By Jared Sugerman
Although they played what was perhaps their weakest game of the year, the women’s hockey team still managed to defeat Quinnipiac 3-1 Saturday and remain unbeaten this season.
“I’m not saying we took them lightly, but we didn’t come out to play the first, I would say, two periods. We finally played a little bit more in the third period, but I would say that’s probably our worst effort we’ve had this year,” said head coach Dave Flint.
Following Hockey East wins against Providence and Connecticut last weekend, the Huskies (5-0-2, 2-0-0 Hockey East) welcomed the Bobcats (1-6-0) to Matthews Arena for a non-conference match-up. The Huskies committed three first period penalties Saturday and Quinnipiac forward Brandice Moniz scored a power-play goal at 7:18 to give the Bobcats a 1-0 lead.
Quinnipiac took three penalties of its own in the second period. Though Northeastern was unable to capitalize on an abbreviated two-player advantage, the Huskies did not skate away empty-handed. Senior co-captain Colleen Sanborn let go of a slap shot from the top of the right circle, beating Bobcats goalie Nanna Holm-Glass at 5:53.
“So far it’s been a huge success for us. Both of our units are really producing on the power play,” Sanborn said.
In fact, it was Northeastern’s other power-play unit that produced the game-winning goal at 6:16 of the third period. With Quinnipiac’s Kallie Flor in the penalty box for body-checking, freshman defender Steph Gavronsky fired a slap shot from the left point that was deflected by junior forward Annie Hogan. The puck slipped past Holm-Glass, low to the stick side, and the Huskies went on top for good.
Northeastern earned an insurance goal when senior forward Ali Bielawski registered an empty-net goal with 14 seconds remaining in the third period.
After going 2-for-4 with the man-advantage Saturday, Northeastern has now converted on 11 of 41 power-play opportunities this season. The Huskies have scored a total of 18 goals, while allowing five in seven games.
“I hope I can keep saying this all year long, but we’re blessed with having two fantastic goalies,” said Flint.
Freshman Florence Schelling allowed her third goal in four starts Saturday, increasing her goals against average to 0.74. Her saves percentage dropped to .978 after Schelling stopped 24 out of 25 shots the Bobcats sent her way.
“Right now, we’re just alternating [goalies], and they know going into the weekend who’s going and they support each other,” Flint said.
If Northeastern continues to rotate net-minders, sophomore Leah Sulyma will start next Saturday, when No. 7 Boston College comes to Matthews Arena for a 2 p.m. face-off.