There never can be a calm game between Northeastern and Boston College, can there?
Friday’s matinée game between the Huskies and Eagles exemplified this. Both sides were relentless on the ice all afternoon, combining for 76 shots on goal, 14:40 of power play time, nine total goals, and multiple heart-stopping moments over the course of 61:12 of action.
And best of all for the Huskies, they came away with the win, snagging the extra point with a 5-4 overtime victory at Conte Forum.
Things started quickly and started poorly for the Huskies, however. Only 35 seconds in, a miscalculation in front of the Northeastern bench led to an early power play chance for Boston College after too many players were on the ice.
On the ensuing power play, junior defender Jade Arnone rifled a shot in from the point, and the puck was then deflected by graduate student Gaby Roy behind Lisa Jönsson and into the back of the net. 1-0 Boston College, just 49 seconds in.
With the BC tally, the Huskies have allowed just nine goals on the penalty kill all season on 85 penalties taken. Their 89.4% success rate on the PK is fourth in the NCAA, and has been in the top-five for all of if not the vast majority of the season.
Their Achilles’ heel however, has been Boston College.
The Eagles have scored three of the goals given up by Northeastern on the PK in 2024-25. Altogether, they’re one of just four Hockey East schools to score against the NU penalty kill all season, and are just one goal shy of the total combined PP goals scored against the Huskies in conference play (two from UConn, and one apiece for UNH and BU).
The bleeding didn’t stop at the opening goal either, as 61 seconds later, Tricia Piku extended the Eagles’ lead with her fourth goal of the season. The freshman was left open along the right wing faceoff circle, and wasted no time putting the pass from Katie Pyne bar down and in.
Northeastern luckily began to press after the second goal, drawing a tripping penalty against Kiera Dempsey 4:41 into the period. After a few clears to start, the Huskies then set up shop in the offensive end. Freshman Éloïse Caron, playing between the faceoff circle and the goal line, swooped up a pass from Jules Constantinople and put it between Grace Campbell’s pads to cut the Huskies’ deficit to one.
The power play goal rejuvenated the Huskies, as they then went on to outshoot BC 20-5 by the end of the period, including a couple more high-danger looks on two further ensuing power plays. Campbell was up to the task, however, and stonewalled Northeastern until the buzzer at the end of the frame.
Before that final buzzer though, danger struck again after another too-many-skaters penalty against the Huskies with 2:57 on the clock. Northeastern had been up a skater at the time of the call, after Arnone laid a heavy hit in front of the Huskies bench which earned her a trip to the sin bin.
The 67 seconds of power play BC had was killed off much easier than the first power play the home team had received, and while Northeastern had three more chances in the last minute of action, the teams headed to the locker room with no further scoring to speak of.
Second period action started back and forth, but a fourth penalty called against Boston College put a pressing Northeastern team back on the advantage. Similarly to their opening goal, the second goal for the Huskies came off of some pretty passing in the offensive end.
Defender Tuva Kandell had a clean zone entry while the Huskies were still on the advantage, drawing two BC skaters to her side of the ice. A quick pass to classmate Morgan Jackson found a little bit of open space for Northeastern, and the forward had the awareness to back hand the puck neatly to the steaming — and wide open — Lily Shannon. The junior drove to the net and again exploited the weak spot in Campbell’s game – the five-hole. Her shot tied the game at 2-2, with just under 17 minutes left to play in the second.
A lot of concern from the first semester was because of the Huskies’ power play, which went an abysmal 6-for-64. Since returning for the spring, Northeastern’s advantage has been heating up, scoring on 10 of their 36 chances including twice in today’s game. While the Huskies had a few poor times on the advantage this afternoon — not to mention a lot of penalties taken while up a skater — they converted when they needed to, against a BC penalty kill that has been near the top of the NCAA standings for a chunk of the season to boot.
With the game still tied, an icing call on the Huskies sent the faceoff back into their defensive end with 15:00 left in the period. Sophomore Julia Pellerin — who has been a rockstar for BC in the second semester — cleanly won the ensuing draw to the top of the zone to Olivia Maffeo. BC’s freshman defender skated along the blueline searching for an open lane, and once she found it she ripped the shot through traffic to connect with Kate Ham. The junior deflected the puck cleanly past Jönsson, putting the Eagles back in front 3-2.
Northeastern wouldn’t be outdone, though. Just 33 seconds after BC’s third goal, the most likely of goal scorers for Northeastern went to work. Skylar Irving had been quiet in her previous two games, though she still led the team in scoring with 25 points coming into Friday in 30 games played.
On what would be her 12th goal of the season, Irving did what she does best. The senior forward was relentless in front of Campbell’s net, kicking the puck to herself once, then twice to put it between the netminder’s left arm and the goal post, tying the game up again at 3-3.
It’s no secret that where Irving goes, Northeastern goes. With two goals and an assist in the contest, the Huskies are now 62-4-1 all time when she records a point. The senior has a firm grasp on the scoring lead on the team overall, and is fifth in the conference with 28 — only one point behind Pellerin in fourth.
