Northeastern women’s hockey (24-6-1,19-1-1 HE) took on the Boston University Terriers (9-18-3, 7-12-2 HE) for the first time since the Huskies’ overtime loss in the Beanpot tournament Jan. 13. The Huskies pulled away with a 5-2 victory.
The Terriers put up a fight, making 22 shots on goal to the Huskies’ 31, but despite several injuries, the Huskies were the better team. The team has already clinched the regular season championship and will head into the Hockey East quarterfinals Feb. 28 as the top seed.
Junior forward Allie Lalonde opened up scoring, taking the puck past the neutral zone before firing off a shot to the top of BU junior goaltender Mari Pietersen’s net. It was her ninth goal of the season and her third consecutive game with a goal.
Freshman goaltender Renna Trembecky was in net for the Huskies, where she collected 20 saves.
With less than 30 seconds remaining in the first period, junior defender Rylie Jones passed to freshman defender Ella Lloyd in the slot, who found senior forward Mia Langlois at the net. Langlois scored her second goal of the season and sixth of her career off her own rebound.
Less than three minutes into the second period, BU’s senior forward Clara Yuhn went on the breakaway for BU’s first goal of the game. Play was back and forth as BU attempted to even the score, but the Huskies led shots on goal 11 to 10.
With four minutes left in the second period, freshman forward Emy McDermid passed to senior forward Lily Brazis in the slot, who caught the puck with her skate before shooting to Pietersen’s top right and making the score 3-1.
With 10 minutes to go in the second period, sophomore forward Éloïse Caron went down, clearly in pain, before being walked off the ice. There was no update on Caron’s injury postgame, but she was on crutches.
Junior forward Peyton Compton and graduate student forward Jaden Bogden were also out, leaving the lineup a skater down. Associate head coach Nick Carpenito said that “most of our injuries are week to week right now.”
Three minutes later, Lalonde passed to the slot from behind the net, and freshman forward Stryker Zablocki narrowly missed a shot from the lower slot. Senior defender Jules Constantinople picked it up from Lalonde and shot from the high slot for her sixth goal of the season.
A goal from junior forward Anežka Čabelová went under review with six minutes remaining but was ultimately allowed, bringing the scoreboard to 4-2.
BU played with an empty net and extra skater for the last two minutes but couldn’t get through in time. Zablocki scored the final goal on the empty net with a second to go, finishing the game 5-2.
Lalonde, who was 16-6 on the faceoff, said that assistant coach Melissa Piacentini, who is at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics as a video coach, sent the team a video of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Charlie Coyle working on faceoffs.
“I kind of just tried to take some advice from him and just implement it into my own game, and I think it’s been working,” Lalonde said.
Carpenito confirmed Lalonde was the best option for faceoffs right now. “We’ll continue to roll with that,” he said.
Lalonde put up three points in the game against BU and has scored in the last three games, a development Carpenito said was partially due to her defensive style of play.
Overall, the Huskies won 63.2% of faceoffs, a sharp improvement from their last game against BU, where they won just 22.9%.
“Today, I think we’re doing a good job putting at least the full 60 minute effort together. We’ve just got to try and put the full 60 minute execution together,” Carpenito said.
In the final countdown to the playoffs, the team will look to add additional conference points and, with three key forwards out of the line-up, stay healthy.
“Our medical staff is incredible. We’re going to have our meeting on Monday. Figure out kind of where everyone’s at,” Carpenito said.
The Huskies will take on the Boston College Eagles (13-17-1, 11-9-1 HE) Feb. 15 at 3:30 p.m. at Bentley Arena, their final “home” regular season game and their first in Bentley.
