If you’re Northeastern, you’ve gotta be thinking one thing – man, it’s good to be back.
The Huskies returned to the ice in a dominant way Thursday, as they took on the Penn State Nittany Lions in State College for the first time in program history. It wasn’t the prettiest game from Northeastern, especially as the night wore on. And yet, they found their way to a seventh-straight season opener win, this time by a score of 3-1.
At the start, Northeastern was able to limit a lot of the chances Penn State was generating, although they couldn’t quite control puck possession as much as their opponents. An early penalty, the first of seven that were called against NU throughout the course of the game, especially hemmed the team in their own zone. The Huskies were able to stonewall the Nittany Lions however, and kept the scores at zero.
A lot of this came because of great goaltending from senior Paige Taborski, who was starting just her third game of her career. There’s much to be said about the talent that was lost in goal over the offseason, but head coach Dave Flint and his staff have to be pretty happy with the way Taborski showed out on Thursday. The netminder made 23 of 24 saves en route to her third win in the NCAA, with the lone miss coming off a faceoff win directly in front of her net.
That lone goal for the Nittany Lions came off the stick of Katelyn Roberts, their third-highest scorer from a season ago. The junior rifled a shot off from the top of the zone that found the back of the cage with 11:31 remaining in the first, thanks to a feed from forward sensation Tessa Janecke after she won the puck back off the draw.
This connection between Roberts and Janecke is expected to be lethal all season for Penn State, and it showed in full force in Thursday’s contest. The pair combined for 11 of PSU’s 24 shots and were all over the ice. Janecke especially picked up right where she left off in the spring, and was all over both ends of the ice.
However, where they would have struggled to rebound after giving up the early goal a season ago, Northeastern turned around and tied the game less than a minute later. And who better than last year’s leading scorer in Skylar Irving to break through for the Huskies?
A great odd-player rush for the top line allowed a wide passing lane across the ice between Irving and graduate transfer Jaden Bogden. The latter easily dished the puck to the opposite side, and after the briefest second of hesitation from Irving to reset, the senior fired to beat junior netminder Katie DeSa and tie the game at one.
Overall, the top line of Irving, Bogden, and newcomer Éloïse Caron was truly impressive in this one. Overcoming the losses up front that Northeastern suffered was always going to be difficult, but throughout the game the trio already looked like they had gelled together – a great sign for the next 35+ contests the Huskies have scheduled.
Following the tying goal, a lot of this game was played by the special team units. While the Huskies had seven infractions called against them, the Nittany Lions had six, with four of those coming in the second period. The most detrimental of which was a two minute minor on Janecke – while graduate student forward Brianna Brooks was already in the box for tripping.
The play was reviewed following a challenge from Northeastern for contact to the head. The officials, however, determined there was no such contact, and the Penn State captain was sent off for only a two-minute minor.
PSU killed off the original 5-on-3 advantage, but a bad cross-check by defender Lyndie Lobdell just one second after the Brooks penalty expired gave Northeastern another two player advantage.
And this one the Huskies did not waste. Nice puck movement once again by NU, this time by their second power play unit, allowed Lily Shannon to be left wide open at the faceoff circle to DeSa’s right. Manning the blue line was defender Lily Yovetich, who played catch with Shannon, and a one-time blast off the forward’s stick found its way past DeSa to make it 2-1 NU with 10:58 left in the second.
From there, the game was predominantly the Taborski show. Penn State proceeded to outshoot the Huskies 9-4 to close the second period, and then went on to outshoot them, 7-3 in the final frame. The goaltender turned away all of them in a variety of ways. Her reaction time to cover any shots toward the net was quick, her stick work was solid to deflect PSU’s chances away, and her overall puck tracking skills were sharp as can be. The Nittany Lions were stonewalled at every turn, even as they dominated offensively for 30+ minutes.
Closing it out in the final minutes, Penn State head coach Jeff Kampersal opted to pull DeSa with 90 seconds to play. It didn’t work out well for the Nittany Lions, as Caron cleared the puck out of the Huskies end the length of the ice. Bogden, hustling as hard as she could, beat out Kendall Butze, the only defender back for Penn State, to negate the icing. Then Bogden, after snatching the puck up, put it off a skate in front of the yawning cage to find Caron, who easily tapped the puck over the line to notch her first goal in the NCAA.
There are a couple of notes for Northeastern as they head into the second game of the back-to-back on Friday.
First the positives: outside of Taborski, the other hero in this game – as it often has been over the last half decade – was the Northeastern penalty kill. Even after losing names like Katy Knoll, Peyton Anderson, and the ever-important Megan Carter on defense, the tried-and-true system for the Huskies came through once again.
A season ago, they finished third in the NCAA with a PK percentage of 91.4. Thursday’s perfect 7-for-7 goes a long way to keeping the team high in the category in Division I.
Although, it’s worth mentioning the discipline factor as something that needs to be addressed. Seven infractions in game one of the season isn’t unheard of. But strong power play units in both conference play and especially next weekend with Quinnipiac are looming, and an exhausted PK unit is not conducive to success for the team.
The only other negative that jumped out was the lack of success in the faceoff circle. It’s hard against such a wizard in the dot like Janecke to come away with the puck, but just 16 wins to PSU’s 37 is not good enough. It was also reflected in the way Penn State dominated the third period in particular as they crushed NU in the dot 11-3.
Again, though, great work by Taborski and the Northeastern defense helped to break up a lot of the chances PSU generated. The Huskies kept their opponent to the outside, and the opportunities they created themselves the opposite way were high-danger in quality. The poke-checks especially stood out on Northeastern’s end, and were critical to the overall success the team had.
All in all, it was a solid performance for NU to open 2024-25. There’s always work to be done, but after struggling to score outside of a lone PPG by Peyton Compton in the opener against Penn State last season, a three goal effort is a good sign for what’s to come for the offense.
And if there’s one more thing to look out for, it’s that there is no love lost between these two teams – and they’re right back at it tomorrow for another chippy contest at the Pegula Ice Arena.
WRBB will provide written coverage of Friday’s matchup on our website following the game. Puck drop is scheduled for 3 p.m.