Box score

Maggie DiMasi and Casey Pickett were at the double for No. 8 Northeastern women's hockey (10-1-0, 5-0-0 WHEA), which stayed perfect in Hockey East play with the sixth straight win, 5-1, over Vermont.

It was Pickett's third multi-goal game of the season, and DiMasi's fourth and fifth points in six games.

Northeastern controlled the early tempo, refusing Vermont a shot on goal over the game's first six minutes. The Huskies would ultimately cash in on their early dominance when two tri-captains, graduate Dani Rylan and junior Casey Pickett, set up sophomore defenseman Maggie DiMasi for her second goal of the year at 6:01 of the first period. DiMasi has now scored in four of her six games this season.

The Huskies continued to force the issue, finally getting Vermont's Kellie Dineen sent off for boarding. The power play opportunity went begging, however, and the score remained 1-0.

Vermont began to turn the tide then, rolling off four shots in a row before senior tri-captain Stephanie Gavronsky went to the box for tripping at 19:18. The Huskies killed the penalty with just two shots on senior Florence Schelling, but Northeastern's offense was stymied into the second period.

In the second period, with Gavronsky out of the box, the Huskies began to assert themselves in the run of play once again. At 4:41, sophomore Claire Santostefano won the faceoff from Emily Walsh, and nine seconds later received a pass from sophomore Katie MacSorley. It was Santostefano's first goal of the season, and marked the third first-time goalscorer on the Huskies' weekend in Vermont.

Gavronsky committed a second tripping offense at 8:53, but three more Schelling saves kept the margin at two. Northeastern then found itself on the power play just seven seconds after killing the penalty, through Chelsea Rapin's slashing minor. The two teams continued trading failed extra-skater chances, though, and the period ended with Northeastern content to hold its 2-0 advantage. Vermont had turned the tide somewhat in the middle frame, however, as evidenced by its 13-6 shots advantage in the period.

Northeastern appeared to have put itself out of sight 2:29 into the third when freshman Lucie Povova took possession and played in DiMasi for her second of the game. The Catamounts spend just 23 seconds down 3-0, however, thanks to an unassisted tally from Walsh that pulled Vermont back to within two.

Vermont carried the momentum off the back of that goal for a decent spell – they won the third-period shots battle, 15-9 – and parlayed their good play into another extra skater when Katie MacSorley took a tripping minor at 5:21. But just eight seconds into the power play, with the Catamounts seemingly looking to break back into the game, Amanda Pelkey took Vermont out of the ascendancy with a tripping penalty of her own. Another Northeastern penalty, a bodychecking minor to sophomore Sonia St. Martin, gave the Catamounts a four-on-three situation, but Schelling and her defense held strong through a rash of Vermont shots.

It was a couple of gaffes from the home side that enabled Pickett to kill the game off. First, after a bench minor for too many men on the ice, Pickett scored her team-leading eighth of the season, with assists from juniors Rachel Llanes and Brittany Esposito, to make it 4-1. Shortly thereafter, with a Rylan in the box for holding, Pickett took possession once again and scored her second shorthanded goal of the year – and her third overall in two games – to make it a rout for the Huskies. Only six players in Division I have more goals in as many games as Pickett's nine from 11.

The outcome might have been different were it not for another stellar performance from Schelling. Now with nine wins on the year, the reigning WHEA Goaltender of the Month and WHEA Defensive Player of the Week made 36 saves on an afternoon where the Catamounts might well have pulled ahead and nipped any Northeastern offensive explosion in the bud. Northeastern was outshot for the first time all season, 37-25.

The Huskies get will get next weekend started early, opening up a critical two-game home and home on Thursday night at Matthews Arena against Boston College, before a return match Friday at Conte Forum. Both games will begin at 7 p.m.