Oh boy are we back. A glorious fall day in the Commonwealth led us to an evening at Historic Matthews Arena on St. Botolph Street here in The Hub of Hockey. The occasion? The home opener of the Northeastern Huskies Women’s Hockey 2024-2025 campaign. With a fully packed Doghouse cheering them on, the Huskies showed some finish, some team defense and what else? You guessed it, some grit. For those that don’t know, Coach Carp joined us on the podcast for a NU preview and the word grit came up quite a bit. You can check it out here.
In net it was Paige Taborski for NU and Kaley Doyle for Quinnipiac. This was the 3rd start for both netminders and they were both sharp and on top of their creases from the opening draw. The Huskies were hunting the puck in the opening period as the zone time and chances favored the home team and that translated to getting on the scoreboard first.
Tory Mariano circled the offensive zone and dropped the puck to Skylar Irving at the left point. The Mayor of Kingston put the puck to Éloïse Caron at the right post and her “broom shot” sweep of the puck to the cage was put home by Taze Thompson who was battling in the blue paint. 1-0 and the Huskies were off and running.
Unfortunately, Bobcats can also run and the lead was short-lived. Just 2:30 later the teams were tied up again as Tessa Holk beat Taborski from the doorstep on a Quinnipiac power play.
You may have heard but there’s a pretty good freshman wearing the red, white and black and she made her presence felt tonight when she put her first puck past a goalie (I know it’s not her first goal, but that other was an empty netter so get off my back). Caron dug the puck out of her own zone after a lengthy Quinnipiac offensive possession and dusted 2 defenders on the LW before putting a drag snap up and over the glove to give the Huskies the lead once again. Great net drive by Jaden Bogden to open up the slot for Caron.
That score held into the 2nd as the pace accelerated with a stretch of nearly 8mins without a whistle and chances at both ends. Both goalies were up to the task as neither let one by them in the middle stanza and the teams headed for the final 20 with NU holding a 2-1 lead.
Less than 30 seconds into the 3rd, Irving kept up her blistering scoring pace as she cashed in for her 3rd in as many games. Caron and Irving (you’re going to hear that a lot this year I think) broke into the Quinnnipiac zone with Caron on the RW carrying the puck; as she got to the dot she flipped to backwards and opened up the whole zone on the forehand for herself (me and Caron, just a couple of talented players who like playing their offwing). A perfect crossseam pass to Irving ended up near side over the shoulder into the back of the net (buzz the ear and keep the change) and the Huskies were up by a pair. Once again, Bogden with the great net drive, I wonder if all of Bogs’ hard work will pay off later? (That’s called foreshadowing in the blogging game)
A huge save by Taborski (Ta-Brick-ski??) with about 8 mins was a huge momentum stop in my opinion. Quinnipiac drove the net and Taborski tracked the puck right to left through traffic and shut the door at the far post. The Bobcats were pushing hard at this point and that was a huge save in the scope of the game. This wasn’t that specific save, but this was a good one too. You always gotta give some love to the ‘tendy.
Quinnipiac wouldn’t lay down however, as Kendall Cooper put a wrister from the point on net that bounced off a few bodies in front before getting by Taborski. 3-2 and is “Stacy’s Mom” going to fail our heroes on opening night? Nah. With 2:31 left Bogden won a puck battle with not one, but two Quinnipiac players and wired a long range shot from her own D zone for the ENG to ice this one. Never a doubt.
The Hockey Gods appreciated all of Bogden’s selfless play and The Hockey Gods give cookies. Could I say she took the Last Train from Clarksville for that score? I could, but I probably shouldn’t since not a single player will get that reference: that one’s for Coach Flint and Todd.
There’s no film of Bogden’s goal, so here’s another view of her liney’s goal.
It got a little tense at the end as Quinnipiac was on the power play and elected to leave their goalie out and had a 6:4 for the final minute plus. Stick taps to the Quinnipiac coaching staff, you gotta love that type of mentality, trying to win the game until the final horn. NU was up to the test as they kept most of the action to the perimeter and when Quinnipiac did work inside, Taborski and the D were there to shut the door for the club’s 2nd dub of the year.
Some observations from inside the rink:
– Lily Yovetich was playing on Beast-Mode tonight. Taking the body, crisp outlets and eating pucks. Love to see that from her. And her partner? Oh just Tory Mariano taking away time and space and jumping into the offense.
– The debut of Tuva Kandell was all that was promised. Big, rangy D with a bit of an edge. Love the heat she was playing with. I see you laying those “welcome to Matthews” crosschecks behind the play TK. Love it.
– Lily Shannon, Holly Abela and Ella “Honeybadger” Blackmore were pushing the pace from their opening shift when they generated 3 scoring chances. All night this line was a matchup nightmare for Quinnipiac
– I’ve talked about Caron’s offensive game (and she was compared to Chloé Aurard tonight by someone very knowledgable) but she was also killing penalties and eating pucks all night. Certified beautician.
– I like Katie Davis and Morgan Jackson‘s games even better in person. They both were flying all night and the puck just seems to find Davis out there. Huge backcheck by Davis late in the game when she did a quick lift and swipe to thwart a Quinnipiac bid in the high slot.
– Kristina Allard and Rylie Jones were flying tonight. I like Allard getting involved in the chippiness as well as Jones’ nose for the offensive zone.
Back at it tomorrow for a late afternoon matinee.
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