When it comes to goaltending this season, the men’s and women’s hockey programs have each found itself with a plethora of riches – at least if weekly and monthly awards are to be used as an indication.

Just this week, junior Brad Thiessen of the men’s hockey tea won both the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Month awards, while freshman Florence Schelling was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Month for the women.

Those kind of accolades might seem impressive, though for the recipients they may feel a little repetitive at this point. Thiessen was already named the conference’s player of the week once, and Schelling was a rookie of the week and defensive player of the week already this season. That doesn’t even account for sophomore Leah Sulyma, the other half to the women’s goalie tandem, who also won Defensive Player of the Week once this season.

“I noticed how well [the women’s hockey team] has been playing and I noticed how good the goalies were playing,” Thiessen said. “It’s great for all the goalies here to be doing well.”

The list of statistics that mark a point in the favor of the Northeastern goaltenders is exhaustive at this point. Thiessen, who has played every minute in net for NU, has more saves than any other goalie in the conference by at least 80. His .951 save percentage is .04 percentage points behind Maine’s Scott Darling for tops in the conference, though Thiessen has played more than 300 more minutes than Darling. Schelling and Sulyma are first and third in the conference in goals against average, and first and third again in save percentage.

No matter who protects the net for a Northeastern hockey team, he or she will be tough to get past.

“I think it’s great that we all get recognized,” Sulyma said. “We couldn’t get these without our team, but it’s nice.”

The goaltending situation portends well for the Huskies. Last year the Hockey East conference regular season goals against average leader played for the eventual tournament champions, and that’s been the case for the women two years running. If the women’s goalies can continue to get better, something Sulyma said she thinks is possible, things could look even better for the hockey programs at Northeastern come the end of the year.

“I think the competition will push us even harder and harder as the year moves on, and we’ll both just get better and better,” she said.

Sulyma added that specialized goalie practices she and Schelling have been working at weekly have helped to improve their games.

“In practice we have a goalie load every Wednesday,” she said. “We work on specific things for goalies, and it helps.”

As for the men, the seasoned Thiessen went through last year’s rollercoaster and has the experience to be prepared and stay focused for the long haul this season.

“[The awards] are a nice honor, but it’s only October,” he said. “It’s always nice to be recognized, but we really just want to keep winning.”