BOSTON --Â The Northeastern women's hockey team continues its road trip with a two-game set in Vail, Colo., for National Collegiate Ice Hockey Weekend. The Huskies will face No. 2/2 Wisconsin on Friday at 9:07 p.m. before taking on St. Cloud State the following afternoon at 4 p.m.
Last time out
In their first meeting of the season, the Huskies fell to crosstown rival No. 5/5 Boston College 6-1 on Sunday night at Conte Forum. Emily Field finished with a four-point game (2-2-4) for the Eagles, while redshirt-senior
Brittany Esposito scored Northeastern's lone goal in her first game of the season.
BC jumped out to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period courtesy of a shorthanded tally by Field, but the Huskies answered less than two minutes later when Esposito banged home the rebound of a shot from freshman
Hayley Scamurra to knot the score at one apiece.
That was as close as NU would get in the game, as the Eagles went on to score five unanswered goals, including three on the power play, to seal the 6-1 win. Corinne Boyles turned away 30 shots for the Eagles, while junior
Chloe Desjardins and rookie
Sarah Foss combined to make 18 saves for Northeastern.
Scouting Wisconsin
The Huskies will face a top-five opponent for the second consecutive game when they take on No. 2/2 Wisconsin on Friday night.
The Badgers own one of college hockey's best records at 8-2-0, with their only two losses coming at No. 1 and unbeaten Minnesota on Oct. 11 and 12. Wisconsin has been perfect otherwise, outscoring their opponents 34-7 and allowing two or fewer goals in each of their 10 contests thus far.
Senior Brittany Ammerman leads the Badgers' attack with eight goals and 17 points, good for 7th in Division I, while junior Blayre Turnbull is tied for 21st in the NCAA with 13 points through 10 games. Overall the Wisconsin offense has proven to be one of the fiercest in the college hockey this season, tying for seventh in goals per game (3.5) while ranking fifth nationally in scoring margin (2.4 goals per game). The Badgers have found success on the power play, too, converting 11-of-40 opportunities for a 27.5 percent clip, the fourth-best in the country.
On the defensive end of the ice, Wisconsin is no slouch either, allowing just 1.10 goals per game, the No. 4 defense in the NCAA. A large part of that success is due to the Badgers' shutdown goaltender tandem of senior Alex Rigsby and rookie Ann-Renee Desbiens. Rigsby has started eight games and accumulated a 1.25 goals against average and .949 save percentage, while Desbiens is a perfect 2-0-0 in two starts with only one goal allowed and a .975 save percentage. The Wisconsin penalty kill currently ranks second in the NCAA, killing off 35-of-37 opportunities while adding three shorthanded goals.
The Huskies and Badgers have not met since Jan. 1, 2011, a 7-2 win for Wisconsin. Northeastern is 1-4-2 all-time vs. the Badgers, with its lone win coming in the first-ever meeting between the two programs on Dec. 30, 1999 (15-0).
Scouting St. Cloud State
On Saturday afternoon, the Huskies will square off with the St. Cloud State Huskies for only the second time in program history. The first meeting between the two teams came on Jan. 2, 2011, a 2-1 win for Northeastern.
St. Cloud enters this weekend's play with a 1-8-3 record and 1-7-2 mark in WCHA play. The Huskies of Minnesota earned their first win Nov. 1 at Minnesota-Duluth (4-1), snapping a a season-long five-game winless streak and creating their biggest offensive production of the season. St. Cloud followed its victory up with a 1-1 draw at Minnesota-Duluth the following day before dropping a pair of games at No. 1 Minnesota last weekend.
The St. Cloud offense, which clicks in at 1.42 goals per came, is led by senior Molli Mott, whose 10 points (4-6-10) are tied for 63rd in the country. Senior Julia Gilbert is tied with Mott for the team lead in goals with four and also owns one of St. Cloud's four power play goals on the season. The Huskies have converted 4-of-50 opportunities, good for an 8 percent clip.
Junior Julie Friend has started eight games in goal for St. Cloud thus far, backstopping the Huskies' lone win while opening up a .933 save percentage and 2.84 goals against average. Sophomore Katie Fitzgerald has complemented Friend's efforts well, starting four games and accumulating a .911 save percentage and 3.39 goals against average.
Unfamiliar territory
When Northeastern travels to Vail, Colo., this weekend, it will mark the first time in program history the Huskies have played a game in the state of Colorado.
