Your Northeastern Huskies trudged west for the 2nd game of a home and home series with the Holy Cross Crusaders. With the bitter taste of last night’s OT loss still fresh, the Huskies were looking to get things back on track this afternoon at the Hart Center Rink in beautiful downtown Woo-Town. At the end of 60 the Huskies were on the right side of the ledger yet again, as they downed HC 4-2.
It was apparent from jump that the Huskies were not happy with their performance last night and were looking to make amends with The Hockey Gods. Hard on the forecheck, responsible on the backcheck and competing for every loose puck; the Huskies came to play today from the opening draw. In net it was a rematch of last night as Gwyneth Philips was in net for NU facing off against Madison Beck for HC.
The Huskies were dominant with puck possession and set up their cycle in the offensive zone early and often in the first period (a marked difference from last night). The Crusaders had a much harder go in the neutral zone tonight as the Huskies were conscientious in clogging the zone and to be perfectly honest, they were playing mad and that was a good thing.
Peyton “The Matrix” Anderson showed off her 200ft game late in the first as her hard backcheck denied a dangerous chance for HC in the high slot (much more on Anderson later). But the highlight of the first period was THE FIRST CAREER GOAL FROM MS. BEVERLY HILLS HERSELF LILY YOVETICH. With about 3 minutes left in the opening frame, Yovetich followed the play down in the zone and gathered the loose puck at the RW hashmarks and let one go that beat Beck over the blocker. Her celly was pure joy, and the way her teammates were so happy for Yovo showed just how close these players really are. I’m really hoping someone got the puck for you Lily!
It was great to see this and if you’ll indulge me for a moment… I called this one in my write-up about last night’s game. Again, not to make it about me, or to toot my own horn; but c’mon people that’s pretty freaking cool that I called it (also called Taze’s first of the year not a big deal).
Editor’s Note: Please do not give Brownie any credit, attaboys, or compliments about predicting Yovetich’s goal. If you know him, you know that he’s not lacking in self confidence and being correct like this will only make him more obnoxious. But our sincere congratulations to Yovetich.
Holy Cross got one back before time expired in the first when Alexis Perry beat Philips through a screen from the LW. The teams headed to intermission knotted at 1 and just like last night, being tied had to feel like a win for Holy Cross.
NU opened the 2nd with heavy pressure in the HC zone which led to the Huskies first power play of the afternoon. The PP didn’t look crisp and just after expiring, Anderson put the Huskies back up by a goal. Working out of Gretzky’s Office, The Matrix saw Beck lean to her right and quick as a cat (quick as a Husky?), Anderson wrapped in the go-ahead goal on the near side. Love how Anderson spun right around the defender in back of the cage before walking out in front. I don’t call her the Matrix for nothing, she bends time and space with her puck skills.
Lane Lewis got it back to even when her clapper from the left point beat Philips up high over the glove. It looked as if the shot surprised Philips who seemed to see it late through yet another screen in front of her net. The Crusaders were starting to unravel as the first of 2 players today to get ejected got tossed in the closing minutes of the period when she tried to ram Katy Knoll through the side boards. Silly rabbit, you can’t hurt the Premier Power Forward in Women’s Hockey Today with a boarding/hit from behind directly on her numbers, all you do is make her mad. The Huskies couldn’t cash in before time expired and the teams retired to their respective rooms with 4:24 remaining on the major.
In the final frame, the Huskies failed to cash in on the major and clearly everyone wanted some PP time as NU got whistled for too many players and the teams skated 4 aside for the last 1:44 of the original HC penalty. Anderson scored the GWG with a great individual effort as she drove the net down the LW fighting off multiple HC backchecks before beating Beck 5-hole from the bottom of the LW circle. If you look at the clip below she basically went 1:3 for this one.
With less than 2 minutes left in regulation, HC got whistled for another major, and another ejection when another NU player got hit directly in the numbers…. again. Stop me if you’ve heard this before? With their goalie pulled to make it 5 on 5, HC gave up the hatty to Anderson as she dotted one from the red line to put this one on ice. I see you Anderson, putting the empty netter off the far post to make it more skilled. Rumor has it she called “post” before letting the shot fly.
The Huskies have a pair with the (lesser) Huskies of CT next weekend and Historic Matthews Arena is being transformed into something called Barbie Land for the Friday night game.
Some observations from the couch:
- Lily Shannon played a 200ft game today and was great in all 3 phases
- The Mayor of Kingston Skylar Irving was wheeling today. The team doesn’t publish TOI, but with the double shifting in the middle frame, she was out there a lot. Hey that’s what happens when you’re the Hockey East Player of the Week.
- Captain Meg Carter notched 3 apples and 4 PIMS today. To be fair, both of those penalties were for being too strong on her skates as HC players simply bounced off her.
- HC blocks shots like it’s their job. The Huskies poured 73 shots at the net, but only 37 (“only” lol) got through. Their entire D corp plays like Abbey Marohn.
- And since I’m quick to point out when the camera works sucks, I guess it’s only fair to point out when it’s acceptable. It was still shaky a bit, but clearly the person running the camera switched to decaf and was able to control their caffeine tremors.
- Lastly let’s give it up one more time for Yovetich. It took her 105GP to notch her first Geno, but she kept plugging away and got hers. Congrats!
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