BOX SCORE

BOSTON— Powered by Maureen Murphy's fourth hat trick of the season, the No. 3 Northeastern women's hockey team cruised past the Merrimack Warriors, 8-0, in the Hockey East Quarterfinal on Saturday evening at Matthews Arena.
 
Alina Mueller made her return from the Olympics and promptly tallied three assists to set a new program record with 119 career assists. The record Mueller broke was previously held by Fiona Rice who played for the Huskies from 1985-89.
 
Aerin Frankel also made history in the victory, tallying her 100^th career win, becoming just the sixth woman in NCAA Division I history to reach the milestone. Frankel achieved the feat in style, stopping 18 shots en route to her NCAA-best 11^th shutout of the season.
 
Murphy's hat trick was just the ninth ever in Hockey East playoff history and the first since 2017. Murphy finished her day with a team-high four points off the natural hat trick and an assist.

• In the first five minutes of action, Miceala Sindoris potted two goals as the Huskies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.
• Chloé Aurard then got in on the scoring action with a power play tally, while the Huskies had the extra attacker on also due to another delayed penalty on Merrimack.
• Murphy tallied the lone two goals of the second period to bring the Huskies' score to 5-0. She then finished off her natural hat trick with a power play goal at the 6:58 mark of the third period. Murphy now has an NCAA-best 12 power play goals on the season and leads the team with 28 goals overall.
• Mia Brown and Andrea Renner then closed out the scoring for Northeastern, pushing the final mark to 8-0 in favor of the Huskies.

The Huskies advance in the Hockey East playoffs and will host Maine in a Semifinal in Matthews Arena on Wednesday, March 2 at 6:30 p.m. on NESN.
 
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