Your Northeastern Huskies welcomed the Holy Cross Crusaders to Historic Matthews Arena for a Saturday night Hockey East tilt. Fresh off their victory over Merrimack College, the Huskies rolled the exact same lineup vs. the Crusaders. It seemed to work again as the Huskies rolled over the Crusaders 4-0 in front of a crowd that saw a lot of Holy Cross supporters amongst them. I’ll say this about Holy Cross, they travel well and their black and purple sweaters were outstanding.
In net for the Huskies was Lisa Jönsson, you remember Jönsson right? She’s just the national leader (D1) in GAA and Save Percentage (as a freshman), no big deal. At the other end of the sheet Abby Hornung had the unenviable task of facing down a Huskies squad that came out of the gate absolutely flying tonight. Per the stat sheet, HC was outshot by a 4:1 margin in the first but it didn’t seem that close. The Huskies could have come out of the opening frame up 5 or 6 if it wasn’t for Hornung’s effort in the HC net.
The Irving Line got things going right away. Lily Shannon, Jaden Bogden and Skylar Irving started the game and with their size and speed, they completely dominated HC on the opening shift. This set the tone for the first as the ice was def tilted towards the HC net. NU was rolling 4 lines and all 4 spent significant time in the HC zone, but it was the youngsters that got it going.
Allie Lalonde threaded an absolute beauty of a pass onto Morgan Jackson‘s tape as Ms. Jackson broke into the HC zone. Jackson drove the net with 2 defenders chasing and showed backhand before stuffing it home on her forehand as she was run into Hornung. 1-0 and the Huskies were off and running. Mark that as the game-winner.
After the Jackson goal, the pace picked up a tick as did the physicality. NU camped out so hard in the HC zone that the Crusaders used their timeout in the first to break the momentum the Huskies were building. It kinda worked? The Huskies couldn’t tack on another before the first intermission, but they sure had some chances. The Crusaders took 2 late penalties but even on the PP, the Huskies couldn’t get one past Hornung. The teams retired for the first intermission with the SOG a lopsided 21-5 in favor of the Huskies.
In the middle frame, the Huskies got into some penalty trouble of their own and the game seemed a lot closer. Rumor in the press box was that the HC coaching staff put in a request for the Huskies to play shorthanded the rest of the way? I can’t cannot confirm or deny, but it was the closest the game seemed. On the 2nd penalty, the forward pairings of Irving and Katie Davis and Taze Thompson and Holly Abela completely dominated the HC PP. Effort and speed are killers on the PK and those 4 were hunting the puck.
Late in the 2nd the Huskies blew it open over a 40 second span. First it was Tuva Kandell with an absolute snipe far-side bar-down to put the Huskies up by a pair. After another extended sequence in the HC zone that saw Jules Constantinople, Rylie Jones and Kristina Allard all get great looks from the backend, it was the freshman right-hander that put one home. Jackson possessed the puck behind the net and found Kandell walking down the RW where she let it go from almost directly on the face-off dot.
Snipe city’s new mayor? Tuva Kandell.
That score held for about 40 seconds before the Captain got her cookie. Ella Blackmore put a wrister on net from the point where (who else) Lily Brazis was battling at the top of the blue paint. Brazis got the puck on net but it leaked through Hornung for Thompson to tap in behind her. The Honeybadger to the OG to the Captain. Hard work gets rewarded and (say it with me) good things happen when you go to the net!
The teams headed to the 2nd intermission with this one firmly in hand for the Huskies. The recipe for the 3rd was to just chip and chase and preserve the dub. Oh did no one tell that to the first line? With less than 30 seconds gone in the final frame, Shannon got her 6th goal of the year. Irving worked the puck down to the LW corner and Bogden found Shannon driving the net. Hornung made the initial save but Shannon stuck with it and put her own rebound home. 4-0 and let’s run that clock.
HC couldn’t get anything going as time wound down and even with 2 Huskies in the box (Stripes reffing the scoreboard again), the Crusaders couldn’t get set up in the NU zone nor did they elect to pull their goalie? Curious decision, but I’m just the guy in the press box. The Huskies run this one down to the final horn preserving the shutout for Jönsson.
Some observations from the rink:
- The D was activated offensively tonight and every single one of them had good looks. In the 2nd I thought Lily Yovetich was going to cash in during a scramble in front of the net but somehow her shot leaked through wide. I’m going to call it now, she gets one vs. Yale.
- Holly Abela made the first mistake I’ve ever seen her make during a hockey game with her roughing penalty late. I think it was a soft call (so technically she’s still mistake free), as Abela had been getting mugged all game, but again, I’m not the head of officiating. What’s more rare: Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster or an Abela mistake? I’m tempted to have her make my football picks for me.
- The Mayor of Kingston had her skating legs going tonight. Irving was buzzing all game and almost killed off a penalty on her own when she battled 4 HC defenders deep in the HC zone as seconds ran off their power play.
- Coach Berman was taunting kids all night and tossing pucks away from them and making them chase them down around the boards. Tough look for coach.
Up next for the Huskies is a rare Tuesday night game when they host Yale at Historic Matthews Arena. Hope to see you!
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