Your Northeastern Huskies welcomed the Merrimack Warriors to Historic Matthews Arena tonight for the first leg of a home and home series that will conclude tomorrow night at Lawler Arena. The Huskies opened this one up stuck in first gear, but they got it going as the game progressed, and ended the night on the right side of a 4-0 thumping.
In net for the Huskies, fresh off her Bertagna Award and Beanpot MVP was Lisa Jönsson. The Swedish Sensation was looking for her 12th dub and 7th shutout of the season (spoiler alert: she got both), just a few days after her first Beanpot experience.(In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Beanpot Championship was Tuesday night and you can read about it here). In net for the Warriors was Calli Hogarth, making her 5th straight start.
Jönsson was dialed in for this game. I thought her best sequence of saves was late in the 2nd when she made 2 quick saves moving R to L to snuff out a bid at the post, but this denial in the 3rd also makes the highlight reel. For those keeping score at home, that’s a right pad save – poke-check – left pad save. The big cat was toying with the mouse Merrimack forward. Updated stats on Jönsson: tied for NCAA lead in shutouts, leading the nation in GAA (1.07), and save percentage (.958%) and she’s a freshman. As Coach Flint said after the Beanpot, GAGG.
Once the Huskies got their feet under them, (at about the 15:00 min mark of the first) the ice tilted toward the Merrimack end as the Huskies started to pile up chances before cashing in. Jules Constantinople dropped down the LW and found Ella Blackmore at the top of the blue paint. The Honeybadger couldn’t put it home, but she did draw the penalty. That type of play won’t show up on the scoresheet, but it impacts the game nonetheless.
On the ensuing power play, Allie Lalonde put home the game-winner. Lily Shannon worked the puck to Tory Mariano at the top of the MC zone and she dished a 10ft pass to Lalonde who was moving laterally from the top of the RW circle. Lalonde wound up and put a wicked wrister on net that beat Hogarth top corner over the blocker.
Lalonde on the bench to Coach Carp (probably)….
That score held into the 2nd and the Huskies came out with visibly more jump in their game. Maybe they were watching Beanpot highlights during intermission, perhaps they were reading my blog, we can’t say for sure. Whatever it was, it worked. With just over a minute gone in the middle frame, Éloïse Caron got on the board. Morgan Jackson dug the puck out behind the MC net (and got away with a crosscheck and a trip if I’m being honest – but I do like the way Stripes reffed this one) and found Caron cross-crease for the drop-knee-one-tee over the glove. Great play all around by this line. Lalonde drove the net in the slot, Caron got dumped at the right post but got up and found the soft spot in the Merrimack D coverage and Jackson? She’s officially back to Ms. Jackson status cause that sequence of hers was nasty.
And in the third it was more of the same. First let me ask the Merrimack coaching staff: Why would you leave Lily Shannon all by herself at the top of your blue paint? Like the caption says, this is what she does. You might want to update your pre-scout as that’s the Huskies leading goal scorer all by her lonesome in front of Hogarth. Mariano drove the RW corner and from below GLE found Shannon in front. Lily’s not missing from there. 3-0 and should we go to running time?
But it was Holly Abela who slid the dagger into the barely beating heart of the Merrimack team. Let me set the stage for you. Down 3-0 with about half of the 3rd period to go, Merrimack gets their first power play of the night. At this point, they’re still in it. They can look at the live stats and think “Hey, we’re hanging with the Huskies in every statistical category (except goals), we put one home on the PP and we’ve got a chance”. Abela sees your plans, hopes and dreams and she laughs as she dashes them in the blink of an eye. Mariano sent the puck out of the zone with just the right amount of sauce for it sit high in the MC zone for Abela to corral and then it was off to the races. Abela broke down the RW with only one defender in camera frame and stashed the puck 5-hole on Hogarth. Keep the change ya filthy animal.
That was all she wrote and the Huskies rode out the clock for the dub.
Coach Carp came on the podcast last night and we had a great recap of the Beanpot that you can find here (if you want to watch video of our smiling faces), and it’s also out now on all your favorite podcast platforms. Really good time talking about that special night at the TD Garden.
Some observations from the couch:
- The Munchkin Line represented again tonight. Katie Davis, Ellie Mabardy and Abela are all over the ice and it was great to see Abela get rewarded. Mabardy almost had her own late in the game, but her attempt was denied. Still, great awareness and hustle from this line.
- Congrats to Constantinople for playing in her 100th game
- Mariano (3A tonight) is now tied for the most assists in Hockey East this season.
Up next is the back half at Merrimack tomorrow night. I hope to be in the rink for this one assuming the MC staff doesn’t read this.
Bonus Abela:
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