By Jared Sugerman, News Staff

The women’s hockey team has yet to prove it is one of the elite teams in Hockey East. But it appears to be drawing nearer to some that are.
On Thursday, the Huskies lost to No. 6 Boston College (14-5-3, 8-3-1), 4-2, at Matthews Arena. Northeastern is now 0-3 against the Eagles this season, and the Huskies are also 0-3 against then-No. 8 New Hampshire, following a 4-2 Wildcats victory at Matthews Arena Tuesday.
‘The good thing is, we’re competing with those teams. In the past, we hadn’t been. I feel like we’re playing good hockey right now. We’re playing some of our best hockey. I hope we hit our stride these last 12 games, and it can help get us into the playoffs,’ said head coach Dave Flint after Tuesday’s loss.
The Huskies (10-10-2, 5-6-0) have the sixth most points in Hockey East, five fewer than Providence and New Hampshire, who would be the last two teams to qualify for the four-team Hockey East tournament if the season ended today.
Tuesday, Northeastern seemed poised to close the gap between itself and the Wildcats. Senior forward Ali Bielawski scored a short-handed goal at 10:22 of the third period to give the Huskies their first lead against the Wildcats this season. But New Hampshire’s Sam Faber responded 4:13 later, beating sophomore goalie Leah Sulyma to tie the game, 2-2.
Sulyma made 38 saves in the losing effort, but she was not able to stop Jenn Wakefield’s shot with 1:57 left in regulation time. Wakefield’s 18th tally of the season would prove to be the game-winner, and New Hampshire added an empty-net goal with 11 seconds remaining.
Prior to Thursday’s game, the Huskies had not scored against Boston College or New Hampshire this season. That changed when junior forward/defender Lindsay Berman picked up a rebound and fired the puck past Eagles goalie Molly Schaus at 7:37 of the second period.
‘I think [the goal] boosted us a little bit,’ Berman said. ‘Our confidence was kind of low because we hadn’t been scoring, so once we got that one goal in it kind of showed us that we can score against them.’
Sophomore forward Alyssa Wohlfeiler took advantage of assists from sophomore forward Kristi Kehoe and Bielawski to tie the game 3:27 later, but Mary Restuccia used a penalty shot to put the Eagles back on top with 4:33 left in the middle frame.
Freshman netminder Florence Schelling turned aside 24 out of 28 shots Boston College sent her way, but she was bettered by Schaus, who sent away 26 of Northeastern’s shots.
The Huskies will have at least one more opportunity to down the Eagles this season; the two teams will face off Tuesday, Feb. 3 at Matthews Arena, in the first round of the Beanpot Tournament. However, unless Northeastern and New Hampshire meet again in the post season, the Huskies will not have a chance to end the Wildcats’ head-to-head win streak this season.
‘I told them before the game, I said, ‘Seniors, this could be the last time you play UNH,” Flint said. ‘As we go into our last stretch of games here, there’s going to be a lot of lasts for them. So I told them, ‘Hey, make the most of it, and don’t waste any opportunities.’ And they came out and we battled. We played hard. We put ourselves in a position to win. It just wasn’t our night.’
Northeastern played the final 24 minutes of Tuesday’s game without Kehoe, their leading scorer, who left the ice with assistance from the trainer after crashing into the end boards. She is day-to-day with a concussion, and her status for the Huskies’ home-and-home series with Connecticut Jan. 23 through Jan. 24 was unknown as of press time.