(14Feb99)  Valentine's Day Sunday at Matthews the Huskies of Northeastern
slipped by the Brown Bears 1-0.  If you like grinder hockey, this game was for
you.  It was a slow, boring affair.
 
"Flip it in and hope for a break" was the prime tactic of period one.  There
were more than enough ugly slashes and elbows for those who enjoy that sort of
thing.
 
The second featured more choppy play.  There were random attacking plays that
produced some quality shots, but with two outstanding netminders in Brown's
Ali Brewer and Northeastern's Erika Silva it looked to be a goalie's day.
 
As the final frame dawdled on, you began to wonder if they would be any
scoring.  With about six minutes left, NU's fresher center Brooke Whitney hit
the jets and went on an end-to-end solo dash.  She cut by the Bear net, deked
Brewer and tucked the puck in at the far post.  Lovely goal!  Brown tried to
storm home a tying goal, but Silva stood tall.
 
The zebra pairing for today's match is a very good unit.  However, I was
puzzled by the number of correct calls they made against NU in the last five
minutes, while they didn't call the infractions by Brown.  That did not fit
the character of this crew.
 
The Bear's Ali Brewer is an incredible goalie.  She has perfect positional
sense.  Brewer's reflexes are magnificent.  If there is a better tender in
college ice hockey today, I have not seen that person.
 
The Huskies have got to be a mile high.  While I can't say they are playing
lovely hockey, the team has to be thrilled with the string of results they
have put together against the top teams in the league.  Again the defense led
the way to victory.  Erine Metcalf broke up many Brown attacks and was using
her cannon shot from long range to test Brewer.  Blue line partner Jennie
Setaro used all her cleverness to break the puck out of the NU zone.  Captain
Jaime Totten must have dropped a stone today with all the ice miles she
logged.  Totten is a wonderful on-ice leader.  Fresher Brooke White made a
number of shake and bake rushes that went so close to scoring.  We want more!
Perhaps a longer stick would give her more finishing power?  The woman of the
match was Silva.  She made four or five point-blank saves on rebounds that
didn't seem possible.  Silva is playing some fantastic hockey.  Overall, a
huge weekend for Northeastern.
 
 _____________
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 good shooting
 hungerf
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