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BURLINGTON, Vt. – A three-goal first period by the Northeastern women's hockey team on Friday forced Vermont to play from behind for most of the game as the Huskies earned a valuable two points in Hockey East play with a 4-3 win against the Catamounts.
 
With the victory, Northeastern (8-13-4, 7-8-1 WHEA) extended its winning streak to four straight head-to-head games against Vermont (11-16-1, 2-13-0 WHEA) and pulled to within two-points of Maine for third-place in the conference standings. NU also completed the regular-season sweep of the Catamounts, having defeated Vermont earlier this year on Nov. 22 (7-3) and Nov. 23 (5-1) at Matthews Arena.
 
Huskies head coach Dave Flint celebrated a milestone with Friday's victory as he earned his 100th career win with the program. Flint becomes just the third head coach at Northeastern to eclipse the triple-digit win mark, joining the company of Don McLeod (210 victories) and Heather Linstad (161) as the only three coaches to have achieved the feat on Huntington Avenue.
 
Heather Mottau registered a point in her fifth consecutive game when she scored during the closing seconds of the first period. The sophomore defenseman has scored two goals and four assists during her current five-game point streak, the longest she has enjoyed during her career.
 
Lauren Kelly turned the red light on for Northeastern less than four minutes into the opening stanza, as the freshman fed the puck through the net at 3:39 in the first. Tatytum Clairmont picked up her seventh assist of the season on the play.
 
After a physical 12 minutes of scoreless action, Vermont broke through and found the equalizer at 15:50 in the first as Gina Repaci found Delia McNally for the goal, tying the game at 1-1. However, the Huskies responded quickly, and within 90 seconds had retaken the lead, 2-1, off Kendall Coyne's 20th goal of the year. Coyne becomes the first NU player to record three consecutive 20-goal seasons since Hilary Witt produced four 20-goal campaigns between 1996 and 2000. Denisa Krizova and teammate Ainsley MacMillan were credited with assists.

Mottau's goal at 19:39 in the first period gave Northeastern a 3-1 advantage heading into the intermission, but the Huskies did not relinquish their intensity during the second. Midway through the frame, Coyne ripped a shot on a power-play from the blue line that was deflected in by Hayley Masters, providing NU with a three-goal cushion, leading 4-1.
 
Four minutes later, Vermont capitalized on its second power-play opportunity of the evening as Amanda Drobot scored a goal off the sticks of Brittany Zuback and Taylor Willard, bringing the Catamounts back to within two.
 
The Huskies managed to kill a penalty that overlapped the second and third periods, but a cross-check by Jordan Krause coming at 4:50 in the final stanza awarded Vermont a chance to cut the lead down to one. Sure enough, Dayna Colang scooted her 12th goal of the season past Chloe Desjardins, slicing Northeastern's lead to 4-3.
 
Defense proved to be a key difference during the third period as Desjardins made nine saves while the rest of the Huskies stepped into several of the Catamounts' shooting lanes. Despite putting just two shots of its own on net during the final frame, Northeastern held off Vermont and skated away with the one-goal victory. Desjardins finished the night with 21 total saves.
 
The Huskies' next game will be on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 5 p.m. in the semifinals of the 2015 Beanpot. Northeastern will face No. 1/1 Boston College at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center on Havard's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.