BOSTON — If you’re under the impression Northeastern has looked uncharacteristically unsure of themselves over the last few weeks, you aren’t the only one.
“[Our] effort needs to be better, consistency is an issue right now so we need to figure it out here going into the final stretch into the playoffs,” said Northeastern head coach Dave Flint. “We need to start playing with some more confidence.”
The lack of consistency continued Sunday, as the Huskies fell 3-2 on home ice to Boston College on Senior Day. The loss is the fourth in Northeastern’s last six games, and their sixth of the second semester. It also drops them to 19-12-2, their highest number of losses in a single season since 2017-18 with at least three games left to play.
To open the game, things went well for the Huskies. The home team weathered an early storm of BC chances in the first minute, before turning things around and dominating the next two. After a shot from sophomore Ella Blackmore was blocked aside by defender Keri Clougherty under four minutes in, things became more back and forth, with both teams keeping their opposition on the perimeter.
Northeastern’s only lead of the game came off a broken play in front of junior Grace Campbell’s net. With the ever-dangerous line of sophomore Allie Lalonde, and freshmen Éloïse Caron and Morgan Jackson on the ice, the Huskies went to work. Lalonde drove to the net with the puck on her stick, before doubling it back to Caron who was pushing toward the blue paint. After chipping the puck off the shaft of her stick while falling to the ice, Caron stayed with the play, nearly batting the puck with her hand to try and keep the puck’s movement going.
In actuality, the puck lifted over Grace Campbell’s shoulder before bouncing off a further two BC sweaters to ricochet over the goal line. The officials originally deemed there was no goal on the play, but after seeing the overhead angle, it was determined the puck had fully crossed the goal line and Caron was awarded her third score of the weekend.
“She had some good jump this weekend and scored some nice goals,” Flint said of his top-scoring rookie, who is now up to 11 goals and 23 points on the season.
It’s no secret Caron has struggled at times, however. After taking a poor penalty against BU two weeks ago, the freshman was actually benched for the second period, and looked discombobulated once she returned for the third. It also wasn’t the first time she had been benched either, thanks to taking her fair share of avoidable penalties.
Those struggles weren’t seen this weekend, with three goals, eight shots, and zero penalty minutes across two strong games.
“I think she went through a little tough patch a few weeks ago where she was pressing a little bit too much, and I think maybe struggled a bit offense wise,” Flint said. “But [she] really stepped up and had a big weekend.”
Following Caron’s goal, the Huskies played with the lead for the remainder of the first period, and carried that momentum into the second — which is where things started to fall apart.
Under four minutes into the period, the Eagles didn’t need much sustained zone time to generate the first game-tying goal. After Gabby Roy picked the puck up behind the cage of Lisa Jönsson, the senior captain dumped it forward to Molly Jordan who was waiting in front. The sophomore defender’s shot was originally padded away by Jönsson, however the rebound opportunity was put right onto the backhand of Alanna Devlin, and the freshman forward easily put it over a sprawling goaltender to knot the game up at 1-1.
The Eagles again weathered a Northeastern storm — mainly generated by that dynamic second unit once more — following their goal, but following a media timeout BC was in the driver’s seat. A rush generated by freshman Tricia Piku and senior Katie Pyne forced Jönsson to cheat all the way to her right side, coming out of the blue paint to make the original save. However, once again, the rebound was the problem; as it has been all weekend for Northeastern’s defense.
Senior captain Abby Newhook was left all alone just outside the blue paint, and as the forward got her skates in deep, the puck bounced onto her stick. Yawning cage plus one of the best players on Boston College is a perfect equation, and Newhook wasted no time tapping it in for the 2-1 lead with 10:05 to go in the period.
After conceding the goal, Northeastern began to press one again, out attempting BC 12-2. However the Eagles remained steadfast, getting in the shooting lanes to block shots and eliminating the Huskies’ ability to get any rebounds.
The final period of regulation began as a Northeastern clinic. The Huskies did not allow a shot on goal from BC through the first 10 minutes of play, and peppered the opposite net with chances themselves.
Their best chance resulted in the game-tying goal, after a clean faceoff win from Lalonde against Newhook in the Huskies offensive zone. The sophomore’s win went directly to defender Tuva Kandell waiting at the point, and with her deadly wrister the freshman wasted no time going bar down to bring the game back even at 2-2.
However, that spelled the end of Northeastern’s dominance in the third. A minute and 18 seconds after Kandell’s goal, fellow blue-liner Jules Constantinople took a hooking penalty while negating a Newhook rush the other way, putting the Eagles on the power play for the first time all afternoon.
As mentioned after Friday’s game, the BC power play has been Northeastern’s kryptonite, and it’s no shock it continued to be on Sunday. A jam in front of Jönsson’s cage tangled up all four of Northeastern’s skaters in the blue paint, caging in three of the four BC skaters down low as well.
The lone skater down low not caught up in the chaos? Sophomore Julia Pellerin, one of the hottest goal scorers of the second semester in Hockey East.
She doesn’t miss a lot of the shots she takes, and she definitely didn’t here.
After picking up the puck after — you guessed it — another rebound given up by Northeastern, Pellerin lifted the puck around the skaters all crowded in front to hit the back of the cage for the 17th time this year. 3-2 BC with 9:47 left to play.
Down a goal yet again, the Huskies kept their foot on the gas, generating chances and looking for lanes in front of Campbell’s net. None of their looks were particularly high-danger though, and while up a goal BC was content to maintain puck possession in order to kill time off the clock.
They did so with perfect efficiency, especially in the final five minutes where they trapped Northeastern in the defensive zone — and Jönsson in her cage. The Huskies were finally able to get the netminder to the bench for the extra attacker with 1:24 to go in regulation, before then winning the ensuing face off in the O-zone.
However, the five chances Northeastern generated with the time left on the clock were all blocked or turned away. The puck got tangled up in the corner, allowing BC to kill off the remaining time in regulation en route to their 19th win of the season.
And the ever important three Hockey East standings points as well.
Speaking of those Hockey East points, the loss puts Northeastern firmly in fifth place — out of the home-ice advantage spots. They’re also now without the tie-breaker against BC or Providence, the only teams in front of them that they can catch.
If Northeastern wants to play a playoff game at Matthews this season, they’re going to need to win in regulation in both games at Vermont (notably a team that just beat them 1-0 three weeks ago). And they’re going to need both Providence and Boston College to lose both of their next two games, or at the very least not take more than two points. BC is scheduled for a home-and-home against New Hampshire, while Providence gets to take on Merrimack.
Considering the inconsistency over the last few weeks, there are a lot of different things we could point to as to what led to this for Northeastern. The team has not had a regulation win since Jan. 25 against Merrimack, they were shutout by two opponents they for all intents-and-purposes should have beaten easily, and have struggled in some of the most crucial moments. Which all points back to leaving far too many critical conference points on the table.
At the end of the day however, not winning in regulation on Friday and not getting the win in a game the Huskies out played BC in (again) very well might be the dagger.
The team isn’t out of it yet however. Northeastern will need to play at their best consistently both in the regular season finale, and heading into the postseason the following weekend, something Flint made a point to mention Sunday.
“We play well in spurts and then we don’t play well in spurts, we’re giving up goals that we should be giving up,” he said. “We just got to find a way to get it together and be better here in these last few weeks.”
Northeastern next heads to Vermont to close out the 2024-25 regular season against the Catamounts. WRBB’s next live broadcast will be their opening playoff game, against an opponent to be determined. Updates will be provided on our social media when more information is available.