Huskies over Black Bears

Your Northeastern Huskies welcomed in the Maine Black Bears for a Thursday night tilt at the Walter Brown Arena on Babcock Street. This is the first time the squads have seen each other since NU swept a weekend series at Maine back in November. At the end of 60 it was a 5-1 Huskies victory that saw 6 different goal-scorers between the 2 teams.

In net for Maine was sophomore Kiia Lahtinen making her 27^th start of the season. The Finnish product is playing solid in net with a .919%SV for the Black Bears. At the other end of the sheet it was the Big Cat, Lisa Jönsson between the pipes for the Huskies. The netminder from Sweden was making her 22^nd start of the campaign with a .931%SV. Nice to see some international flavor in net for Hockey East. 

The Huskies got on the board first with an early power play courtesy of a phantom cross-check call on the Black Bears. Kristina Allard controlled the puck on the left point and shoveled over to Ella Lloyd in the middle of the Maine blue line. Lloyd curled to her right and fed Allie Lalonde coming into the zone from the bench. Lalonde put a heavy wrister on net from the inside of the LW circle and beat Lahtinen over the blocker. Great traffic in front from Northeastern. 1-0 Huskies. 

Lily Shannon doubled up the score just past midway of the period when she beat Lahtinen at the right post. After killing off a Maine power play, Morgan Jackson worked the puck out of her own zone and found Shannon in the neutral zone in full stride. Shannon carried into the Maine zone and drove the net while splitting 2 defenders. She held the puck on her drive and outwaited Lahtinen before tucking it home at the post for the 2-goal lead. 

That score held until the first intermission but Maine was not rolling over. The Black Bears continued to push the pace through the end of the period and were hunting pucks all over the ice. A 2-goal lead wasn’t going to take the fight out of the Black Bears and Jönsson had to be sharp until the horn. 

In the opening minute (seconds?) of the middle frame Shannon got her 2^nd of the night. Off the opening face-off Éloïse Caron won a board battle to move the puck to Stryker Zablocki in the neutral zone. Zabocki attacked the Maine zone on the LW with a Maine defender on her back before slipping the puck to Shannon at the goalmouth for the tap in. Tough play by the other Maine defender to slide over to help with Zablocki, that decision  left Shannon all alone in front. Def not recommended. 3-0 Huskies.

Late in the period, NU got back on the power play and extended their lead. With less than 30 seconds to go before intermission, Jackson re-directed Allard’s point drive over Lahtinen’s glove. Lalonde carried into the high slot before dropping the puck to Allard drifting in from the right point. Allard let the puck go from the top of the RW circle and Jackson got her blade on it for her 9^th of the year. 4-0 Huskies.

With 12 minutes to play in the 3^rd and with NU already on a PK, Stripes got involved. With Zablocki at full tilt on a net drive, Lahtinen covered the puck and Zablocki stopped at the paint before losing an edge and sliding to the corner. Somehow this was deemed an unsportsmanlike “snowing the goalie” penalty? I mean what are we even doing? Can we not get these athletes competent officiating for the D1 level? That wouldn’t have been a call in my beer league and most of our refs show up drunk. 

But don’t worry, the Hockey Gods hate bad officiating more than I do and they sorted things out almost immediately. . 

Just out of the box for her “penalty”, Zablocki got her 14^th of the year. Shannon found Zablocki at the blue line and she drove the net before beating Lahtinen over the glove with a laser from the high slot. Also: a great play by Caron in her own zone to not just blindly dump the puck out; she took her time and banked the outlet right to Shannon.

A late power play for Maine saw Isabelle Michaud capitalize on a NU turnover deep in the Huskies zone. Michaud gathered in the puck and let one fly that beat Jönsson bar down to get Maine on the board. Snipe City for the freshman from New Brunswick. 

Some observations from the couch:

• Lulu Rucinski is a dynamic player. She was up pressing in the offensive zone and was battling against the top line of Northeastern for most of the night in her own zone. Great play by the freshman, she’s one to watch in the years to come.
• Stick taps for Brigitte Aube who got her first NCAA minutes tonight for Northeastern. Great story (and future podcast guest) Hopefully many more to come for her.
• Kiia Lahtinen had 36 saves on the night and played outstanding. This is one of those box scores that don’t tell the whole story. One of her best saves came on the first shift of the 3rd when she went full split to deny Shannon’s hatty.

Up next for the Black Bears is a late afternoon tilt on Saturday vs. the BU Terriers back at Wally B. Meanwhile Northeastern heads to Vermont to take on the Catamounts at Gutterson Fieldhouse early Saturday evening.

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