BOSTON — After an impressive showing in a 4-2 victory Friday night vs the Quinnipiac Bobcats, Northeastern dropped the second game of the series 3-0 on Saturday afternoon.
“Two weekends in a row now where we win Friday and lose Saturday,” said Northeastern head coach Dave Flint. “I don’t think we played bad today, [but] we didn’t have the jam we did yesterday.”
It was a hard-fought and closely-contested game in which both teams showed off their defensive ability. The difference was in around the net, where the Bobcats found two second period rebounds for goals, before an empty netter to end the contest.
“I love our compete level and our grit, now the execution is what we gotta work on,” said Flint. “That is typical early in the season.”
Northeastern started the game with momentum from the night before, coming out hot early in the first. Momentum gradually shifted the Bobcats’ way throughout the opening frame though. That shift was accentuated by a Quinnipiac penalty kill midway through the period that completely stifled any Husky attack.
Northeastern had a more successful powerplay to start the second period, but once again could not find the back of the net. The Huskies would finish the night 0-3 on the powerplay, and they now have just one power play goal through their first four games.
“They changed their penalty kill on us today, they went high pressure, and we didn’t adjust to it real well,” said Flint. “[The] powerplay is kind of a work in progress, finding out who meshes with who, who should be on it, who shouldn’t be on it. Last year it was pretty bad early on and then we ramped it up later in the season.”
Just about three minutes into the second period, Holly Abela’s turnover in her own end led to a quickly formed three on one for Quinnipiac. Graduate student Jenna Donohue shot wide of Taborski’s blocker side, but the rebound off the end boards found its way to Maya Labad. With Taborski out of her cage, Labad turned a spinning shot into the open net. It was Labad’s fourth goal of the season.
Midway through the second period, Quinnipiac doubled their lead. The goal came off the stick of Kathryn Stockdale, the graduate transfer student from UConn, who was playing in her 15th career game vs Northeastern. She followed up on her own shot to jam home a rebound goal.
Late in the second period, the Huskies got arguably their best scoring chance of the afternoon. Eloise Caron fed a gorgeous cross ice pass to Skylar Irving, whose one timer was robbed by Kayley Doyle’s blocker.
Irving was held scoreless this afternoon after scoring goals in each of the team’s first three games of the season. Doyle was fantastic in Quinnipiac’s cage, stopping all of the Huskies 28 shots on goal. It was her third shutout in the Bobcats first four games of the season.
Early in the third period, a clean faceoff win from senior captain Taze Thompson led to a great one time opportunity for freshman Morgan Jackson. Despite a shot labeled for the top left corner, Doyle was once again up to the task. Playing catch-up, Northeastern struggled to generate many great chances in the third period.
With about three minutes remaining, Maddy Samoskevich iced the contest sending the puck from the neutral zone into the empty cage vacated by netminder Paige Taborski for an extra attacker.
All four lines got opportunities to showcase their scoring ability throughout the afternoon, but couldn’t find the twine.
“I’ve never been one to really just switch lines every game, I want to try to get some continuity and try to build some chemistry,” said Flint.
Skylar Irving and Eloise Caron were once again dangerous on the Huskies first line, showing off their newfound chemistry together.
The Huskies second line, centered by Taze Thompson with graduate student Katie Davis on her left and freshman Morgan Jackson on her right, showed flashes of their potential but lacked consistency.
Flint also praised the early-season development of team’s third line of Lily Shannon, Ella Blackmore, and Holly Abela.
“They are a really good third line. They forecheck so hard and they create opportunities. I dont always rely on my third line to put a lot of pucks in the net, but I want to see them start putting some pucks in the net,” Flint said “They’re working hard and getting chances, they just gotta bury some of those chances and take some of the pressure off of our top two lines.”
In net, Paige Taborski was solid, despite likely wanting Stockdale’s rebound goal back. Through her first four games as the full-time starter, she’s allowed seven goals on 109 shots (.936%).
“Right now [Taborski] has earned the net from her play in these first four games,” Flint said. “At some point I want to give Lisa [Jonsson] an opportunity. I made it clear to all three goalies at the beginning of the year that whoever I feel gives us the best chance to win the hockey game is probably who’s gonna get the net.
Northeastern’s speed has become a clear strength in this young season. They have used it to help their equally strong forechecking ability. They will need to find ways to convert the turnovers they create off of their forecheck into goals.
After two weekends of play, Northeastern enters their Hockey East schedule with two wins and two losses. They have played very evenly with #12 Penn State and #10 Quinnipiac.
“We need to find that consistency in our play, we’re still working through some stuff, there’s still a couple lines we’re trying to figure things out with. Overall they’re the number 10 team in the country, so to get a split with them this early in the year makes me very optimistic,” said Flint.