The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Women’s Hockey: Streak reaches record 10 losses

By Jewel Della Valle

It’s been a long and disappointing season for the women’s hockey team, but head coach Laura Schuler and her Huskies haven’t given up hope.

Northeastern lost its 10th consecutive game Sunday, a 2-0 defeat to Hockey East foe Connecticut, solidifying its infamous place in NU women’s hockey history with the program’s longest losing streak. Despite the tough run, Schuler said she was encouraged by the consistent play the Huskies exhibited against UConn, currently fourth in the conference.

“Today I thought we were the better team,” she said. “I just told them they have to be patient. I’ve been waiting for them to play like that all year long, a solid three periods, and we’re going to win, it’s going to come.”

Northeastern sits in seventh place out of eight teams and has netted just three wins this season, two of them against fellow conference bottom-feeder Maine and one at non-Hockey East opponent Niagara.

Northeastern played UConn tough Saturday and though the scored remained knotted, 1-1, after two periods, lost the contest, 4-1.

The game marked freshman goaltender Sydney Arbelbide’s third collegiate start, and she stopped 34 of 38 shots in the loss.

The NU Huskies brought that momentum into Sunday’s game and outshot UConn, 37-18, on the day, but struggled to find the back of the net. The only goals of the game came within 28 seconds of each other at 2:30 into the second period.

“These two games against UConn were good building games for us,” said freshman forward Chelsey Jones. “We’ve been in a slump and obviously we didn’t come out of it in today’s game, but we started playing better and more as a team, and our systems are starting to click. Hopefully we can carry that into this weekend and get a win.”

UConn defender Natalie Vibert scored her seventh goal of the season to put her Huskies up, 1-0, at 1:59 into the second period. Just 28 seconds later, forward Kristen Russell beat Arbelbide high to widen the gap to 2-0. It was all UConn needed to hold on for the win.

Neither team could get on the board in the first period, but at 10:29 into the second, forward Nicole Tritter put UConn up, 1-0.

Northeastern countered with a goal by freshman defender Ginny Berg just 1:50 later, when she took a feed from senior assistant captain Crystal Rochon and put it past UConn goalie Brittany Wilson for her first collegiate goal. Berg’s goal made her the 18th Husky to record at least one score this season.

The game remained tied at the end of the second period, but UConn came out firing in the third, outshooting NU, 17-9, and peppering three goals throughout the period for the 4-1 win, one coming on an empty net.

“It’s been really hard to stay motivated,” Jones said. “But we decided coming into this week we were going to change our attitudes and we can see that through how we played against UConn in the past two games.”

Northeastern (3-22-1, 2-13-1 HE) looks to snap the 10-game skid with a win over Boston University at Matthews Arena Saturday at 2 p.m. NU also faces off against the Terriers in Tuesday’s opening round of the Beanpot at the Conte Forum at Boston College, starting at 5 p.m.

More to Discover