Box Score

Casey Pickett notched two goals and an assist and Rachel Llanes added three assists as Northeastern defeated Connecticut, 4-0, in the Hockey East quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon in Storrs, Conn.

Florence Schelling stopped 25 shots to earn her fourth shutout of the season. Alyssa Wohlfeiler's goal 15 seconds into the second period was her fourth game-winner of the season.

Northeastern (15-12-8) advances to the Hockey East seminfals and will face either host Boston University on Saturday, March 5 at 12 p.m. The win against UConn (13-19-3) was the first Hockey East tournament win for Northeastern.

The Huskies skated strong right from the opening puck drop, as NU registered the first five shots of the first frame and did well to pin UConn back in its own zone.

UConn eventually found its legs and began to mount pressure of its own, which resulted in drawing three penalties on Northeastern in the first.

The NU penalty kill, which had been successful in 38 of its last 41 chances entering Saturday, was tested with about three minutes to go in the first when UConn had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:35. Northeastern held the fort, however, and backed by great shot blocking and stellar netminding, the Huskies kept UConn off the board.

Northeastern nearly opened its scoring account with seconds remaining in the first period. On the power play, Pickett rang the right pipe as the buzzer sounded.

While Pickett didn't score to end the period, the sophomore forward helped set up the first goal of the game. Llanes won the opening draw and Pickett retrieved the puck. She then sent Wohlfeiler into the offensive end and the senior co-captain fired a shot past Alexandra Garcia (29 saves) from inside the right faceoff circle. It was Wohlfeiler's sixth goal of the season and third power play strike of the year.

The Huskies took their 1-0 lead into the third period and extended it to 2-0 thanks to a pair of sophomore forwards connecting on a brilliant pass. Llanes lobbed the puck from the NU blue line that landed right on the tape of Pickett, who skated in on Garcia and made a nice move to her backhand to pot her eighth goal of the season.

The third Husky goal was due to a great forecheck from Claire Santostefano. With the puck in the middle of the UConn zone, Santostefano raced in and forced Garcia to come out of her crease to play the puck. The freshman forward batted down Garcia's clearing attempt to keep the puck in the zone. Then, from behind the net, Santostefano found her classmate Katie MacSorley in front for the easy finish. It was MacSorley's team leading 15th goal of the year.

UConn pulled Garcia with 4:30 remaining in regulation, but Schelling and the defense dealt well with the extra attacker. Northeastern blocked 11 shots during the game, many of the blocks coming on the penalty kill.

Pickett sealed the victory when Llanes forced a turnover in the neutral zone and found Pickett, who took the puck to the net and slid it home for the 4-0 lead with 11 seconds remaining.

Northeastern will face BU for the fourth time in seven games. Last time the two teams played, the Huskies used a three-goal third period to rally for a 3-3 tie in the Beanpot consolation game on Feb. 15. The Terriers are the number one seed and the defending Hockey East tournament champions.

Game Notes

Rachel Llanes notched three assists for her third multiple-point effort in the last four contests. She has one goal and six assists for seven points during that stretch. She leads the Huskies with 30 points this season.

Casey Pickett is the second Husky to pot an empty net goal this season. Julia Marty scored a long-distance empty net strike against Maine on Jan. 15.

Florence Schelling has posted four straight periods of shutout hockey in the postseason. The streak dates back to the third period of last year's quarterfinal matchup with Connecticut.

Northeastern killed off all five UConn power plays on the afternoon. In three games against Connecticut, the Huskies killed off all 11 power plays UConn had. Dating back to Jan. 22, NU has allowed just three power play goals in 46 chances.