goal of the game from the crease off of a smooth assist from graduate student forward Jaden Bogden. Hornung was more than pulling her weight with an outstanding 41 saves throughout the night, but the Crusaders couldn’t cut her a break. What had been a relatively back-and-forth game shifted overwhelmingly to the Northeastern offensive zone in the final period.
Two penalties called against junior forward Holly Abela and Thompson gave the Crusaders one last shot in the final minute of the game, but despite a 3-to-5 skater game, the team still failed to gain the upperhand, spending the last seconds circling their defensive zone. The move was also a testament to Northeastern’s penalty kill unit as the team currently holds the highest penalty kill percentage in the country at .926.
Earlier in the season, head coach Flint had made note of flakey efforts and slow starts, but post-game Jan. 4, the coach had nothing but praise for his team.
“I thought it was probably our most complete game all year long. It’s just working hard from the first drive of the puck to the last buzzer,” Flint said. “We’ve been preaching it all year long and we’re finally doing it. We had a practice last week where I don’t know what clicked, but we were just all over the front of the net and jumping on rebounds and I said, ‘Guys, that’s how we need to play. That’s how we are going to be successful. That’s how we’re going to score goals.’ And they did a really good job with that this weekend.”
Next up, the Huskies will face off against the Yale University Bulldogs (9-6-2, 5-6-1 Ivy League) Jan. 7 in Matthews Arena, the last game before the Beanpot semifinal Jan. 14.
