Northeastern opened its weekend series against Boston University with an offensive explosion Friday night, trouncing its cross-town rival on the way to an 8-1 victory. There was not a weak link in the Huskies lineup with multi-point contributions from seven different players. The same, however, can not be said for the Terriers.
Midway through the first period the Huskies got on the board. Graduate forward Grace Sadura opened the scoring off a centering feed from senior forward Allie Lalonde behind the net, beating BU goaltender Mari Pietersen five-hole as she moved from post-to-post giving Northeastern a 1-0 lead.
Northeastern controlled the opening period, outshooting the Terriers 18-to-3. A holding penalty on junior forward Éloïse Caron briefly gave BU a power-play opportunity, but the Terriers struggled to generate any momentum and went into the first intermission trailing by one.
The Huskies extended their lead early in the second period. Sophomore forwards Stryker Zablocki and Emy McDermid entered the offensive zone with a 2-on-1 rush, McDermid’s seam-pass tape-to-tape to Zablocki was rifled over Pietersen’s glove via a one-timer.
Just like that the Huskies were up two.
A hooking penalty on freshman Tess Martin gave BU another opportunity to get back into the game, and the Terriers needed just seven seconds to capitalize.
An initial shot from senior forward Neely Nicholson slipped through the pads of Northeastern junior goaltender Lisa Jönsson, leaving the puck loose in the crease. Sophomore forward Lexie Bertelsen found the puck and buried it into the net, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
Any momentum BU gained from the goal was short-lived, however. Less than two minutes later, Sadura dropped the puck to Lalonde, who drove into the slot and beat Pietersen to restore Northeastern’s two-goal advantage.
The Huskies continued to pour on the offense as the period went on. With seven minutes remaining, Lalonde put an initial shot on net, and Sadura collected the rebound before firing in into the top-left corner for her second goal of the night — credited with an assist, Lalonde also added a third point to her game total.
Northeastern added another in the final minute of the period when Caron found McDermid with a centering pass, setting up a drive into the bottom-right corner giving the Huskies a commanding 5-1 lead heading into the third.
Northeastern showed little interest in slowing down after the intermission.
Two penalties on BU, a hooking call on Keira Healey and a roughing penalty on Kylie Hollingsworth, gave the Huskies a 5-on-3 advantage. As the first penalty was expiring, McDermid set up Caron, who was left all alone in front of the net. With time to settle the puck and pick her spot, the junior easily extended Northeastern’s lead to 6-1.
Sadura recorded an assist on the goal, bringing her to four points on the night and a team-leading 14 on the season.
Zablocki also found herself a second goal late in the track meet, courtesy of a loose puck in the crease following a wrister from senior blueliner Rylie Jones. The sophomore crashed the net to collect the rebound and put Northeastern ahead 7-1.
Just over a minute later, Caron capped off the night with her second goal — for those keeping count that would be three Huskies tallying multiple goals. On a 2-on-1, junior forward Morgan Jackson centered the puck to Caron’s blade, who used a 360-degree spin move in front of the net before slipping the puck into the bottom-left corner.
McDermid picked up an assist as well, giving her four points on the night, while Caron finished with five.
“I got a pass from Morgan and I was like, ‘what can I do?’” Caron said. “I just thought maybe I’d try it. I’ve tried it in practice sometimes, but it never actually worked, so I might as well just try it here, and it worked.”
The Huskies outshot the Terriers 53-21, dictating the pace of play and keeping BU on its heels for much of the night.
“We transitioned really, really quick today, which was a huge point of emphasis for us,” Northeastern associate head coach Nick Carpenito said. “The team [was] doing a great job getting pucks up quick. The forwards are doing a great job getting to areas where they can get the puck, and then we got up quick and took advantage of our speed.”
Caron echoed that sentiment, pointing to the team’s ability to build chemistry across different forward combinations.
“Everyone is just so good and playing with different people is always so nice,” Caron said. “We’re building chemistry all around, and I know we’re only in the first half of the season, so it’s nice to build chemistry all around the team.”
With the win, Northeastern secured three important conference points and will look to carry its offensive momentum into Saturday’s rematch against BU. Carpenito emphasized that the Huskies cannot afford to let up after such a dominant performance.
“Got to keep our foot on the gas,” Carpenito said. “Continue to do what we did today and we should be in good shape.”
Northeastern returns to action Saturday Oct. 31th for another matchup with Boston University. Armaan Vij and Daniel Ku will have the call at 4 p.m. on WRBB Sports+.
Armaan Vij is the Editor-in-Chief for WRBB Sports. He has covered Northeastern hockey, baseball, and rowing both on-air and in print for the past three years. Read all his articles here.