BOSTON – The No. 2 seed Northeastern women's hockey team (19-11-3) will begin its playoff push this weekend with a best-of-three WHEA quarterfinal series against No. 7 Connecticut (14-16-4) at Matthews Arena. Game one is set for Friday at 7 p.m., game two is scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m., and game three (if necessary) is set for Sunday at 3 p.m.
QUARTERFINAL STORYLINES
• Northeastern and Connecticut will be meeting for the fourth time in the quarterfinal round of the WHEA Championship. UConn prevailed in 2010, while Northeastern came out on top in 2011 and 2014.
• NU swept the regular season series against the other Huskies, claiming a pair of wins at Freitas Ice Forum (4-2 and 3-2) as well as a 5-3 victory at Matthews Arena on Jan. 21.
• Senior
Hayley Scamurra leads Northeastern with seven points (one goal, six assists) in three games against UConn this season.
• Northeastern has won six straight against UConn overall and has not lost to the other Huskies since Feb. 19, 2011, a span of 21 straight games (18-0-3).
• The Red & Black will be hosting a best-of-three quarterfinal series for the third straight season. Since WHEA adopted the series format prior to the 2014-15 campaign, NU has knocked off UNH in 2015 (two games to one) and Providence in 2016 (two games to none).
• Northeastern has not lost in the WHEA quarterfinal round since falling to Connecticut in 2010. Since then, the Huskies have advanced at least as far as the WHEA semifinals in every season.
• Sophomore
Brittany Bugalski owns a 6-0-0 record with a 1.41 GAA and a .918 save percentage in her career vs. Connecticut.
• Bugalski enters the weekend with 38 career wins, good for the seventh-most in program history. With two more wins, Bugalski would become the sixth goaltender in program history to win 40 or more games.
• Junior
Denisa Krizova enters the weekend needing one more point to break into the program's top-10 in career scoring. Krizova has 134 career points in 100 games and is currently tied with Lisa Sylvia (1982-86) for 10th place in the program record books.
• Krizova and linemate
McKenna Brand are both in the thick of the 2017 Patty Kazmaier race. Brand is tied for second in the NCAA with 23 goals and ranks third in the nation with three shorthanded tallies. Krizova is one of only three WHEA players with at least 40 points this season, and ranks second in the league with a 1.33 points-per-game clip.
• With a win over the weekend, NU would clinch its 15th 20-win season in program history, and the fourth in the last six years. The Huskies would become the 10th Division-I program to post at least four 20-win campaigns in the last six seasons, joining Boston College, Boston University, Clarkson, Harvard, Mercyhurst, Minnesota, North Dakota, Quinnipiac and Wisconsin.
HUSKIES SHINE ON INTERNATIONAL STAGE
Three Northeastern standouts turned in impressive performances at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Olympic qualifiers in Arosa, Switzerland on Feb. 9-12. Alumna Florence Schelling backstopped Switzerland to a berth in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, while junior
Denisa Krizova and alumna Lucie Povova both starred for a Czech Republic team that won two of three games at the event. Schelling did not allow more than one goal in any of the three games and finished as the top netminder in the tournament with a 3-0-0 record, a 1.00 GAA and a .941 save percentage (48 saves on 51 shots).
Krizova notched at least one point in all three games at the Olympic qualifiers, and finished as the Czech Republic's leading scorer (and the fourth-highest scorer at the event) with four points on two goals and two assists. Krizova was named the Czech player of the game after a 5-0 win over Norway, during which the Northeastern junior scored two goals.
Povova also distinguished herself as a go-to player on the Czech team with a goal and an assist in three contests. The NU alumna notched an assist against Norway on Feb. 9 and scored against Denmark two games later. Povova also finished the tournament with the fifth-highest faceoff percentage among all players with a 54.5 percent clip.
BUGALSKI EARNS FOURTH WEEKLY HONOR
For the fourth time this season, sophomore goaltender
Brittany Bugalski was named the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week, as announced Feb. 13 by the league office. Bugalski turned aside 68 of a possible 71 shots (.958 save percentage) last week in helping Northeastern earn a split against No. 6 Boston College.
On Feb. 7 in the Beanpot final, Bugalski made 22 saves en route to earning the Bertagna Award for the tournament's top goaltender. Over the course of two Beanpot games, Bugalski made 50 saves and posted a 1.50 GAA and a .943 save percentage to become the fourth netminder in program history to take home the Beanpot's goaltending prize.
Bugalski then backstopped Northeastern to a huge 2-1 win at BC on Feb. 10, making a career-high 46 saves to help the Huskies earn their first win over the Eagles since 2013. The Boynton Beach, Florida native stopped 18 shots in the first period, nine in the second period and 19 in the final frame as Northeastern snapped Boston College's NCAA-record 63-game home unbeaten streak.
ANDERSON COMING ON STRONG
Sophomore
Kasidy Anderson has emerged as an offensive catalyst for the Huskies over the second half of the season. The Shaker Heights, Ohio native has scored six of her 10 goals since the start of 2017, including a snipe against Boston College in the Beanpot final. Since the turn of the new year, Anderson has accumulated 11 points in 13 games, including a four-point outburst against UNH on Jan. 28.
