BOSTON – The No. 10 Northeastern women's hockey team (10-4-3, 6-2-2 WHEA) will wrap up the month of November with a road game at Providence (8-8-1, 4-4-1 WHEA) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Huskies have won eight straight games against the Friars, including a 2-1 victory on Nov. 6 at Matthews Arena.
HUSKIES RANKED FOR THIRD STRAIGHT WEEK
For the third straight week, the Huskies held down a spot in the top-10 of the national polls, coming in at No. 10 in the nation. Northeastern has now been ranked in four weeks of the 2016-17 season, climbing as high as No. 9 in both polls during the opening week of the campaign.
LAST TIME VS. PROVIDENCE
The Huskies potted a pair of shorthanded goals in a span of 52 seconds early in the first period, and sophomore
Brittany Bugalski (32 saves) shut the door at the other end to help the Huskies to a 2-1 victory against Providence on Nov. 6 at Matthews Arena. The Huskies found the back of the net twice during its first penalty of the afternoon as
McKenna Brand finished off a two-on-one rush with
Shelby Herrington before
Denisa Krizova beat Providence goaltender Alanna Serviss (24 saves) on a breakaway less than a minute later. Christina Putigna scored the lone goal for PC, a shorthanded marker midway through the opening frame.
BRAND-NAME RECOGNITION
Junior
McKenna Brand enters the weekend ranked second in the NCAA with 14 goals in 17 games on the year. Prior to this season, Brand had scored 18 career goals in 74 games, including 10 in 38 contests last season. Brand has four multi-goal performances this year after notching just three total multi-goal efforts over her first two collegiate seasons combined.
AS CONSISTENT AS THEY COME
Northeastern's leading scorer with nine goals, 12 assists and 21 points, junior
Denisa Krizova has recorded at least one point in 14 of 17 games this season. Over the course of her 87-game collegiate career, Krizova has been held off the scoresheet in only 14 contests, and has piled up 32 multi-point performances. Krizova ranks 18th all-time at Northeastern with 115 career points.
SHORTHANDED SUCCESS
Northeastern leads the nation with seven shorthanded goals this season, including three by junior
McKenna Brand. Brand joins Cornell's Kristin O'Neill as the only two players in the nation with three shorthanded tallies this season. The Huskies have potted at least seven shorthanded goals in four of the last six seasons overall.
CLOSING IN ON THE CENTURY MARK
Seniors
Paige Savage (96 points) and
Hayley Scamurra (93 points) are closing in on the 100-point plateau for their careers. If Savage and Scamurra can hit the milestone this season, that would give Northeastern three current players with at least 100 career points (joining
Denisa Krizova). The last time NU had three players with at least 100 points on the same team was in 2012-13 with Casey Pickett (125),
Kendall Coyne (113) and Rachel Llanes (102).
ROAD WARRIORS
Northeastern owns an unbeaten record on the road this season at 5-0-1. The Huskies are averaging 3.8 goals per game away from home and have outscored opponents by a 23-9 margin in those games. In 365 road minutes, netminder
Brittany Bugalski owns a 1.48 GAA and a .939 save percentage (138 saves on 147 shots).
JUNIORS CARRY THE LOAD
Northeastern owns the highest-scoring junior class in the nation with 28 goals, 35 assists and 63 points. With 63 of the Huskies' 137 total team points, the junior class has accounted for 45.9 percent of NU's total offensive output.
DEFENSE INTO OFFENSE
In 122 career games, defenseman
Heather Mottau has racked up 76 points, making her the sixth-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.
