WALTHAM — The Northeastern women’s hockey team is battered, bruised, and down five skaters from their normal starting lines.
With four forwards (graduate student Jaden Bogden, senior Holly Abela, junior Peyton Compton, and sophomore Éloïse Caron) out due to injury and freshman defender Alessia Baechler at the Olympics representing Switzerland, the Huskies took on crosstown rivals Boston College with a barren line sheet, barely able to field three offensive lines.
In a goaltending battle for the ages between Northeastern sophomore Lisa Jönsson and BC senior Grace Campbell, neither side was able to put a puck in the net in regulation. An untimely penalty in overtime led to freshman phenom Ava Thomas scoring the game-winner in sudden-death for the Eagles as they downed the Huskies 1-0 Sunday afternoon.
The extra Hockey East point was far more significant to the visitors than the hosts, as Northeastern has already secured its spot as the top seed in the conference tournament, claiming that title last weekend against Vermont. BC, on the other hand, entered the contest two points behind third-place Holy Cross. With the two points secured in Sunday’s game, the Eagles sit tied for third in the conference with a game in hand over the Crusaders.
Considering how shallow the Huskies look right now, though, teams might want to angle for Northeastern’s side of the bracket, rather than taking on a healthy UConn, having locked in its place as the two-seed.
Regardless of the lack of depth on the Huskies’ line sheet Sunday, though, for the most part, they did not lose a step on BC throughout the contest.
“For having a really short bench, I liked [our] effort,” said Northeastern head coach Dave Flint. “I told the team, ‘Everybody’s got to be their best tonight, it’s an opportunity for everyone to step up,’ and I thought they did. We had players playing regular shifts that normally don’t play regular shifts, some people out of position, and lines were all scrambled. I liked the way they came together.”
If the sheer lack of bodies on the Northeastern bench wasn’t enough to tucker them out, the rampant physicality that tends to emerge every time we see a dogs-on-birds matchup would do the trick. Over the course of the nearly 63 minutes on the ice, the squads combined for 20 penalty minutes, with some of the game’s most threatening opportunities coming on shorthanded plays.
Thomas had a plethora of these, taking on Jönsson one-on-zero numerous times.
Each time Thomas approached, Jönsson maintained a level head and stood tall in the crease, excelling with both her pads and her glove, an occurrence that has not come as naturally to the sophomore in what has been an up-and-down season following a stellar freshman year.
“[Jönsson] was great,” Flint said. “She gave us a chance to win. She made some big saves, and especially in the third, when you’re getting a little tired, she stepped up. Just wish we could have gotten her the win.”
But for every highlight reel save that Jönsson fielded against the Eagles, Campbell responded with showstoppers of her own.
With under four minutes left in the second period, sophomore forward Morgan Jackson escaped on a solo breakaway in the middle of a four-on-four stint, but her dangle attempt was no match for the composure possessed by Campbell, who poked the puck away with some timely stick play.
“If it wasn’t for Campbell, I don’t even think we’re going into overtime,” Flint said. “We ran into a hot goalie tonight; she made a lot of great saves.”
And despite Northeastern’s power play picking up some momentum as of late (following a two-month stint where the Huskies scored just three power play goals in 14 games, they have scored four in their last four), they were unable to capitalize on any of the six special teams opportunities they enjoyed.
“We had some good looks,” Flint said. “I don’t think [the power play] was as crisp as it’s been in some other games, but they were still generating opportunities. We didn’t capitalize on the opportunities we had. I didn’t think it was bad, but to win games, you’ve got to finish when you get opportunities, and we just didn’t today.”
Ultimately, it would be special teams that bit Northeastern. Just over two and a half minutes into the three-on-three overtime period, junior forward Allie Lalonde issued an unnecessary slash on redshirt senior Emma Conner in neutral territory, giving BC the four-on-three advantage.
If there’s one thing you never want to see Ava Thomas get, it’s space.
And following a blocked shot from junior forward Sammy Taber, Thomas found the hot rebound at her skates with miles of ice to work with. Driving from the top of the zone to the right dot, Thomas wristed in the puck with perfection past Jönsson to win it for the Eagles.
It wasn’t a dreadful performance from the Huskies by any means — Jönsson’s acrobatics and some impressive shifts from Northeastern’s depth highlighted some positive takeaways from the game for the hosts — but for a team gearing up for a national bid, there is always going to be a level of dissatisfaction following a snake-bitten game like Sunday’s. With all the injury troubles, the Huskies may be in for a rocky end to the regular season next weekend.
The slate of the final two Hockey East games for Northeastern consists of UConn on Friday, Feb. 20, and Providence on Saturday, Feb. 21. Each game poses a special set of challenges: UConn’s goaltender, graduate student Tia Chan, holds the second-highest save percentage in the nation, and the energy tank of the short-staffed Huskies may be drained for the second game of their back-to-back set against the Friars.
But if there’s a squad that can push through adversity, it’s Northeastern.
“We’re going to have to play like we did tonight, get good goaltending like we did tonight, and see what happens,” Flint said. “[UConn is] going to give us everything we can handle, and the players that are healthy need to step up and do a good job. If we can do that, then I like our chances.”
Northeastern travels to Storrs, Conn. for its third and final game of the season against UConn Friday, Feb. 20. Daisy Roberts and Armaan Vij will have the call LIVE for WRBB for the 5:30 p.m. puck drop.
Daisy Roberts is a hockey, basketball, and baseball broadcaster and writer for WRBB Sports. She has been covering Northeastern Athletics for five years. You can read her content here and follow her on X here.