By Jared Sugerman
It’s a good time to be a Northeastern hockey fan.
After defeating Providence, 1-0, and No. 10 Connecticut, 3-0, the women’s hockey team is in sole possession of first place in Hockey East. The Huskies are 2-0-0 in conference play and 4-0-2 overall.
“I told the girls after the win today, ‘You know what, everyone’s going to take us seriously now. We’re not going to sneak up on anybody. We’re going to get everybody’s A game when they come to play us,'” said head coach Dave Flint of the team’s win in Storrs , Conn. Sunday.
Northeastern started its homecoming weekend with a win against Providence in the home opener. By winning what was also their first conference game of the season, the Huskies started off 1-0-0 in Hockey East play for the first time since 2005-06.
Senior forward Ali Bielawski scored the only goal of the game Saturday, cashing in on an assist from freshman defenseman Stephanie Gavronsky. With the puck in the defensive zone, Gavronsky sent a saucer pass toward the opposing blue line, where Bielawski waited after slipping behind the Friars defense.
After hitting the post on a partial breakaway in the first period, Bielawski made no mistake with her second opportunity, deking to her forehand side and beating Providence netminder Danielle Ciarletta at 4:11 of the third period.
Northeastern freshman goalie Florence Schelling earned her second collegiate shutout, making a total of 31 saves, including 12 in the third period.
“We’ve been giving up a lot of shots, but they’ve been a lot of perimeter shots and there haven’t been a lot of second and third looks at the net which are usually when goals are scored,” Flint said Saturday.
On Sunday, sophomore goalie Leah Sulyma leaped over the bar set Saturday by Schelling, turning aside 34 shots to blank UConn. The Huskies were out-shot 31-20 Saturday and 34-16 Sunday.
“Leah was awesome in net. She was just as awesome as Florence was [Saturday],” Flint said. “If it wasn’t for those two, I think it would be tough to say that we’d be 4-0-2 right now.”
The same could be said about sophomore forward Kristi Kehoe, who scored her sixth goal of the season 47 seconds into the first period of Sunday’s game, a power-play tally that served as the game-winner.
Sophomore defenseman Julia Marty notched her sixth assist on Kehoe’s goal and registered her seventh helper by setting up junior defenseman Katy Applin’s power play goal in the second period. The Huskies went 2-for-6 with the power play Sunday after going 0-for-6 Saturday.
The Huskies have outscored their opponents 15-4 this season, despite being out-shot 193-152.
“I told our team from day one we’re going to battle every game and we’re going to be in every game because we have good goaltending, we have good defense, and we need some timely scoring. And that’s how we’re going to win games,” Flint said after Saturday’s victory.
On Sunday evening, he said the early success has bred confidence amongst his players.
Northeastern will host Quinnipiac Saturday, with the puck set to drop at 2 p.m. Conference play will resume Nov. 1, when No. 8 Boston College visits Matthews Arena.
