BOSTON, MA – After 65 minutes of hockey, the Northeastern women’s hockey team lost, 4-3, in a shootout in four rounds to Boston University.
Senior defender Reagan Rust sent the Terriers to their second consecutive Beanpot final by roofing a wrist shot against sophomore goaltender Aerin Frankel in the back half of the fourth round of the shootout. Both teams entered overtime with three goals a piece; despite the best efforts of freshman forward Alina Mueller and a number of other Northeastern forwards, both goaltenders stood tall.
Scoring opened up at 11:28 into the first period when sophomore defender Skylar Fontaine tapped home a loose puck near the crease of sophomore goaltender Corinne Schroeder. Fontaine had moved the puck into the offensive zone and threw a shot towards the net. Working down low with freshman forward Mia Brown, Fontaine ended up finding the puck with enough room behind Schroeder to put the Huskies up 1-0.
BU was able to equalize the score at 3:41 in the second period. Freshman forward Mackenna Parker tipped home a seeing eye shot from junior defender Breanna Scarpaci for her 10th goal of the year. Sophomore forward Veronika Pettey put Northeastern back up by one when she tallied her 13th goal of the season on the power play. Pettey extended her point-scoring streak against the Terriers to 6 games.
Junior forward and Pembroke, Mass native Sammy Davis responded with a power play goal of her own to tie things back up at 11:10 in the second period. NU outshout BU 10-5 in the second period but Schroeder made some acrobatic saves to keep the Terriers in the game.
17 seconds into the final period Mueller scored her 15th of the year to put the Huskies back up for their third lead of the game. Facing another year without a varsity Beanpot title, the Terriers were able to rally and score at the 2:12 mark when sophomore forward Jesse Compher scored her seventh career point against Northeastern to tie the game at 3-3.
A five minute overtime would come and go featuring a plethora of scoring opportunities, particularly from Northeastern.
The game would ultimately go to a shootout as per women’s Beanpot rules. The first round would come and go without either side scoring. In the second round, Alina Mueller scored and Frankel got the stop for Northeastern. With the chance to win the game for Northeastern, freshman forward Chloe Aurard was unable to convert on her shootout chance. Sophomore forward Nara Elia was able to beat Frankel, and the shootout entered extra frames tied.
Pettey was unable to defeat Schroeder, and with the game on her stick, senior captain Rust sent the fans home and the Terriers to the final next week.
Northeastern will play the winner of the Boston College/Harvard game next week. Before that they will have a game against Merrimack on Friday at Historic Matthews Arena with puck drop set for 7pm.