HAMDEN, CT — Entering Friday’s contest, Quinnipiac junior forward Kahlen Lemarche had just one career hat trick, coming a season ago against Sacred Heart.
24 hours and two games later, Lemarche had upped that tally to three, scoring four goals on Friday and three on Saturday to lead her No. 7 Bobcats to a home weekend sweep of No. 12 Northeastern.
While Friday’s game saw the Huskies falter early, dig themselves out of a three-goal deficit, and lose anyways, Saturday’s game started much more evenly. NU had the better of the play in the first period, testing Quinnipiac sophomore goaltender Felicia Frank early and often. Huskies freshman forward Stryker Zablocki was a bright spot in the frame, generating a few decent chances that the visitors couldn’t quite convert.
On the other end, it was freshman Renna Trembecky in net for the Huskies, stepping in for Lisa Jönsson. Jönsson has been rock-solid throughout her year-plus at Northeastern, but struggled mightily in Friday’s game, leading head coach Dave Flint to opt for Trembecky between the pipes for Saturday’s matinee.
Trembecky did well in the first, stopping all seven shots she faced. The freshman was lively and responsive to pucks bouncing around and behind the net as well, showing a level of confidence necessary for her second career start in a hostile environment.
“She was awesome,” said Northeastern head coach Dave Flint of Trembecky postgame. “She gave us a chance, and that’s what we need from our goaltending.”
Northeastern would get on the board early into the second, with winger Éloïse Caron poking home from a netfront scrum. It was brought on by a big rebound from a shot by senior defender Jules Constantinople, and the goal was the latest in what’s been a strong start to the season for Caron, who’s been dynamite for a second line that the Huskies have relied on to produce thus far.
It would be a short-lived lead, as Lamarche deflected home off an Aynsley D’Ottavio wrister to beat Trembecky with a touch under 13 minutes left in the period. Northeastern responded quickly, pouncing on another Frank rebound to pot home when Allie Lalonde tapped into an open net following a Tuva Kandell shot. NU threatened to double the lead numerous times before the period ended, but couldn’t quite sneak one past Frank again.
It might not have mattered. 1991 Wayne Gretzky could’ve showed up donning Northeastern colors, and even he probably wouldn’t have saved the Huskies. That’s just how good Kahlen Lemarche was. Four minutes in, she ripped a snapshot from the left circle, beating Trembecky glove-side to knot the score at two. And, after 15 minutes of back-and-forth play, which featured several five-alarm chances for both teams, it was Lemarche again, capitalizing on a miscommunication between two Huskies defensemen to sneak in behind on a breakaway. With all the confidence in the world, Lemarche made no mistake, flipping a backhand just past Trembecky’s 5’4” frame and in to give Quinnipiac a 3-2 lead with 1:51 remaining.
Northeastern had one more chance off the stick of sophomore forward Morgan Jackson, but Frank smothered it, as she did routinely throughout the third period. Then, when Constantinople took a spill seconds later, the Huskies’ fate was sealed. Quinnipiac’s senior forward Emerson Jarvis pounced on the loose change and sent a shot the length of the ice which split the mouth of the empty Northeastern goal to make it 4-2.
When the horn sounded, the Bobcats surrounded Lemarche, and deservedly so. After her four goals last weekend in a sweep of Syracuse, the bar was set high; after seven scores in two games this weekend, it’s safe to say she cleared it.
Lemarche’s back-to-back hat tricks marked the second time in Bobcat history that feat had been accomplished, alongsideKelly Babstock in 2010, and only the second time overall.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in 18 years [of coaching] one player that beat us, and one player beat us,” remarked Flint. “[Lemarche] is a special player… we needed to do a better job of defending her and we didn’t, and she made us pay.”
While the weekend was tough for the Huskies, this isn’t conference play yet, and gaining some experience — and learning how to lose — against one of the nation’s best teams and players is something that the vast majority of teams have to go through. It stings now, but if Northeastern handles it and learns from it, this weekend’s experience could pay dividends down the road.
“[We] ran out of gas in the third, and didn’t do the little things that we usually do well. So, we got a bye week coming up, we got a lot to work on in practice, and we’ll go from there.”
Northeastern will have a bye week before returning to action on Halloween at BU. WRBB will have full coverage, with puck drop slated for 6 pm on the spookiest day of the year.
Jacob Phillips is the Sports Director for WRBB Sports. He’s been covering Northeastern athletics for over two years, focusing primarily on men’s basketball. Follow him on Twitter here and Instagram here. He also writes for Mid-Major Madness, and you can find his work here.