BOSTON – Winners of four straight and eight of the last nine games, the No. 10 Northeastern women's hockey team (10-3-1, 6-1-0 WHEA) will look to continue its winning ways this week- end when it battles Hockey East foes Vermont (Friday, 2 p.m.) and No. 6/7 Boston College (Sunday, 2 p.m.).
HUSKIES RE-ENTER NATIONAL POLLS
The Huskies were ranked No. 10 in the nation in the most recent USCHO.com and USA Hockey/USA Today national polls. The top-10 ranking represents NU's first appearance in the polls since the opening week of the season.
GOING STREAKING
Junior
Denisa Krizova enters the weekend riding a career-best 13-game point streak, during which she has compiled nine goals, 11 assists and 20 points. Dating back to last season, Krizova has recorded at least one point in 27 of her last 30 games. Over the course of her 84-game collegiate career, Krizova has been held off the scoresheet in only 12 contests.
BRAND-NAME RECOGNITION
Riding a four-game goal-scoring streak, junior
McKenna Brand has tallied a team-high 11 goals in 14 games this season. The total is already good for a single-season career best, topping last year's haul of 10 goals in 38 games. Brand has three multi-goal performances so far this year after notching just three total multi-goal efforts over her first two collegiate seasons combined.
LAST TIME OUT
Northeastern completed a weekend sweep of Merrimack with a pair of 4-2 wins on Nov. 11-12. On Friday, the Huskies scored the game's final three goals to overturn a 2-1, third-period deficit at Lawler Rink. Junior
Denisa Krizova, freshman
Codie Cross and junior
McKenna Brand each scored in a span of 7:56 in the third period, while sophomore netminder
Brittany Bugalski made 30 saves. The following day, NU started strong and raced out to a 3-0 lead after two periods on the strength of goals by Brand (2) and junior
Halle Silva. Freshman
Andrea Renner later added another goal–her second in as many games–as the Red & Black held on for the victory at Matthews Arena.
LAST TIME VS. VERMONT
Northeastern last faced Vermont for a pair of games in Burlington on Dec. 4-5, 2015. In the first contest,
Paige Savage scored two goals,
Hayley Masters added a goal and an assist, and
Sarah Foss made 23 saves as the Huskies claimed a 5-1 victory. Foss was strong in net in the second game as well, stopping 26 pucks as Northeastern came from behind to beat Vermont, 2-1, thanks to third-period goals from
Kendall Coyne and
McKenna Brand.
LAST TIME VS. BOSTON COLLEGE
NU and BC last met in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA tournament in a 5-1 Eagles win on March 12.
Kendall Coyne netted the 50th goal of her senior season in the defeat as Boston College went on to the Frozen Four in Durham, N.H.
COYNE HONORED AT 2016 GLOBIES
Alumna
Kendall Coyne was named 'Best Female Athlete' at The Globies–the second-annual award show hosted by The Boston Globe that celebrates the dynamic New England sports scene–on Nov. 14 at the House of Blues Boston. Coyne won the 'Best Female Athlete' category over two of her USA Hockey teammates, Boston College alumna Alex Carpenter and the Boston Pride's Hilary Knight, as well as 2016 Boston Marathon winner Atsede Baysa. Coyne is the first Northeastern student-athlete to win an award at The Globies.
SHORTHANDED SUCCESS
Northeastern currently leads the nation with five shorthanded goals this season. Junior
Denisa Krizova has accounted for two of the five shorthanded markers and is one of only six players in the nation with more than one shorty thus far. The Huskies have potted at least five shorthanded goals in five of the last six seasons overall.
ROAD WARRIORS
Northeastern enters Friday's game at Vermont with an unbeaten record on the road at 5-0-0. The Huskies are averaging 4.0 goals per game away from home and have outscored opponents by a 20-6 margin in those games. In 300 road minutes, netminder
Brittany Bugalski owns a 1.20 GAA and a .952 save percentage (118 saves on 124 shots).
