DURHAM, NH – It was a back-and-forth battle between the Wildcats and the Huskies, but on the backs of their strong defensive system and another stellar night from Lisa Jönsson, Northeastern prevailed with a 2-0 victory at the Whittemore Center.
Coming off a 3-0 home loss to rival BC on Saturday, the Huskies looked to get back to the hard-nosed, defensive style of hockey that has given them success so far in the season. On Wednesday, they got back to their roots, keeping UNH’s offense at bay all night, allowing only 17 shots which Jönsson handled easily.
Though they were unable to find the back of the net for most of the night, Northeastern limited the Wildcats’ offensive zone time and dominated in transition – one could say they went back to the basics. For large stretches of the contest the Huskies controlled the pace of play, and it often felt they were on the brink of breaking the game open.
Despite multiple opportunities on the power play, more on that later, Northeastern could not beat UNH sophomore netminder Sedona Blair until 15:58 into the third period when Éloïse Caron buried a back door shot passed Blair, which was set up on a beautiful move and sauce pass by Morgan Jackson over a diving UNH defender on a 2-on-1 opportunity.
To get nerdy, there was so much that went so right with this goal. Jackson moved into the offensive zone with speed, she made a nice move to fake a pass and to force the defender to sprawl out. The freshman then waited for the perfect moment to execute the sauce pass to Caron, who was screaming down the middle lane to bang in the loose change. It was a great showing of skill, poise, and patience from Jackson, who stood out on the second line. Huskies fans should be excited to see how she develops as the season progresses.
Moveover, for Caron, the goal was a great display of both her skill and of fantastic heads-up hockey to know to barrel in on the middle lane drive to pot one. It’s a good sign for Northeastern to get her going again, as the goal was her first goal since Oct. 11 versus Boston University.
“Super important,” said assistant coach Melissa Piacentini of Caron’s offensive production for the Northeastern offense moving forward. “I think, in general, as a team, we need to start capitalizing a lot more, putting more than one or two pucks in the net. And I think that for her, she’s going to be doing that in the second semester. She’s a great player, very skilled. If she keeps doing those little things, going to the net, stick down, I think she’ll be very successful.”
The freshman Caron has been a huge addition for the Huskies; she is tied with senior forward Skylar Irving in points (14) with five goals and nine assists in 17 games played.
The largest struggle for Northeastern this year is their power play which unfortunately continued to be stagnant on Wednesday. The Huskies had five opportunities with the player advantage, but, yet again, were unable to capitalize. Now 6-64 (9.4%) on the year, the power play must turn around as the games in the second half become more important.
“Focusing on the little things,” according to Piacentini, will be imperative to finding extra skater success. She went on to say that she believes the upcoming break should help the team take a mental reset which, in turn, will help the power play.
With the win the Huskies are once again tied with Boston College for second place in the Hockey East standings. Their record improves to 10-6-1 overall, and 8-4-1 in Hockey East competition. Now, with the change in semester, Northeastern has some time off, and will not return to the ice until Jan. 3rd, 2025, versus Merrimack at Matthews Arena in Boston. WRBB will have coverage of the matchup with puck drop scheduled for 6 p.m.