By Jewel Della Valle
It’s been the story of the season. The women’s hockey team has one bad period, lets in a few goals, then comes back to play hard but not hard enough to overcome the deficit.
Last night, the Huskies traveled to Brown to take on the Bears, and left as the owners of a six-game losing streak, dropping a 4-1 non-conference decision. Northeastern also visited Commonwealth Avenue to play Boston University and fell 4-2 Saturday.
The Huskies started last night’s game with a one-player advantage due to a pre-game protocol violation by Brown, but failed to capitalize on the power play.
After the power play expired, Northeastern stumbled, allowing three goals in the first period, the first one coming 51 seconds after the Brown penalty.
The tandem of Brown forwards Andrea Hunter and Hayley Moore combined for the team’s four goals, scoring two apiece. Hunter got the scoring started at 2:51 on the Bears’ first shot of the game. Moore made it 2-0 at 6:32 with a power play goal and just over two minutes later, Hunter put Brown up 3-0.
“We had a horrible first period,” said head coach Laura Schuler. “We were poor at transitioning the puck and lacked communication. [Brown] was simply out-hustling and out-working us and was able to capitalize on us.”
Despite being down 3-0, the Huskies looked like a changed team after the first period, Schuler said.
The Huskies allowed just one more goal in the last 40 minutes of play, a Moore power play tally that came at 12:13 in the second period. Senior captain Amy Goodney scored her first goal of the season at 10:55 into the third period to avoid the shutout. Her score was unassisted.
“In the second and third periods we had a completely different team,” Schuler said. “Everything we weren’t doing in the first [period] we were [now] doing. We had good communication and were hustling and moving the puck. If we had played that way in the first [period] we would have either tied and gone into overtime or won because we were out-playing them.”
Sophomore goaltender Stacey Scott, who had 29 saves against BU, was replaced by junior netminder Sarah Belliveau after the third goal. Belliveau allowed one goal and made 23 stops.
Saturday’s game marked the first time this season the Huskies traveled to Walter Brown Arena to take on the Terriers. The Huskies couldn’t capitalize on a chance to pick up ground on BU, who sits one notch above them in Hockey East (HE) standings.
Though Northeastern outshot the Terriers 10-8 in the first period, BU managed to get on the board early when forward Jonnie Bloemers snuck a shot past Scott 66 seconds into the game. BU forward Erin Seman put the Terriers up 2-0 on a back-handed power play goal at 11:33.
The dogfight continued through the second, with the teams racking up nine penalties combined in the period. At 7:33 into the second period, sophomore forward Cassie Sperry picked up a rebounded shot from sophomore forward Ali Bielawski and put it past Terrier goalie Melissa Haber to cut the score in half.
The Huskies racked up numerous shots late in the second, but failed to tie the score. Senior assistant captain Marie Desrosiers came within inches of knotting the game when her shot deflected off Haber and hit the right post.
“Our girls played well and unfortunately we lost opportunities to score,” Schuler said. “We had two shots that hit the posts; it was tight.
