By Jared Sugerman

Last season, Wayne State’s Melissa Boal, Sam Poyton and Lindsay DiPietro formed the highest-scoring line in women’s college hockey and led the Warriors to a season-ending No. 10 ranking. This weekend, they proved they are still good enough to make even the stingiest of defenses look vulnerable.

The Warriors handed the No. 10 Northeastern women’s hockey team its first back-to-back defeats all season, winning 4-3 Friday and 3-2 Saturday. Prior to this weekend, the 2007-08 Huskies (6-3-2) had not allowed more than one goal in consecutive games.

Northeastern traveled to Michigan to face a Wayne State team that is now 7-2-1, and did so without senior blue-liner Brenna Frost. She suffered an ACL injury in practice this week, and head coach Dave Flint said that if she plays again, it will not be until after winter break.

With only 14 players on the active roster, the Huskies struggled to keep up with the Warriors Friday night.

“I think we looked a little tired in the end. It was a back and forth game and I think that might have caught up to us too a little bit in the end,” said Flint, who also noted the difficulty in playing against a “big, physical” team like Wayne State.

Poyton took advantage of Northeastern’s defensive lapses, beating sophomore goalie Leah Sulyma four times to score her eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh goals of the season. Sulyma allowed four goals on 21 shots after surrendering five goals in her last start against Boston College.

Flint took exception to Poyton’s third goal, which tied the game, 46 seconds into the third period.

“The girl just rammed everything into the net. The net popped off. I thought it was off well before the puck crossed the line, but the ref said it wasn’t, so that kind of changed the momentum back in their favor,” Flint said.

That play came after the Huskies had taken a 3-2 lead by out-scoring the Warriors, 2-1, in the second period.

Northeastern held a one-goal lead during the second period of Saturday’s game as well, but Boal tied it by beating freshman Florence Schelling at 3:09 of the middle frame. That power-play tally came after Northeastern sophomore Kristi Kehoe scored twice to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead in the first period, her ninth and 10th goals of the season. Earlier in the first, DiPietro had scored a goal to give Wayne State a 1-0 lead.

Saturday’s loss was the first of the season for Schelling, whose record now stands at 4-1-1.