MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — It’s been a while since we’ve seen Northeastern play a game west of the Mississippi.
We’ll have to wait a bit longer, as Ridder Arena rests just half a mile east of the river. Still, the trek to the Midwest was a new one for most of the Huskies roster, and the pressure had never been higher entering the Saturday matinee against Minnesota.
Entering unfamiliar territory as the underdogs, Northeastern proved that the East Coast can hang with the best of them, trouncing the Golden Gophers 4-2 in the NCAA Quarterfinals and advancing to the Frozen Four for the fourth time in program history.
“This team throughout the year has had a ton of resiliency and dealt with a lot of challenges,” said Northeastern head coach Dave Flint. “I’m just happy for them that they’re getting rewarded with a win tonight and a trip to the Frozen Four.”
Initial nerves were certainly evident for the Huskies, as the start of the game immediately put them in rocky waters. Minnesota’s forecheck began relentlessly, and Northeastern struggled to stay afloat, losing their edges, miscuing passes, and tumbling all over the ice. Even Flint admitted he felt nervous after the opening shift.
The Gophers racked up three shots in under a minute to start the battle, but nothing made it by sophomore netminder Lisa Jönsson.
That proved to be a trend for the next 49 minutes, as the Swedish national stepped up for the Huskies when the lights were brightest. It was well presumed prior to the start of the game that Northeastern’s success would hinge on its goaltending, as Minnesota entered the contest second in the NCAA in goals per game (4.5). But once Jönsson made it through the first sequence of play, fielding pucks from Team USA star Abbey Murphy and fellow senior forward Madison Kaiser, the Huskies began to settle in.
It didn’t take much longer for Northeastern to strike. Sophomore forward Éloïse Caron had scored twice in the Hockey East tournament, and her playoff scoring did not stop there. In familiar fashion to her goal a few weeks prior against Boston University, Caron streaked through the neutral zone down the left side boards and ripped the puck on net from the faceoff dot. Shooting at sophomore Hannah Clark’s glove side, Caron’s snipe kicked off the scoring and gave the Huskies a jolt of confidence five minutes into the first period.
“I think that [goal] definitely takes the nerves out,” Flint said. “The first shift was a little sketchy. We’ve got players falling down, fumbling pucks, so I think getting that goal was like, ‘Oh, okay, we can play here, let’s get going.’ I think that definitely gave us a big boost.”
Northeastern’s scouting report on Clark had clearly identified a weakness, as just under four minutes later, Hockey East Player of the Year Stryker Zablocki was sprung free on a breakaway chance. At the exact same spot as Caron’s score, Zablocki mimicked her linemate moments prior and matched Caron’s goal with one of her own to double Northeastern’s lead.
The Huskies’ confidence only became more and more apparent as the first period rolled on. They began to dominate on all fronts, controlling puck possession and limiting Minnesota’s looks on net.
Following a slashing penalty issued to WCHA All-Rookie forward Bella Fanale, Northeastern’s power play got its first chance with six minutes to go in the opening frame. Typically, the way the Huskies score is very clean. More often than not, their goals have come from precision passing sequences and fast-paced breakaways. But Northeastern’s third was generated in the dirty areas of the crease while on the skater advantage.
Swiss national Alessia Baechler, quarterbacking Northeastern’s second power-play unit, fired the puck in from the blue line. It didn’t make its way through to the net, with a horde of bodies in Clark’s way, but fell right at the skates of senior forward Mia Langlois. Spinning in the crease and digging around plenty of Minnesota bodies, Langlois was able to put just enough on the puck to slip it past Clark’s outstretched pad and secure the eventual game winner.
Not only was the gritty goal a great change of pace from Northeastern’s normal scoring technique, but it also marked a bottom-six contribution on the score sheet. Looking back at when the Huskies were injury-riddled, Langlois was one of the skaters who saw increased opportunity, getting first-line minutes and making her way onto the power play through her positive performances in that stretch. The goal was just her third of the season, but it could not have come at a better time for Northeastern.
Minnesota head coach Brad Frost decided he had seen enough of Clark for the afternoon and opted to pull the sophomore goalie after less than 15 minutes of play. In her place stood freshman backup Layla Hemp, in her 13th game of the season, but the Huskies’ damage had already been done.
Northeastern outshot Minnesota 14-12 in the first period. The Gophers turned on the jets after the first intermission, limiting the visitors to just 10 shots the rest of the way. However, the Huskies’ lead stood.
