ARLINGTON, Va. – The Northeastern women's hockey team (7-7-2) will travel south to the nation's capital this weekend for a four-team 'D1 in DC' tournament featuring fellow Hockey East rival Boston University and WCHA foes Wisconsin and Minnesota State. The Huskies will open the weekend against the top-ranked Badgers (16-0-0) on Friday at 4 p.m. before concluding play against Minnesota State (2-11-1) on Saturday at 4 p.m. All games will be played at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex.
• This is the second 'D1 in DC' event, but the first to feature four teams. The women's teams from St. Lawrence and Mercyhurst contested the inaugural 'D1 in DC' with a two-game series in January 2017 at Kettler Capitals Iceplex.
• Northeastern is 1-5-2 all-time against Wisconsin and has not faced the Badgers since Nov. 15, 2013. On that day, the Huskies took a 2-1 lead into the third period against No. 2 Wisconsin, but late goals by Brittany Ammerman and Jenny Ryan gave the Badgers the win in a game played in Vail, Colorado.
• With Wisconsin entering the weekend at No. 1 in both national polls, Friday's meeting between the Huskies and Badgers will be NU's third game against the top-ranked team in the country this season. Northeastern tied (1-1) and lost (5-1) to No. 1 Clarkson to open the campaign.
• Northeastern will be looking for its second-ever win over a No. 1 ranked team on Friday. The Huskies are 1-21-2 all-time against No. 1 ranked teams with the lone win coming on Jan. 5, 2001 against Dartmouth.
• Northeastern has never faced Minnesota State in program history. The Huskies are 4-8-4 all-time against teams from the state of Minnesota.
LAST TIME OUT
• The Huskies split a pair of games against Maine on Nov. 18-19 at Matthews Arena, winning the first game by a 3-0 score, before falling 2-0 in the second matchup.
• Freshman goaltender
Aerin Frankel pitched a 39-save shutout in the opening game of the weekend. Frankel's 39 saves represented the highest total in a shutout for an NU goaltender since Leah Sulyma stopped all 52 Princeton shots on Jan. 5, 2010.
• Freshman
Skylar Fontaine, senior
McKenna Brand and redshirt junior
Taytum Clairmont each scored for NU in the victory.
• Maine returned the favor the following day with a shutout of its own to earn the weekend split. Brooke Stacey scored both goals and Carly Jackson kept the Huskies off the scoresheet with 28 saves.
• Frankel was again impressive for NU with 26 stops on 28 shots in the setback. For the weekend, Frankel turned aside 65 of 67 Maine shots, good for a .970 save percentage. In four starts this season, Frankel owns a 1.16 GAA and a .961 save percentage.
MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior
Denisa Krizova enters the weekend with 148 career points in 120 games. With one more point, Krizova will pass Carolyn Sullivan (1980-84) for sole possession of seventh place among the highest scorers in program history.
• Krizova also enters the weekend with 93 career assists. Krizova needs three more helpers to jump Hilary Witt for fourth place all-time in the NU record books.
• Senior defenseman
Lauren Kelly needs one more point to become the 13th blue-liner in program history to reach 50 career points.
• Senior forward
McKenna Brand needs two more goals to become the 23rd player in program history to score 50 career goals. Only three other Huskies have scored 50 or more goals since NU joined Hockey East in 2002: Kendall Coyne (141), Casey Pickett (59) and
Denisa Krizova (55).
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