By Mark Fraenkel
After the cancellation of the Maine series and playing Northeastern on short notice, the Boston University women’s hockey team (9-8-4, 8-5-3 Hockey East) is set to travel to Matthews Arena to face Northeastern (20-2-1, 15-2-1 HE) Friday afternoon.
Northeastern’s Chloe Aurard opened up the scoring in the first period last Saturday. BU responded six minutes later when sophomore forward Lacey Martin tied it. However, the lead would not last. In the second period, sophomore defenseman Julia Shaunessy was sent to the penalty box for body checking.
On the power play, Northeastern’s Mia Brown scored a goal to make it a 2-1 lead for the Huskies. There was no turning back for Northeastern, as Alina Mueller would add another goal in the third period. BU’s loss to Northeastern was their second straight regulation loss. The Terriers haven’t won a game since their 4-1 December 4th win over Merrimack.
The Huskies have won 12 in a row heading into Friday’s matchup. Their last loss came on October 9th in Providence. After beating BU last Saturday, Northeastern soundly defeated the Boston College Eagles, 5-0 on Tuesday. Mueller netted two goals in the win at Conte Forum.
Katy Knoll, Micaela Sindoris, and Victoria Mariano scored the other Husky goals. Northeastern’s star goaltender Aerin Frankel made 25 saves in Chestnut Hill. The graduate student has been phenomenal for the Huskies and a reason why the team only allows on average 0.9 goals per game.
Northeastern has been explosive on the offensive end this season, as they average 3.5 goals per game. Chloe Aurard and Maureen Murphy have each scored 13 goals so far this season. In contrast, BU’s top two scoring leaders, senior forwards Courtney Correia and Mackenna Parker have scored nine and seven goals, respectively.
The Terriers are one of the few teams that have beat Northeastern this year. Behind power play goals from Julia Shaunessy and freshman forward Christina Vote, BU beat Northeastern 2-1 in October. However, junior Gwyneth Philips was in goal for the Huskies, not Aerin Frankel.
After Tuesday’s game, the Huskies were ranked third in the Women’s National Collegiate PairWise Rankings behind Ohio State and Wisconsin. In Hockey East, Northeastern is safely on top of the standings with 47 points. They are ahead of second place UConn by 14 points.
BU is now in fourth place with 22 points. The Terriers lead fifth place teams BC and Maine by five points; BU trails third place Vermont by four points. Vermont hosts Providence College for two games this weekend. BC will play a home and home series with the league’s worst team Holy Cross. And, Maine hosts the league’s second worst team Merrimack for two games.
The puck will drop at 4:00pm on Friday at Matthews Arena. We’ll have a recap up after the game and, as always, follow along on Twitter @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog for future updates.
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