By Jewel Della Valle

As the Huskies slipped into seventh place in Hockey East with a 5-0 loss to Providence Saturday, they looked for a much-needed win against non-conference opponent Robert Morris (9-13-2, 1-3-0 College Hockey Association). What they got instead was an eighth straight loss as Colonial forward Jessica Riley’s shot sailed past junior goaltender Sarah Belliveau and into the net with six seconds left in overtime.

“I thought we got robbed,” said head coach Laura Schuler. “We outplayed them, the puck was never really in our zone. … We were all over them and their goalie played great.”

Northeastern dominated Robert Morris’ zone the entire game, outshooting the Colonials, 34-11 and 4-1 in overtime, but continued to struggle offensively, only netting two scores on the day.

Robert Morris jumped out to a quick lead, scoring at 3:20 into the first period when forward Maria Olausson took a pass from forward Morgan Beikirch and beat Belliveau high to make it 1-0.

The Huskies swarmed the Robert Morris zone for much of the first period and outshot their opponent, 7-4, but failed to score.

The Huskies continued to play hard in the second period and got on the board when freshman forward Liz Chapman scored her first collegiate goal at 3:59. Chapman took the puck from behind the Robert Morris net and brought it around front, backhanding it into the goal to make it 1-1. She was assisted by sophomore forward Cassie Sperry.

At 14:04 it looked like senior captain Amy Goodney had put the Huskies ahead when her shot hit the right goal post and dribbled onto the goal line. The goal light went off but the puck was cleared out by Colonial goaltender Heather Rossi and declared no goal by the referees.

The Huskies outshot RMU 13-1 in the period, but went into the second intermission tied, 1-1.

Robert Morris came out with more fire in the third, but were still outshot by Northeastern 10-5. The Colonials briefly went up, 2-1, at 4:42 as Riley scored her first collegiate goal and first of the night with a feed from her twin sister, forward Jordan Riley.

Less than two minutes later, sophomore forward Erin Reil knotted the game again with a breakaway goal that beat Rossi at the top left post.

Northeastern successfully killed off three penalties in the period and five in the game, an area the Huskies have struggled with as of late.

Northeastern went into a five-minute sudden-death overtime and got four shots off on goal, but couldn’t score. Robert Morris got just one shot but made it count, when the Riley sisters struck again and Jessica Riley, taking another pass from her sister, broke away and beat Belliveau for the game-ending score. The final shot total: NU 34, Robert Morris 11.

“We were all over them and my point was we’re still only getting 10 shots on net or whatever it is per period and we should be getting a higher percentage,” Schuler said. “But at least we were shooting the puck and in the past we haven’t been. … I just told the girls, keep their heads up because that time we really got robbed.”

Colonial head coach Nathan Handrahan agreed with Schuler.

“To be honest we weren’t the team that deserved to win tonight,” Handrahan said. “Laura’s team played very hard; they took it to us for the entire game and we had our moments but for the most part it’s a funny game. Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve.”

In Saturday’s game against Providence (11-10-3, 8-1-2 HE) the Huskies got behind early when Friar forward Brittany Nelson scored at 8:36. The Huskies gave up four more goals on the game, splitting them between the two periods. one coming on a power play and was outshot 28-16 in the game.

“I was really disappointed because Providence didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves,” Schuler said. “We’re a faster skating team than Providence and it’s like panic mode when we get into the offense end. We do OK, but we still need to get the puck on net.”

Northestern fell to 3-20-1 (2-11-1 HE). They face Connecticut (12-10-2, 7-4-1 HE) for a home-and-home series starting Saturday at 1 p.m.