With the two losses, UConn falls to 13-11-1 in all competition and 8-9-1 in conference play.. (Eric Wang/The Daily Campus)
The UConn women’s hockey team lost both games in a weekend series against No. 3 Northeastern. Prior to this weekend, UConn had been on a six-game win streak. This was broken in tremendous fashion as Northeastern blew them out in both matchups, winning 5-2 Friday and 4-1 Saturday.
“We can compete with the best team in the conference,” said head coach Chris Mackenzie post-game. “Now we have to focus on finding ways to come out on top.”
With the two losses, UConn falls to 13-11-1 in all competition and 8-9-1 in conference play. They have fallen to the sixth spot in the conference, with 17 points. Northeastern improves to 17-3-3 overall and 15-2-2 in conference play. They remain at the top of the conference with 32 points, six points above second-place Boston College.
Northeastern opened up the scoring in the fourth minute of play as junior forward Matti Hartman slotted one home. UConn had then gone up 2-1 after the first period Friday with goals from senior captain Jaime Fox and junior forward Catherine Crawley. Northeastern quickly took the game back with three unanswered goals in the second before adding a final blow with 10 seconds left in the third.
Northeastern freshman forward Alina Mueller picked up one of those goals and two assists, putting her at 14 goals and 20 assists on the season. Mueller is currently second in the conference in points with 35, as she picked up another assist Saturday as well, sitting behind Boston University’s Jesse Compher and her 40 points.
Fox’s goal put her at five on the year and Crawley’s upped her total to nine. Crawley is ranked second on the team in points with 22, behind sophomore forward Natalie Snodgrass who has 23.
The No. 3 team in the nation took Friday’s success right into Saturday as they put home three goals in the first against UConn goaltender Morgan Fisher. They added another in the second period before UConn put away its first and only game of the tilt late in the second. Freshman Danika Pasqua notched her fourth of the season on an assist from Taylor Wabick.
Coming into the weekend Snodgrass had been on a tear, scoring nine in five games. However, the team-leader in points was held quiet in both games by Northeastern’s defense. Snodgrass had been the offensive spark for this UConn team, but without her production they faltered mightily.
UConn was only able to muster 23 shots Friday and 26 Saturday, which are both down from their average of 30.3 coming into the weekend’s action. UConn has now given up the third-most goals in the conference this year, with 62 scored against them in 25 games.
UConn will look to rebound over this upcoming weekend with their series against Maine, who are sitting in seventh in the conference right under UConn.
Mike Mavredakis is a campus correspondent for the Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at michael.quinn-mavredakis@uconn.edu .
