BOSTON --Â The Northeastern women's hockey team begins its longest road trip of the season when it visits crosstown rival No. 5 Boston College for a Sunday night showdown at Conte Forum. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
Last time out
The Huskies completed their second unbeaten weekend of the season Nov. 1-3, skating to a 1-1 draw at Maine before topping New Hampshire, 3-0, at Matthews Arena on Sunday.
On Friday night at Alfond Arena, the Black Bears took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission courtesy of a late first period goal by Kelly McDonald. But the Huskies responded early in the middle frame when senior
Katie MacSorley notched an unassisted tally, her fourth of the season, to knot the score at one apiece. Neither team was able to break through in the final 40 minutes of regulation and overtime as junior
Chloe Desjardins and Meghann Treacy combined to make to make 52 saves to preserve the draw.
MacSorley kept up her scoring momentum in Sunday's matinee against New Hampshire, scoring a pair of goals, the first of which proved to be the game-winner, to lead the Huskies to a 3-0 victory. Sophomore
Paige Savage added her fourth goal of the season, while freshman
Hayley Scamurra tallied a pair of assists and Desjardins turned away 31 shots for her first shutout of the season.
A look at Boston College
The Huskies will face one of the hottest teams in the country in No. 5 Boston College when they travel to Conte Forum on Sunday night.
The Eagles have jumped out to a quick 7-2-0 start (3-1-0 WHEA) and sit second in the Hockey East standings with six points, just one point more than Northeastern. BC has yet to lose back-to-back games thus far, outscoring its opponents by a combined score of 35-23, and are a staunch 6-1-0 on home ice.
The BC offensive attack ranks fourth in the NCAA (3.89 goals per game), led by 2012-13 Hockey East Player of the Year Haley Skarupa, who has nine goals and 17 points through her first nine games, both good for second in the country. The remaining Eagles are no slouches, though, as seven BC skaters have six or more points. The Eagles power play has converted just four-of-44 attempts for a 9.1 percent clip, while its penalty kill has succeeded on 37-of-46 opportunities (80.4 percent). The Eagles have five shorthanded goals on the season, the second-most of any team in Division I (Northeastern).
Senior Corinne Boyles has started eight of BC's nine games in goal and accumulated a .910 save percentage and 2.31 goals against average, good for 24th and 17th, respectively, among Division I netminders. Junior Megan Miller has started two contests for the Eagles, going a perfect 2-0-0 while conceding six goals on 39 shots in nealry 100 minutes of ice time.
The Eagles and Huskies have not met since the 2013 Hockey East semifinals March 9, where Northeastern knocked off BC, 4-1. The Eagles won the 2012-13 season series 3-2, with the Huskies' other win coming in the Beanpot championship game (4-3) to give Northeastern its 16th Beanpot title in team history.
Scamurra earns WHEA honors
Freshman forward
Hayley Scamurra was named Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week after registering two assists in Northeastern's 3-0 win over New Hampshire on Sunday, Hockey East announced Monday.
Scamurra has four assists in five games after missing the first six games of the season. Sunday marked her first collegiate multipoint game, with each of her points primary helpers on goals by senior
Katie MacSorley, including the eventual game-winner 3:03 into the second period.
Lights, camera, Mac(Sorley)-tion
After last weekend's three-goal performance, senior
Katie MacSorley has tallied four goals in her last three games, marking a career-best scoring streak. She also has points in five consecutive games, one shy of her all-time-high of six contests, set from Oct. 27 to Nov. 16, 2012. She currently ranks 29th 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
Chloe Desjardins turned away 31 shots in Sunday's 3-0 win over UNH, 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 have not lost a regulation game with Desjardins in net since Oct. 25, a span of four games.
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 Sunday's 3-0 win over UNH, 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 six 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.
Let's go streaking
Dating back to last season, Northeastern has won two consecutive games against Boston College. With a win on Sunday, the Huskies would hold a three-game winning streak over their crosstown rivals for the first time since 2004, a span of 33 games, when they beat the Eagles a pair of times (both 2-1 wins) at the conclusion of the 2003-04 season before opening up the 2004-05 series with a 4-2 victory on Nov. 19, 2004.
Wallace has the hot hand
Redshirt-senior
Kelly Wallace continued her offensive dominance Sunday against UNH, tallying an assist to give her five points in her last four games and eight points (5-3-8) overall. Wallace, a native of Libertyville, Ill., is tied for 50th in Division I in goals per game (0.45), one of only 32 skaters in the country with five or more goals and one of 10 players nationally with two shorthanded tallies.
Power play powers up
After an 0-for-27 drought through their first six games, the Huskies have scored power play goals in three out of their last five games. Senior
Katie MacSorley has been the spark the Huskies needed on the man-advantage, scoring each of the team's three power play goals, including most recently against UNH on Sunday. She also netted game-tying power play tallies Oct. 29 against BU and Oct. 25 against Providence, prior to which the Huskies hadn't scored on the man-advantage since Feb. 23, a 5-1 win over Providence College at Schneider Arena.
Gosh Goll-e
Junior forward
Chelsiea Goll knotted the score at one apiece, 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 Tuesday 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 her last three games, while
Hayley Scamurra registered an assist for the second consecutive game, marking her first career scoring streak.
