(07Nov98)  Saturday afternoon at Matthews the Huskies of Northeastern edged
the McGill Martlets.  The Martlets did very well to box out the Huskies for as
long as they did, and in fact went close to winning the match.  NU showed some
interesting new passing plays as their pressure eventually overcame the side
from Montreal.
 
The opening period was scoreless.  The Huskies were all over their Canadian
visitors.  I actually think NU was over fore-checking.  By not letting McGill
out of their own end, it was easier to form a defense shell.
 
In the second, Northeastern was in control, but looking listless.  The
Martlets were looking stronger and opened the scoring when Kathleen O'Reilly
collected the puck behind the NU net, circled it and stuff home her try.  The
Huskies came right back when Lisa Giovanelli (Kathryn Waldo) knocked a rebound
high into the net.  Waldo had made the play by her persistence.  However,
after that brief flurry, both teams started looking tired.
 
In the final interval, Northeastern's poor shooting kept letting them down.
With about five minutes left, McGill pulled off a nice breakout play that
resulted in a good scoring chance.  NU survived and brought the puck up the
ice.  First-year Brooke White (Hilary Witt) gave the Huskies the lead when she
took a nice setup pass, twirled and gunned the puck into the back of the net.
On the ensuing face-off, Northeastern went forward with speed, purpose and
power and claimed a two goal advantage.  Senior captain Jaime Totten (Brooke
Whitney, Witt) finished off a lovely three-way passing play to seal the
victory.
 
McGill has a developing program.  They need to give serious attention to their
skating skills.  The Martlets have some clever players, but will need to build
up their base abilities if they are to capitalize on their natural gifts.
O'Reilly and Julie Hornsby looked strong and fast up front.  Their puck
mastery was refined.  Fresher Allison Ticmanus used her vision well on
defense.  She seemed to always be in the right place at the right time.
Goalie Kim St. Pierre stopped a ton of shots.  I felt her style of going down
early was very dangerous, as it left a huge amount of net to shoot at high.
Overall, it's going to take a couple of years, but McGill looks very serious
about developing a top notch program.
 
Northeastern looked fairly good out of the box.  Their team speed wasn't
great, their passing was strong and the shooting was lousy.  What held the
Huskies back the most was their poor movement off the puck.  NU's defense
looked ready, but the forwards need to pick up their striking game.  The most
impressive unit was the WWW line: White, Whitney and Witt.  They are fast.
But www.northeastern.edu needs time to learn all the connections they can use
between each other.  They also could use some greed.  Vivacious fresher White
moves extremely well.  Her razzle-dazzle style gives NU a different dimension.
Witt was superb at both ends of the ice.  Her back-checking and playmaking
were spot on.  Waldo and Giovanelli also looked good today as they buzzed the
McGill net.  Waldo was an offensive standout for the Huskies.  Jennie Setaro
was her speedy self as she stabilized the defense.  First-year Erica
Archambeau looks to be the next great Northeastern defender.  She is very
smart and moves the puck exceptionally well.  The woman of the match was
sophomore blue liner Jessica Ferwerda.  Her breakups were efficient and gave
her the time to see the next play.  Ferwerda's coverage provided the space
that allowed the Huntington Hounds to chase the Martlets.  Overall, NU has a
lot of development in front of it, but they have the talent to be something
special.
 
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 good shooting
 hungerf
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