Outside of Irving, the younger players in the lineup have continued to rise to the occasion when they’ve needed to. This includes sophomore Allie Lalonde, who missed the entirety of first semester due to injury. Since her return to the lineup the forward has been a difference maker every time she steps on the ice, and it’s easy to see why the Huskies’ productivity has stepped up in the second half because of it.
That dynamic energy was exemplified on the Huskies’ fourth goal of the afternoon. Sophomore Ella Blackmore found herself on the ice alongside Lalonde and Caron, and it was the former who carried the puck over the blueline as all three skaters entered onside. Lalonde then backhanded the puck through traffic to find a spinning Blackmore between the faceoff circles. With her back to Campbell, the forward easily pushed the puck up higher to Caron, who wasted no time going bar down over the goaltender’s right shoulder.
It might not be the biggest point of the afternoon’s contest for the Huskies, but one thing to note is how Northeastern scored all of their goals on Friday. Each included nifty passing amongst the skaters on the ice, or required the forward in front to remain hard on the puck. The biggest point is that none of them gave up on their plays — something that was demonstrated by their 48 shots on goal, their highest total in a game all season. They were hard in front of the net and continued to pepper Campbell all afternoon, and it ended up paying off when it mattered.
Through the remaining 10:15 of the period, BC tried to get their way back into things, keeping the shot margin closer in the middle frame than they had in the first. A bad penalty on defender Lily Yovetich put the Eagles back on the power play with 3:44 to play, but the Huskies kept BC from registering a single shot on goal in the ensuing PK.
Again in the third, early penalty trouble hampered Northeastern, this time with Jules Constantinople in the box for tripping. BC had five shot attempts over the first 1:52 of power play time, before a second penalty of the afternoon for Abby Newhook killed the remainder of advantage time and swung momentum back in the Huskies’ direction.
That momentum swing would not last long, however. A faceoff win in the Northeastern offensive end was taken away along the boards by BC’s Sammy Taber, who stretched an outlet pass to Ham. With Pellerin accompanying her, Ham drove to Jönsson’s net, and the two Eagles forced the freshman netminder to make two saves in quick succession.
And it was the third attempt that got her.
After generating the play, Taber quickly made her way into the offensive end, putting herself in perfect positioning out front of a sprawling Jönsson. Hockey East’s top scorer showed again why she can’t be left alone anywhere on the ice, as she wasted no time putting the puck in the yawning cage to make it a 4-4 game with 13:29 to play.
With the score tied, the teams went back and forth dominating puck possession and forcing the goaltenders to make grade-A saves. Campbell made nine saves while six more of Northeastern’s attempts were blocked or went wide. On the opposite side Jönsson made five saves, with just two attempts going wide off BC sticks. Neither netminder was exposed again in the final minutes of regulation, and the two squads secured at least a point each as the buzzer sounded on regulation play with the score still tied at four.
Off a clean faceoff win to open overtime, BC maintained puck possession for the first 30 seconds, before an errant pass sprang Constantinople the other way. The defender’s shot was deflected back to the Eagles, this time to Taber in the corner. The sophomore’s clearing attempt found its way to Pellerin, who then immediately went charging down the ice to fire a shot on goal.
Right into the glove of Jönsson.
After the faceoff win by Irving in the defensive end, it was all Northeastern for the remaining 20 seconds of overtime. The trio of Irving, Shannon, and Tory Mariano all clicked together quickly, passing the puck throughout the open ice to get it to neutral territory. A pass from Irving gifted the puck to Shannon, who used the open ice to enter the offensive end once more.
The junior then broke around defender Molly Jordan, put a first chance off Campbell’s pads, kicked the rebound to herself, and finally put the puck home to lift Northeastern to the 5-4 win.
Would it have been nice to get the win in regulation? Yeah, probably. Would it have been nice to limit BC to fewer goals considering Northeastern outshot them by 20? Yeah, for sure.
Was it still nice to break a two game skid with an overtime winner on their opponents’ home ice?
Yeah, I’d say so.
With the victory, and a win by Providence, Northeastern is now up to a tie for third alongside the Friars and none other than the Eagles with 43 points in the conference standings. A win in regulation would have put them two points clear of BC in sole possession of third place in the standings, and in control of home-ice advantage in the Hockey East quarterfinals.
But a win is a win, and considering how the game started, things could have been a whole lot darker for the Huskies heading into their final home game of the regular season. Luckily for them they have the momentum heading into Matthews on Sunday — an arena BC has both won and lost in already this season.
Northeastern will have to be on their A-Game heading into the matchup against a BC team that is now undoubtedly fuming after letting the two-goal lead slip away Friday afternoon. The last two games at home for the Huskies have started slow, and against a high-powered team like BC they cannot afford to do that again.
Especially if they want to host a playoff game or two.
The Huskies return to Matthews Arena for the final time in the regular season for a Senior Day matchup against Boston College on Sunday. Emma Sullivan, Max Schwartzberg, and Kabir Singh will have live coverage on WRBB 104.9 FM. Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m.