NU over UNH

The Northeastern Huskies traveled across State Lines last night to take on the University of New Hampshire Wildcats at the Whittemore Center in beautiful Durham, NH. An early January Saturday night matchup normally doesn’t have much juice outside of the Hockey East standings, but last night’s game had some intriguing storylines.

Both teams came into this game with a bit of an uneven 2026 so far. NU lost to Yale, walloped Providence and then lost a heartbreaker in OT to BU (and the on-ice officials) in the opening round of the Beanpot. UNH played with their food in a weekend matchup with LIU (aggregate score of 10-1 in 2GP) before dropping a squeaker to BU. Then to add even more layers to this: UNH was the only visiting team to get a dub in the final season at Historic Matthews Arena and UNH had their alumni on hand for yesterday’s matchup.

In net for the visiting Huskies was Renna Trembecky (last start the OT loss to UNH at Matthews). The freshman from Alberta is currently 4-2 with a 1.82GAA and a sparkling .925%SV. At the other end of the sheet was junior Sedona Blair the “veteran” from MN. Blair is currently 6-7-3 with a 2.05GAA and an even more sparkling .930%SV. Say what you want about Hockey East vs. the rest of the women’s NCAA leagues, but you’d be hard-pressed to find better goalie rooms than here in New England.

The game opened up with good pace and each team generated Grade-A scoring chances but neither side could solve the other’s goalie. It looked as if the sides would retire knotted at gooses until the Wildcats got burned by an icing (frozen by an icing? I don’t know if that sounds right). The face-off came back to the UNH zone and Lily Shannon won the draw cleanly back to Éloïse Caron above the RW circle. Caron worked the puck to Kristina Allard at the right point who put the puck on net. The puck was deflected sky high but Shannon won the jump ball to Blair’s right and fed Stryker Zablocki on her backhand. Zablocki’s shot rebounded off Blair’s right leg and Caron buried it into the open side. Watch Caron circling like a shark through this possession. Always watching and hunting the puck.

The middle frame opened with less pace on the Wildcats side as they looked as if they were protecting a one-goal lead as opposed to chasing one down. The Huskies were pushing the puck deep and the Wildcats seemed content to chip it out and chase with a lone forechecker. But to show you how little I actually know, UNH used that strategy to tie this one up.

During a chaotic sequence that saw Stripes getting involved with the game flow the Huskies found themselves shorthanded playing 5:3 just past midway of the period (in what was a very clean game the on-ice officials somehow called a 12 combined penalties!!!) Sadie Makokis put the puck on a tee for Danika Botterill to walk into from the top of the RW circle. Trembecky made the initial save but the puck drifted wide of the left post. Alyson Hush was driving the net and she calmly pulled the puck from behind the net and potted the equalizer. That play might not look hard, but stick taps to Hush for having enough ice in her veins to not rush that move. Great hands under pressure.

-Just about a minute later Caron called game. While shorthanded (I told you Stripes was all over this game), Jaden Bogden carried the puck down the LW on her off-wing with Caron driving the netand outwaited the UNH defender. Once the D laid out, Bogden laid the puck right into Caron’s wheelhouse and she got all of that. A drop-knee one-timer short side over the glove.

The score held through an uneventful 3rd period and the Huskies head out of town with a 6 point lead over UConn at the top of the Hockey East standings. UNH is currently a point behind BU for 6th in the standings. By one of those scheduling quirks, both Northeastern and the Wildcats face-off against the BC Eagles with Northeastern facing BC on Tue at the Beanpot (still time to buy your tickets) and UNH hosting the Eagles on Friday night.

A couple of goalie highlights for your viewing pleasure. These were NOT the best plays by either goaltender, but it’s all I got. Gotta give some love to the ‘tendies.

Lastly I want to hightlight a play that happened late in the 2nd period and spotlights 2 players whose games I really like. They’re both freshman which means we could be seeing this battle a lot over the next 4 years.

Nina Rossi picked off an errant puck and broke into the NU zone with Emy McDermid chasing on the back check. Rossi protected the puck from McDermid and got the puck on net (Trembecky made the save). McDermid (who I still haven’t seen glide in a game), was on her horse the whole backcheck and defended cleanly with no call. Just a great job by both skaters. Rossi with the high hockey IQ play to break in and use her body to shield the puck and McDermid for not giving up on the play and being in a position to run the backcheck. Stick taps all around.

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