The second and third periods rolled out quite similarly in terms of momentum. Jönsson was a superhero for the Huskies, flying across her crease in feats of athleticism. Minnesota peppered her with shots, but the sophomore had the answer to every question asked of her. In the few moments where it looked like the Gophers had bested Jönsson, they stunted themselves and missed completely on rare wide-open back-door chances.
Special teams again flipped a switch in Northeastern, although this time, it was on the penalty kill. After successfully making it through the PK from a roughing penalty on senior captain Lily Shannon, Northeastern immediately sprang into the offensive zone five-on-five. Junior forward Allie Lalonde skated the puck into the right corner and drew all five Minnesota skaters to her side of the ice. Lalonde spotted sophomore forward Morgan Jackson waiting on the left side of the offensive zone and fed a perfect pass across the zone to her linemate, Jackson easily powering home the Huskies’ fourth score with under eight minutes to go in the second period.
After the goal, Minnesota’s desperation only grew. But Jönsson continued to shine, getting plenty of help from the defense in front of her. When she allowed a rebound in a dangerous spot, there were always more black Northeastern sweaters than Golden Gophers in the crease, the Huskies bailing out their netminder every time she asked for their help.
“I just felt so calm in my net having them lifting [Minnesota’s] sticks,” Jönsson said. “I know that I can cover the puck well, and that I also see all the pucks, and I knew that if the shots that were coming at me would have a weird bounce, I knew that they were in there behind me. It just makes me feel more confident in my game.”
Confidence was the name of the game for Jönsson in the third period, nearly defying physics as Minnesota’s aggression grew more and more. Eventually, the pressure became too much for Northeastern to withstand any longer. Following a slashing penalty issued to Lalonde halfway through the frame, the Gophers began to cycle the puck on the power play.
Senior forward Josefin Bouveng sent in a feed from the right corner of her offensive zone that ended up deflecting off the stick of Hockey East Defender of the Year Jules Constantinople. The puck flipped up into the air over the crease and happened to bounce right at Murphy’s skates on the back door. The redshirt senior had no trouble batting it into the back of the net to negate Jönsson’s building shutout, but with time winding down, it looked to be too little, too late for Minnesota.
Minnesota would add one more to their tally on the scoreboard, once again due to Murphy on the power play, as in the waning moments of the game, Zablocki recorded a tripping call after the Gophers pulled Hemp, putting them on a six-on-four skater advantage. Moving the puck around the top of the offensive zone, senior defender Sydney Morrow fed a pass to Murphy, waiting at the top of the left circle. With a massive windup, Murphy fired the puck on a one-timer past everyone in front of her and hit the back mesh with 91 seconds remaining.
As time ticked down and the buzzer sounded, Northeastern swarmed the net with cheers, surrounding Jönsson after a hard-fought 60 minutes. The sophomore tied her second-highest save tally and highest in a regulation game, saving 45 of the 47 shots sent her way for a .957 clip.
“It’s honestly easier when you face a lot of shots,” Jönsson said. “Throughout the whole game, I knew where I had my defense. I felt like I was in great positions. The shots that they shot at me just kept hitting me in the stomach, so I felt great on my angles, and just those small little things kept me going throughout the game. I knew that I was capable of saving almost every shot that they shot at me.”
Questions might have been asked prior to the game if Northeastern could hang with the Midwest teams that have for so long ruled college hockey. The Huskies answered all of them and then some, dominating on all fronts in a full 200-foot effort that encapsulated everything the team had been working for all year.
The win marks Northeastern’s first over Minnesota since 1999 and the first time they traveled to Minneapolis and returned to Boston with a victory.
Riding high, the Huskies will head into the fourth Frozen Four in program history and will take on yet another WCHA team in the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, who they lost to in their most recent national semifinal game in the 2022-23 season. But if anything was proven Saturday at Ridder Arena, it’s that any given team can win on any given night in any given circumstances.
This is a special group for Northeastern, and they are hunting to make some history and show the world what Boston is truly made of.
No. 5 Northeastern faces off against No. 1 Ohio State for the Frozen Four semifinals at Pegula Ice Arena at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 21. WRBB Sports will provide full coverage leading up to and all the way through the 2025-26 Frozen Four.
Daisy Roberts is a hockey, basketball, and baseball broadcaster and writer for WRBB Sports. She has been covering Northeastern Athletics for five years. You can read her content here and follow her on X here.