The No. 9 Northeastern women’s hockey (8-2, 5-0 HE) swept the University of Vermont Catamounts (4-6-2, 1-2-1 HE) to remain undefeated in home and conference play.
Despite their success, the games didn’t go exactly to plan for the Huskies. Leading scorer sophomore forward Éloïse Caron, junior forward Ella Blackmore and sophomore defender Tristan Thompson were knocked out of play after taking tough hits during the double header, and it’s unclear when they’ll be back on the ice. The team won 3-0 Nov. 7 and had to push harder to take home the 3-2 victory on Nov. 8.
“Hopefully, we just keep building momentum. Power play was good. I thought the fore check was good. Defensively, we’re pretty good,” said associate head coach Nick Carpenito Nov. 8. “A couple little lapses here, but it’s just something to continue to build off of.”
The Huskies made the board 12 minutes into Friday’s game. Senior defender Jules Constantinople passed from the left to freshman forward Stryker Zablocki, who skated into the lower slot and shot to the back of the net for her third goal of the season. The Huskies are fifth in the country in power play percentage at .278.
A minute later, graduate student forward Jaden Bogden drew a penalty for interference. Vermont only managed two shots before the Huskies killed it off. Northeastern has recently risen to second in the NCAA in penalty killing percentage at .958. By the end of the period, Northeastern had attempted 26 shots to the Catamounts’ 12.
“Everybody on our penalty kill takes really big time ownership in it and has a lot of pride in what they do, which I think makes a huge difference and kind of pushes that unit over the end,” said Carpenito.
Five minutes into the second period, Blackmore passed to senior forward Lily Brazis, who was perfectly positioned a meter from the crease. Brazis swiped it behind redshirt junior goaltender Ellie Simmons for a 2-0 game. At the end of the second period, Northeastern had attempted nearly 50 shots compared to the Catamounts’ 27, but had just 23 shots on goal to the Catamounts’ 17.
Caron was knocked into the boards five minutes into the third period. She went down on the ice for a few minutes, holding her knee up before being carried off. The play resulted in a two-minute penalty for boarding on senior forward Sofie Skott, and Caron did get on the ice for the rest of the weekend.
Sophomore forward Morgan Jackson took an empty-netter to finish off the first game of the weekend series at 3-0. Despite the definitive three-point victory, Caron’s uncertain condition loomed over the win.
The next day, Caron was on crutches in the stands and freshman forward Emy McDermid had filled in her spot in the second line. Junior forward Peyton Compton stepped up to the third line.
“We wanted to give her an opportunity, and everything we’ve thrown at [McDermid], she’s excelled at,” said Carpenito. “Peyton, too. She’s coming back and not playing for a full year, right? So we’re still kind of easing things in to her. We know what we’re going to get out of her, and she delivers that every day.”
Freshman defender Sophia DeAnzeris was called for boarding against Shannon four minutes in, giving the Huskies the first power play, where they got off eight shots before Shannon notched her fifth goal of the season. Freshman defender Alessia Baechler passed to Constantinople, who took a shot that bounced off freshman goaltender Zoe Cliche’s pads before Shannon got the rebound and sent it to the upper corner of the net for a 1-0 scoreboard.
Ten minutes later, sophomore forward Mya Lawrence took a shot from the top of the right face-off circle to the opposite corner of the net. It was her first goal of the season and lifted the spirits of the Vermont bench. Moments later, Constantinople was sent to the box for cross-checking. The Vermont power play left Northeastern a little too vulnerable, and the Catamounts launched six shots before the Huskies cleared the puck and took two close shots of their own.
Less than a minute into the second period, Vermont’s sophomore forward Oona Havana scored off a rocket from the faceoff circle. But Zablocki didn’t let the dust settle before finding the net in a one-on-one, leaving the game tied 2-2 four minutes into the second period.
DeAnzeris was called for bodychecking 10 minutes into the second, putting the Huskies on their second power play of the afternoon. A minute in, Constantinople let it rip from the top of the face-off circle for her fourth goal of the season. The defender’s goal tied her with forwards Zablocki and Bogden as the team’s third-leading scorers.
Thompson took a hit into the boards with three minutes left. After a few minutes, she skated off on her own but was out for the remainder of the game.
After Jackson took a penalty for hooking, Vermont circled sophomore goaltender Lisa Jönsson’s net, taking two shots and causing Jönsson to lose her stick for nearly a minute. The period finished off with a penalty on Vermont’s redshirt sophomore defender Josie Hemp. Northeastern took a few shots, but the game ended at 3-2.
“We’re just not going to think about it,” said Brazis on the pressure of staying undefeated in conference and at home. “Take each game, game by game, but we’re just going to keep climbing the mountain every day and take one game at a time, and hopefully we’ll keep going up from here.”
Northeastern will take on Merrimack College Warriors (2-8-1,0-4-0 HE) Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. for its fourth-to-last game at Matthews Arena.
Correction: This article was updated at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9 to correct that the Huskies play in the Hockey East conference. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated they played in the Coastal Athletic Association.
