Women’s hockey goalie Marisa Hourihan has always been a Husky concerned with more than personal success. The respect of her teammates has always been foremost on her mind.
“Honestly, I can’t even tell you my statistics,” Hourihan said. “It’s not important to me. What I’ll miss is putting my pads on with my teammates before every game. My teammates having respect for me is more important than my stats. I want them to always remember me while they’re on the ice.”
The memories of Hourihan’s time at Northeastern certainly won’t be fading anytime soon. The stopper holds records for saves in a game with 57 (against Providence on Jan. 25, 2005 and New Hampshire on Feb. 4, 2005), is tied with former NU goalie and current Olympian, Chanda Gunn for saves in a period (23 against Clarkson on Nov. 7, 2004) and is second all-time in saves to Gunn (2,388).
Hourihan played her freshman year on a Husky team that went far into the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoffs. Hourihan remembers one game in particular from that season that introduced her to Husky hockey.
“I’ll never forget my freshman year against Providence (Dec. 2, 2001) down 2-0,” Hourihan said. “I had to relieve Chanda in the first period, I ended up making all the saves that I faced (30) and we ended up winning 3-2. I’ll never forget that game, it was awesome and just an amazing first experience.”
Time passed and Hourihan became the captain of a rebuilding Husky program, a far different make-up than the first-place team that had greeted her. Hourihan wasn’t dampened by the experience, as she points to the Beanpot during her senior season as another great moment on the ice.
“Playing in overtime against Boston College, when the shots were so much more on me than on them (BC out-shot the Huskies 53-29), but you could tell everyone on the team was playing their hardest,” Hourihan said. “That was the most inspirational moment I’ve ever had, to see everyone on the team going as hard as they could.”
Marisa will hold onto that memory for her teammates; for herself, she wants to be remembered for her play on the ice.
“Whenever I look back on being a captain, I always remembered how others did when I was younger,” Hourihan said. “I still have the most respect for my captain from freshman year, and I was hoping that everyone on this team would have that respect for me. I want to be that person that good times are compared to, I want players to say ‘Remember when Marisa did this or that?’ I want to be in the back of everyone’s heads as they continue their career here at Northeastern.”
