BOSTON – The red-hot Northeastern women's hockey team (6-2-1, 2-0-0 WHEA) will put its seven-game unbeaten streak on the line Friday when Merrimack (3-4-1, 1-1-0 WHEA) visits Matthews Arena for a 7 p.m. contest. The Huskies are 3-0-0 all-time against the Warriors, who joined Hockey East prior to last season.
LAST TIME OUT
Northeastern earned its second win over rival Boston University this season with a 4-3 triumph on Tuesday at Walter Brown Arena. The Huskies scored two shorthanded goals, a power-play goal and an even-strength goal to seal their fourth straight victory. Senior
Hayley Scamurra led the way with a goal and two assists, while junior
McKenna Brand (two goals) and junior
Denisa Krizova (two assists) also produced multi-point efforts. Sophomore
Maddie Hartman tacked on her first goal of the campaign, while classmate
Brittany Bugalski–the two-time reigning WHEA Defensive Player of the Week–turned in another solid performance with 33 saves.
LAST TIME VS. MERRIMACK
In the most recent meeting between Northeastern and Merrimack, the Huskies skated to a 6-0 win over the Warriors on Nov. 14, 2015 at Matthews Arena.
Denisa Krizova scored twice and
Hayley Scamurra dished out two assists, while
Brittany Bugalski preserved the shutout with 14 saves.
Halle Silva,
Shelby Herrington,
Kasidy Anderson and
Melissa Haganey also scored for the Huskies.
BUGALSKI REPEATS AS WHEA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore goaltender
Brittany Bugalski repeated as the WHEA Defensive Player of the Week after backstopping Northeastern to a pair of wins last week. On Oct. 18 against BU, Bugalski turned aside 33 of 35 shots as the Huskies skated to a 6-2 triumph. The Boynton Beach, Florida native then shutout Dartmouth on Oct. 21 with 19 saves to finish the week with a .963 save percentage and a 1.00 GAA in 120 minutes played. Bugalski has now earned WHEA Defensive Player of the Week honors three times in her career.
BRITTANY THE BRICK WALL
Over the course of NU's seven-game unbeaten streak, sophomore netminder
Brittany Bugalski has stopped 174 of 182 shots (.956 save percentage) and has posted a sparkling 1.13 goals against average. Bugalski has three shutouts over that span, blanking Lindenwood with 10 saves on Oct. 7, denying Syracuse with 27 stops on Oct. 15, and silencing Dartmouth with 19 saves on Oct. 21. Bugalski ranks 14th in the NCAA and second in WHEA with a 1.61 GAA this season.
JUNIORS CARRY THE SCORING LOAD
Northeastern owns the highest-scoring junior class in the nation with 16 goals, 19 assists and 35 points. With 35 of the Huskies' NCAA-best 81 total team points, the junior class has accounted for 43.2 percent of NU's total offensive output, which is tied for the highest mark in WHEA (Connecticut) and the fourth-best mark in the NCAA. Only the junior classes from Sacred Heart (75% of team's total scoring), Syracuse (52.6%) and Colgate (45.2%) have produced more of their team's total offense than Northeastern.
DEFENSE INTO OFFENSE
Senior
Heather Mottau is tied for the national lead in scoring among defensemen with seven points (2-5-7) this season. Only four other defensemen in the nation have matched Mottau's offensive output thus far. In 114 career games, Mottau has racked up 73 points, making her the seventh-highest scoring defenseman in NU women's hockey history. Donna-Lynn Rosa (1985-89) holds the program record for defenseman scoring with 121 career points in 96 games.
KRIZOVA AMONG NCAA'S BEST
Junior
Denisa Krizova is tied for the national lead in scoring this season with 13 points (6-7-13). Krizova has tallied at least one point in eight of nine games this season; the only contest in which Denisa has been held off the scoresheet was in the season opener against St. Lawrence when Northeastern was shutout by a 5-0 score.
BRAND-NAME RECOGNITION
Junior forward
McKenna Brand is off to a hot start with six goals and four assists in 10 games. At this scoring rate, Brand is on pace for a 37-point season, which would smash her previous single-season best of 21 points, set last year.
ONE HUNDRED AND COUNTING
Junior
Denisa Krizova became the 25th player in program history to reach 100 career points when she set up
Heather Mottau's game-winning goal late in the first period of a 4-1 win at Lindenwood on Oct. 8. Including Krizova, only 10 players in program history have managed to hit 100 or more points while playing in less than 100 career games. Two more Huskies also have their eyes trained on 100 career points as
Paige Savage (91 career points) and
Hayley Scamurra (88 career points) are nearing the milestone.
