On Tuesday, Jan. 26th, the University of Connecticut women’s ice hockey team will face off against the Northeastern University Huskies. The game, which was announced on Monday, filled in for one of the two games against Northeastern that had been postponed earlier in the season.
UConn is a large underdog in the series, as Northeastern is ranked third in the women’s Hockey East and has an 8-1-1 this season. They are only behind Providence and Boston College. UConn on the other hand has a 5-6-1 record after its overtime loss to Boston College over the weekend.
Despite losing, the fact that it was even close is a good sign for UConn. Boston College sits at 10-3 and is the best team in Hockey East. UConn was bolstered once again by freshman goalie Tia Chan, who made 40 saves over the course of the game.
Chan will be one to watch on Tuesday if she’s in the net versus Northeastern, as shutting down their offensive efforts could be a key to success for UConn. However, UConn also must work on staying cool under fire; they were winning for much of the game against Boston College but still lost after allowing a goal late in the third period to tie the game.
Many of UConn’s losses this season have been relatively close; they’ve only lost one game by more than two goals, and that was early in the season to Providence, another well performing team. All they need is to be able to take it a little further and secure one or two more goals, especially with how well their goalies, specifically Chan, have played this season.
This is one of the last matches for UConn, who has had a decent number of games postponed this season due to COVID-19. Their games over the weekend with Holy Cross were both postponed, and new dates for those games have not yet been announced. This game could put UConn over the line to a .500 win rate this season, while a loss threatens their current standings, as there are currently five teams with four wins.
All in all, this might be a relatively consequential game, and UConn will have to show up in order to prove that, this season, they are the better Huskies.