Your Northeastern Huskies welcomed in Holy Cross to historic Matthews Arena tonight for the first half of a home and home vs. The Crusaders. With a tough outing against PC on Tuesday, the Huskies were looking to get back on track against the Hockey East cellar dwellers. At the final horn NU got it done, but this wasn’t the game they were hoping for going in.
The Huskies shuffled up the bottom 3 lines tonight and rolled out a different look on PP2 but the results were mixed. Looking choppy for the first half of the game, the Huskies had some tough sledding trying to work the puck out of their own end and were guilty of the dreaded “over-passing” a few too many times on offense. Let’s get a little selfish in the O-zone ladies and put some pucks on net.
The Huskies opened the first period with 4mins on the power play in the first 6 minutes of game play. Not only were they held off the score sheet (mostly due to the play of Holy Cross netminder Madison Beck), but with the PP units getting all the ice time, the other players were getting cold on the bench. Tough to get into a rhythm when you’re watching, and that certainly wasn’t helping with the game flow.
The teams entered into the second intermission knotted at gooses, as this was surprisingly the 5th straight period that NU had been kept off the scoreboard. Finally The Premier Power Forward in Women’s Hockey Today broke the ice. Early in the 3rd, Chloe Aurard kept the puck in the HC zone and found Maude Poulin-Labelle walking down from the LW point. Aurard hit Poulin-Labelle with a perfect cross-ice seam pass and MPL put the puck on net. Per usual, Katy Knoll was in the perfect spot for the re-direct and she tucked it over the blocker of Beck.
That score held until The Shortie Queen (I didn’t give her the nickname, but I’ll allow it) tucked one past Beck after a phantom call on Alina Mueller. Aurard swiped the puck in her own end and dog-walked 2 Crusader defenders in the neutral zone before driving the net. With a quick inside/outside backhand/forehand, Aurard stashed it past Beck on the blocker side. Head up all the way, out-waiting the goalie while protecting the puck from the back-checker. Just a great play by a great player.
Originally tweeted by Northeastern Women’s Hockey (@GoNUwhockey) on November 19, 2022.
The Huskies played the end of the game shorthanded as Holly Abela was called for a major (I watched it live and didn’t see anything worthy of a major. And then I watched the reviews and still didn’t see anything worthy of a major), guess the refs saw something I must have missed. On the ensuing PP, Holy Cross got one past Gwyneth Phillips that I don’t think she ever saw through a forest of players. After that the Huskies locked it down to secure the W.
Game Notes:
- Tonight HC Dave Flint got his 300th career victory. Congrats Coach, quite the accomplishment. Here’s to another 300!
- Katy Knoll is now tied for the lead in the nation in goals with 13
- Chloe Aurard now has 12 career short-handed goals. To put that in perspective, in my entire career of beer league, I don’t think I have 12 goals (and that includes warmies).
- Please vote for Alina Mueller for MVP at the Sports Awards. The link is below.
- Kate Holmes played in her career 100th game for NU
- Quite the gap between these 2 teams in the Hockey East standings. Northeastern is the top dog with 35pts in 14GP. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Holy Cross with 3pts in 11GP. Guess which team is playing at Fenway during the Winter Classic festivities this year? I’ll give you a hint; it’s not the one that should be playing.
The Huskies are back at it again tomorrow when they travel to Holy Cross for a 7:30PM puck drop. Let’s see if the Huskies can hit the goal that Coach Carp gave them prior to tonight’s game. #HowlinHuskies
Lastly, if you’re looking for any holiday ideas for the hockey player/fan in your life, we got you. The Morning Skate has reached out to a number of hockey gear/lifestyle companies to secure some promo codes to help save some $ for the holidays. You can view the blog here
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