PROVIDENCE – The top two seeds in the Hockey East playoffs – and the last two WHEA champions – will meet for the 2019 league crown when No. 1 seed Northeastern collides with No. 2 seed Boston College on Sunday in the Hockey East championship at 1:35 p.m. The game will be televised live on NESNplus.
QUICK HITS
• This will be the third all-time meeting between Northeastern and Boston College in the WHEA championship game. The Eagles have won both prior meetings, claiming a 3-1 victory in the 2011 title game and a 2-1 overtime win in the 2017 championship bout.
• This will be the fifth meeting of the season between NU and BC. Both teams have won twice; Northeastern claimed the first two games by scores of 5-4 and 4-1, and the Eagles won the last two contests by scores of 7-5 and 4-1.
• NU will be looking to repeat as the WHEA tournament champion after downing UConn, 2-1, to claim the program's first-ever league tournament title last season. If the Huskies do repeat, NU would become the league's first repeat champion since BC won back-to-back crowns in 2016 and 2017.
• The Huskies advanced to Sunday's title game after surviving a hungry Providence team, 3-2, in Saturday's semifinals. The Friars limited NU to its lowest shot total of the season (18), but a 32-save effort from sophomore goaltender
Aerin Frankel saw the Huskies through to the final.
• With the win, Frankel picked up her 20th victory of the season (20-3-3) to become the ninth netminder in program history to win 20 or more games in a year. Frankel's .827 winning percentage this season ranks third in the NCAA, while her 1.78 GAA and .934 save percentage each rank eighth nationally.
• The WHEA Goaltender of the Year, Frankel improved to 7-0-0 in her career at the Hockey East championship. Frankel has not allowed more than two goals in any of her seven WHEA tournament starts and owns a 1.29 GAA and a .950 save percentage in those games.
• Freshman
Chloe Aurard scored the game-winning goal and added an assist in Saturday's semifinal win to become the fifth NU player with at least 30 points this season. The Huskies are the only team in the NCAA with five 30-plus-point scorers this season.
• Freshman
Alina Mueller notched her 20th goal and 50th point of the season on Saturday vs. Providence. The Patty Kazmaier top-10 finalist and WHEA Rookie of the Year is only the second freshman in program history to record at least 50 points, joining Vicky Sunohara who put up 74 points during the 1988-89 season.
• Mueller leads all WHEA freshmen in goals (20), assists (30), points (50), power-play points (14), game-winning goals (5), plus/minus (+33), shots on goal (128) and faceoff wins (353). The two-time Olympian has notched at least a point in 31 of 36 games this season, including all 10 contests against ranked opponents.
• With a 26-5-5 overall record, NU has already compiled one of its most successful seasons in program history. The Huskies' 26 wins are tied for the fourth-most in a single season since the inception of the program in 1980. Since NU joined WHEA in 2002, only the 2015-16 team won more games (28) than this year's squad.
• In addition, Northeastern's five losses are the fewest in a single season for the program since the 1991-92 Huskies finished with a 20-5-2 overall record.
• The Huskies have been ranked No. 3 in both national polls for the last 11 weeks, despite playing the fifth-toughest schedule in the country according to USCHO.com. Northeastern is 5-3-2 against ranked opponents this season.
• Northeastern has been good on both sides of the puck this year, ranking first in Hockey East and sixth nationally in scoring offense with an average of 3.50 goals per game. The Huskies have scored at least three goals in 28 of 36 games.
• Defensively, Northeastern ranks third in Hockey East and seventh nationally with a 1.94 team goals against average. The Huskies have earned seven shutouts this season – the most for the program since posting eight shutouts in 2011-12 – and boast the No. 1 penalty kill in the NCAA at 89.6 percent.
• The Huskies lead the nation in goals scored during the final two minutes (18:00 - 20:00) of a period with 27. Only Northeastern, Colgate (26), Boston University (23) and Clarkson (22) have scored more than 20 goals in the final two minutes of a period this season.
• Northeastern leads Hockey East and ranks fifth nationally with 43 goals scored during the first period. The Huskies are 22-1-1 this season when scoring first and 16-2-1 when leading after the first period.
• The Huskies were well-represented on the league's postseason awards honor roll as head coach
Dave Flint was named the Hockey East Coach of the Year, freshman
Alina Mueller was named the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Year, and sophomore
Aerin Frankel was named the BW Windjammer Goaltender of the Year.
• Mueller and Frankel were also named First Team Hockey East All-Stars and were joined on the team by sophomore defender
Skylar Fontaine. This represents the first time in program history that Northeastern has had three First Team Hockey East All-Stars in a single season.
• Sophomore defender
Brooke Hobson (Second Team All-Star), senior forward
Kasidy Anderson (Third Team All-Star) and sophomore forward
Veronika Pettey (Honorable Mention All-Star) also earned All-Star status.
•
Skylar Fontaine is one of three defenders in the nation with 11 or more goals this season, joining BC's Megan Keller (19) and Robert Morris' Emily Curlett (11).
• With 33 points in 36 games, Fontaine ranks third in the NCAA in scoring among blue-liners. Fontaine's 33 points are also the most in a single season for any NU defender since Kim Greene put up 41 points in 2001-02.
• A Second Team WHEA All-Star,
Brooke Hobson ranks fourth in Hockey East and seventh nationally among defenders with 27 points this season. Hobson's 10 power-play assists are tied for the fourth-most in the NCAA among defenders this season.
• A Third Team WHEA All-Star,
Kasidy Anderson hit the 100-point plateau for her career with the only goal in a 1-0 win over Vermont on March 2. Anderson is the 30th player in program history to score at least 100 points, and is one of only seven WHEA skaters with at least 20 goals this season.
• Senior
Tori Sullivan is also approaching the 100-point mark for her career. In 152 games at both BC and NU, Sullivan has racked up 97 points.
• A WHEA Honorable Mention All-Star,
Veronika Pettey is tied for the league lead and ranks second nationally in power-play goals with seven this season. Pettey has scored eight goals in her last 12 games entering Sunday.
• Head coach
Dave Flint was named the Hockey East Coach of the Year on Friday night after guiding Northeastern to the 2018-19 WHEA regular season crown. Flint was previously named the WHEA Co-Coach of the Year in 2011-12.
• Since taking over the program in 2008, Flint has guided NU to five seasons with 20 or more wins, two NCAA tournament appearances (2016, 2018), two WHEA regular season titles (2012, 2019), one WHEA tournament crown (2018), and two Beanpot championships (2012, 2013).
• Flint won his 200th game at Northeastern on March 2 to become the second coach in program history to reach 200 victories on Huntington Avenue. Flint needs just 10 more wins to pass Don MacLeod (210 wins from 1981-92) to become the winningest coach in Northeastern program history.