Wasting little time
Redshirt-senior
Brittany Esposito scored Northeastern's lone goal Sunday at BC, marking the third consecutive year she has tallied a point in her first game and the second time she has scored in her first game of the season. The Edmonton, Alberta, native also found the back of the net in her 2011-12 season-opener, a 5-2 win over Syracuse.
Scamurra lending a helping hand
Rookie
Hayley Scamurra had the only assist on
Brittany Esposito's goal Sunday at BC, giving her three assists in her last two games. She is currently on a career-best two-game scoring streak for the second time this season and is tied with sophomore
Paige Savage for the team lead in assists (5).
Friendly foe
Senior captain
Maggie Brennolt has fond memories of the last time the Huskies and Badgers met Jan. 1, 2011. Brennolt factored into each of Northeastern's two goals that game, tallying her first career goal and assist for what would prove to be the only two points she scored during her freshman season.
No small margin
Northeastern will face Wisconsin for just the eighth time Friday night. In the two teams' first meeting, the Huskies rattled off a 15-0 win -- tied for the third-largest margin of victory in program history.
Keeping it close
Sunday's 6-1 loss at BC marked Northeastern's largest margin of defeat this season and largest since Jan. 3, a 6-0 loss at St. Lawrence.
Save it for later
Junior netminder
Chloe Desjardins and rookie
Sarah Foss combined to make 18 saves Sunday at BC, the fewest by a Northeastern goalie or goalie tandem since Feb. 17, when Desjardins made 17 saves in a 7-2 win at Maine.
Lights, camera, Mac(Sorley)-tion
After her three-goal performance Nov. 1 and 3 against Maine and UNH, respectively, senior
Katie MacSorley tallied four goals in three games, marking a career-best scoring streak. She also scored points in five consecutive games, one shy of her all-time-high of six contests, set from Oct. 27 to Nov. 16, 2012. She is currently tied for 26th in the country in goals per game (0.55) and is tied for fifth in the country in power play goals with three.
MacSorley has scored in all situations this season, too. Only one of her six goals thus far has come five-on-five; she has scored all three of Northeastern's power play goals and two of the Huskies' NCAA-leading six shorthanded goals.
Chloe in the clutch
Junior netminder Chlose Desjardins turned away 31 shots in NU's 3-0 win over UNH on Nov. 3, marking her fifth career shutout, first of the season and first since Feb. 19, a 4-0 win at Connecticut. The Huskies are now 3-1 in games in which the Saint-Prosper, Quebec, native has had to make at least 30 saves, and had not lost a regulation game with Desjardins in net since Oct. 25, a span of four games, until Sunday.
Overpowering their opponents
Despite their struggles on the power play this season, the Huskies have twice notched more man-advantage goals than their opponents. Senior
Katie MacSorley tallied a power play goal Oct. 29 vs. Boston University and in the Huskies 3-0 win over UNH on Nov. 3, while the Northeastern penalty kill went a combined 11-for-11 in those contests, giving the Huskies a +1 scoring margin on the power play in each contest.
Hey, shorty
With senior
Katie MacSorley's shorthanded tally in Northeastern's 1-1 draw at Maine on Nov. 1, the Huskies now have six shorties on the season, the most of any team in the country. Three skaters -- MacSorley, redshirt-senior
Kelly Wallace and junior
Chelsey Goldberg -- have combined to score all six of those goals, tying them for second in the country in shorthanded tallies with two apiece.
Far from home
The Huskies will play their next five games on the road before their next game at Matthews Arena on Dec. 3 against Boston University, a span of 30 days and their longest road trip of the year. Northeastern has not spent that much time away from home since 2008, when the Huskies played six consecutive away games from Nov. 14 to Dec. 9, going 1-5 in that span.
Gosh Goll-y
Junior forward
Chelsiea Goll knotted the score at one apiece Oct. 29 against Boston University, breaking a six-game scoreless drought with her second goal of the season. With two goals, Goll, a native of Winthrop, Mass., has already set a single-season high and matched her career goal total from her prior two seasons.
The fountain of youth
The Huskies continued to get production from their rookies Oct. 29 against BU.
Heather Mottau continued her streak of strong play with an assist on
Chelsiea Goll's game-tying goal in the first period, marking her fourth point (1-3-4) in three games, while
Hayley Scamurra registered an assist for the second consecutive game, marking her first career scoring streak.
