With the first half of the season over, now is a good time to recap what we’ve seen so far from the Northeastern women’s hockey team. The team came into the year with many roles up in the air and questions waiting to be answered across all 200 feet of the ice. Going into the second half, now is a fair time to see how the storylines we’ll mention have developed so far and what we are on the lookout for down the stretch.
As of today, the Huskies sit with a 10-6-1 record going 8-4-1 in conference play. The early tests came against Penn State and Quinnipiac and saw the team doing what they needed to, splitting both series. Early hiccups including losses to UNH and Providence and a tie with Holy Cross dragged the team down to the brink and saw them fall out of USCHO’s top 15 poll. But that result serves only to show how reactionary those polls are. While the team has not been clicking offensively in the way we’ve seen from past Northeastern teams, the Huskies have carved out a decent first half that still sees them 13th in Pairwise and riding a run of 5 wins in their last six games moving into the new year, including a sweep over #10 UConn.
Let’s talk a bit more about that offense real quick. Despite their strong record, the Huskies have just a +6 goal differential through 17 games and sit in the bottom half of the nation for goals per game. The 1.94 goals they currently average is a decent drop from the 2.41 goals they scored last year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this number rise in the second half as this offense begins to figure things out. Production from the top seniors has been strong, with Skylar Irving and Taze Thompson in the top 3 on the team in points. Taze has been a bit snakebitten in front of the net in terms of goal-scoring, but has been racking up assists as usual with her great passing.
For me, two surprises have defined the offense in the first half. One would be the arrival of Éloïse Caron, who is tied for the team lead in points and continues to make jaw-dropping plays every game. The freshman has been playing almost exclusively top-line minutes out of the gate and looks completely at home. She has had a large discipline problem though, sitting 4th in PIM for Hockey East. It does feel like she has been taking a physical beating on the ice though, and I’m sure most Northeastern fans would like to see her get what they think would be a more fair whistle.
The second largest surprise on offense has been the incredible year junior Lily Shannon has had. Mind you, the surprise is not her production. She has proven to be a great offensive player in her first two years. Her points this year have come in bursts that have taken over games. She started the year with 2 points on the road against Penn State in an important win. Later in the semester she also contributed to all of the team’s goals in the Maine and road UConn victories. Scoring more consistently over the schedule would be nice but I find it hard to complain about the big points coming when needed in big moments.
The biggest story coming into the season was the goaltending situation. In the wake of Gwyneth Philips graduating last spring, Northeastern had a goalie job that was up in the air. The early season saw the Huskies lean on senior Paige Taborski, who had 5 games of experience under her belt from last year. Tabroski stepped up to the challenge and started the year hot. Despite a 4-4-1 record, she posted a .926 SV% and had phenomenal games including some clutch saves in the wins against UConn and Quinnipiac. By the time the BU weekend rolled around the coaching staff seemed to have decided freshman goalie Lisa Jönsson was ready to start. The pair began splitting games, and soon it became evident that Northeastern had yet again found an incredibly young goalie. Jonsson eventually took over the full-time starting job and finished the first half of the year leading the NCAA in goals against average (0.88) and save percentage (.967). To call this anything other than absurd is… well… absurd.
Northeastern women’s hockey starts the second half of their season later today with a game against Merrimack, quickly followed by a Saturday game against Holy Cross and a Tuesday game against an always feisty Yale team. The biggest game on the horizon is their first-round Beanpot matchup against BC, a team that has given them a lot of trouble this year. Being able to play their first 4 games of the semester at home should give them a bit of the boost if the DogHouse can show up and get loud for a team that needs it. This team is still capable and only getting better this season, and will hopefully find the success they deserve before year’s end.
Roll ‘Skies!