Weekly women’s hockey wrap-up: March 22

Mar 22, 2023 - 4:00 PM

To wildly take Sal Licata out of context, women’s hockey in “ the…East is over. That’s right it’s a wrap.” Now he might have been WILDLY wrong when talking about baseball as he was but unfortunately his statement is applicable as both the remaining Boston teams bowed out rather ungraciously.

Northeastern falls to #1 seeded, eventual runner-up Ohio State in National Semifinals

The Huskies had one of their worst games at the worst possible time against a dominant Buckeyes team but still somehow had chances. Despite tOSU getting the first 12 shots according to the in house scorer Northeastern was down only one after a period and even had a goal that was questionably disallowed for a hand “pass” that was over 100 feet from the goal that wasn’t really passed. There was also a goal for tOSU that was allowed to stand at the end of the second that gave us the final score of 3-0. The fact that Northeastern had any plausible chance if a few things had gone better says a lot about their talent as they were outplayed and outgunned the entire game. Gwenyth Phillips despite three goals allowed was a stalwart that gave NU the chance to keep it at the margin that it was in the end.

The loss marks the end of a major era for Northeastern as graduation will hit the program hard. Coach of the Year Dave Flint has shown his ability to reload talent quickly so hopefully that will be on display this off-season.

End of year awards

After taking care of business in the HEA awards Northeastern added a few more accolades in the national ones. Flint earned his second coach of the year recognition, while Phillips became the third straight, out of the three times it has been awarded, Husky goalie to win the National Goaltender of the Year award. As for All-Americans Alina Mueller and Phillips both earned First Team accolades.

The weekend wrapped for Northeastern in the lobby of Amsoil Arena in front of a packed house for the Patty Kaz Award ceremony. Mueller was one of three finalists, the second time she had made the final cut, and the fifth time she was a top-10 finalist, the first player to ever accomplish that. Ultimately Mueller failed in her bid to become the first non-North American to be honored with the award as tOSU’s Sophie Jacques became only the second defender to do so.

Big stage for future Beanpots

Yesterday it was announced that the second week of the Beanpot will be moved to the TD Garden for future iterations, where unlike the men’s side, both games will be aired on NESN. As part of the announcement a date of January 23rd was given meaning the historic tournament will leave its traditional February slot.

Pride painfully punted from playoffs

A bid for a third straight title and fourth overall could not have gone much worse for a team as stacked as the Pride were. After offseason moves to get bigger and be able to dictate play paid early dividends in a dominant regular season in the playoffs Boston as unable to handle a Minnesota Whitecaps team that was hungrier and buoyed by the return of their star goalie Amanda Leveille. Boston had chances in both games but an uncharacteristic bad pair from Schroeder will an equally unhelpful offensive performance led to the top seed being bounced in a sweep.

With the trio of losses ending women’s hockey for the season for us we will start to put together our season recaps and of course keep you apprised as more news is sure to follow in the coming weeks and months.