DURHAM, NH — Third period comebacks may very well be Northeastern’s new best friend.
For the third time in their last four outings, the Huskies mounted a late offensive attack to snag the win, this time over the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.
“If we could play like we did in the third period the rest of the year, we’d be in really good shape,” said Northeastern associate head coach Nick Carpenito following the 4-1 win. “That was the difference – I thought our effort was good, I thought our compete was good the whole game, but once we started executing, we made it pretty interesting.”
To start the matchup, the Wildcats were all over the Huskies, pressuring them in their own end for sustained periods of time. Northeastern built their way back, however, and ended up outshooting UNH 11-5 by the end of the first.
Another unsuccessful power play stagnated some of the momentum the Huskies developed. UNH’s Shea Verrier went off for cross checking with under seven minutes left in the first, and Northeastern responded with zero shots in the ensuing two minutes.
In the second, the penalty kill units had their fair share of work, with Wildcat Chavonne Truter getting the first infraction of the period just 59 seconds in. The Huskies managed three shot attempts on their second PP of the night, but those were either blocked away in front or turned aside by sophomore netminder Sedona Blair.
Freshman Éloïse Caron’s tripping infraction ended the advantage and sent Northeastern’s PK — ranked fourth in the nation coming into Friday– into action. That wouldn’t last too long, however, as Kira Juodikis received an interference call at 3:31 into the period to put the teams back to an even four-on-four.
More open space on the ice sheet was all the Wildcats needed to capitalize. After a blocked shot in front of Blair’s net allowed them to turn the puck the opposite way, they set up shop in the offensive end. Some quick passing between Truter, Marina Alvarez, and Sadie Makokis found the latter alone at the top of the zone with a path to the net. She threaded the needle with a hard shot that banked off the post and in for the 1-0 Wildcat lead with 16:29 to play in the period.
Following both the call against Juodikis and the UNH goal, the Huskies began to struggle offensively, generating just three shots on goal in the ensuing 10 minutes. It wasn’t until the last six minutes of the period that they really turned on the jets.
In that time frame, the team combined for 10 shot attempts, including some dangerous looks closer to Blair’s net – a place they’d struggled to get to after being pinned along the perimeter for the majority of the game. They couldn’t convert on their chances, though, and skated into intermission trailing by a goal.
Across the 10 teams in Hockey East, just four have a win percentage of 50% or higher in the faceoff dot to start November. Neither the Huskies or Wildcats are one of those four, as both have struggled with faceoffs to start the season. In this contest, the advantage lay with UNH though, as they won 36-of-61.
But while Northeastern struggled overall from the dot, they won the battles in the circle when they needed to — mainly thanks to Skylar Irving. The most notable win came right before the game-tying mark at 4:32 into the third. A clean win from the senior back to the top of the zone allowed Caron to feed the puck to Jules Constantinople, who came streaking in open and alone. The defender wasted no time going glove-side and in on the wrister to tie the game at one.
“I was just trying to get my team going,” Constantinople said about her goal. “You just throw it on net, maybe get a rebound, but it just happened to go in.”
The difference maker came 2.5 minutes later, courtesy of a group that struggled for much of last week’s contest.
Against Providence, the Huskies’ top line was out of rhythm, and while the usually-dominant trio did combine for six of NU’s 27 shots, Caron had zero while Irving had just two. Additionally, before Friday’s game against UNH, it was revealed Jaden Bogden was not in the lineup, with Holly Abela bumping up to the top line in her absence.
Even with the loss of Bogden, who has been outstanding to start the season, the trouble that followed the top-line last week was quickly shaken off. While Irving again had just two shots on goal, one of those found the back of the net for her team-leading fifth tally of the season.
The goal came off an incredible individual effort to drive to Blair’s net from the Northeastern end. Helping the forward along the way was junior Mia Langlois, who played the puck off the boards after it was pushed forward by senior netminder Paige Taborski. The assist on the goal was the first career point for the goalie, and it came on the eventual game-winner in her fourth victory of the year.
Outside of the top trio, throughout the course of the game the line that created the most pressure in favor of Northeastern was their third unit of junior Lily Brazis, grad student Katie Davis, and freshman Morgan Jackson. The line was buzzing, combining for nine shots on goal.
The crowning moment in the third line’s offensive push came with 9:29 left, as Brazis played the puck off a blocked shot in front before firing it past Blair for the 3-1 lead. After struggling to find the back of the net over her first two NCAA seasons, the goal was the second in three games for the forward, as her successful start to the 2024-25 campaign continues.
“[Brazis] probably could have had like five or six goals before this year,” Carpenito said. “We knew this year once she gets one, the floodgates will start to open for her. She works hard, she’s got a good quality shot. She can score mid-range, she can score in tight, so we’re excited to see that she’s finally getting rewarded.”
The fourth and final goal for the Huskies came off another hard shot from Constantinople, although this time a deflection in front from sophomore Ella Blackmore guided the puck into the back of the net.
“[It was a] good pass from my partner Tristan [Thompson],” Constantinople said. “Then I saw Ella’s stick and I know she’s a crafty player and I know she could tip it and I just honestly, I wasn’t trying to fire it on net – I was trying to hit her stick just so she could tip it.”
After running primarily their top-nine and five of their seven defenders dressed in the contest, by the third and fourth goal the Wildcats looked exhausted. And it showed, as the Huskies were mainly able to run out the clock for the remaining seven minutes. UNH was able to muster just three shots on goal in the final period, and 15 overall to Northeastern’s 40. All the credit to Sedona Blair though, who finished with 36 saves on the night in the losing effort.
Outside of the struggles on the power play and in the faceoff dot, the other main concern for the Huskies moving forward is their ability to start games on time. Once again they struggled to find a consistent rhythm of execution for the majority of the game, and were pinned in their own zone for long stretches of time in the first 40 minutes.
However, Carpenito believes the knowledge of how well the team can perform in the later stages of games will help them when it comes to managing their starts better.
“They see what they can do when they’re firing on all cylinders,” he said. “Hopefully that builds a little bit more trust within them, that builds a little bit more chemistry within them, and you know, they can understand how that feels – how it feels to be playing good and carry it over.”
The Huskies will look to carry the chemistry over when they get right back to it against UNH on Saturday, this time at Matthews Arena. Amelia Ballingall, Zeno Minotti, and Jackson Goodman have full coverage on WRBBSports+. Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m.