Your Northeastern Huskies welcomed in the Holy Cross Crusaders to historic Matthews Arena for the first half of a home and home this weekend. This was supposed to be a Get Right Friday Night, but unfortunately no one told the Crusaders. This one took extra time to get settled, but at the end of 63:13 it was Holy Cross that got the dub in overtime.
The Huskies haven’t been their normal dominant selves as of late. They’ve lost some players to graduation, they’ve been dealing with some bumps and bruises and when every team you play treats it like it’s game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals: things can happen that you don’t expect. You can put this game into that category.
The Huskies brain trust put the forward lines in a blender for this one, looking for a spark perhaps? Whatever the reason, it sure looked good in the early goings of the first period. The Huskies had the advantage in zone time and SOG by a wide margin (40-26 for the game for those keeping score at home). An aggressive forecheck and a team wide commitment to their defensive responsibilities made it look as if this one would be over early. I mean the Crusaders didn’t land a shot on Gwyneth Philips until almost 6 minutes played.
HC started to clog the shooting lanes as the first progressed and that was an unfortunate indicator of things to come. At the end of the period the teams retired at gooses and that had to feel like a win for the purple and white.
The Huskies were dominant at the dot all night, but didn’t have anything to show for it through the first 40. The Crusaders managed to tilt the ice back a bit as the 2nd progressed, but NU still had the zone time advantage. The stand out play in the 2nd for me was Meg Carter breaking up a late bid off a turnover in the closing seconds of the middle frame.
Philips was tested more as the game progressed and (you guessed it) she was up to the task. Fluid on her side to sides and tracking the puck well through multiple screens, Philips kept the Huskies in this one for sure. Every break into the zone, any odd man rush, any bid from any angle; I think Philips will make the save. She’s a walking safety net.
In the final frame the play from the Huskies had the urgency that was lacking at times in the opening 40, and they took the play to Holy Cross. Unfortunately for our heroes, the Crusaders made it their mission to block as many shots as possible. At the end of regulation, Holy Cross had 20 blocked shots. That is an astounding number. Clearly the Crusaders must be watching Abbey Marohn’s instructional guide on how to eat pucks. Another stand out play in the closing minutes was Lily Shannon’s stick lift in the NU zone. With a HC player dragging the puck in the slot, Shannon’s lift and go back the other way was huge and denied a golden opportunity for Holy Cross.
In OT it was fairly even until it wasn’t. The refs collectively put their whistles away for the last half of the 3rd period. That’s the Hockey East way, ref the scoreboard, not the game play. But what about 3 on 3 overtime? Sure… blow the whistle on an iffy call against NU and put HC on the PP. I mean you’ve watched hook after trip after rough after interference without a care in the world, but sure call that “hooking” in the overtime period. With the face-off to Philip’s left the puck squirted to Alexis Perry who dragged it across the crease and put it over the sprawled out Philips for the GWG. Nothing Philips could have done in that situation.
Some observations from around the rink:
- Can the Huskies get some shots off quicker from up high instead of waiting for opposing players to fill the lane? The quickest release from the point tonight came from Katy Knoll covering back and Skylar Irving got a blade on it for the redirect but it didn’t fall.
- Speaking of the Premier Power Forward in Women’s Hockey Today and the Mayor of Kingston; put together on a line with Taze Thompson they had the best chances tonight by far. Hard work along the wall by all three players all game.
- Add Rylie Jones to the list of players I like to watch skate. Great edge work and acceleration into and out of the D zone tonight.
- Welcome back Tory Mariano, good to see you out there.
- Lily Brazis was doing her thing out there tonight. You can take a Nailgun out of Hockeytown but you can’t take the Hockeytown out of a Nailgun.
- Add this to things I like to see: Carter playing the body.
- Face-offs were a marked difference tonight: Knoll 18-10, Brazis 5-2, Shannon and Irving both were at .500 but Allie Lalonde? The freshman was dominant going 13-3 at the dot.
The Huskies get it going back tomorrow afternoon at Holy Cross. I’m going to call it now: Lily Yovetich notches her first Geno (Hey Lily: this only counts if you take a few shots and not always shovel it to your partner). No pressure.
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