Wednesday night at Matthews Arena, the Northeastern Women Huskies
played the Boston College Eagles in a closely fought match.  NU made
it hard on themselves with poor puck movement and not enough
teamwork.  BC led by Karen Emma, proved to be a tough opponent.
 
The game:  The Huskies took the early lead when Rayanne Conway
(Kelly Tapani) made a solo rush up the right wing boards, then took
the puck right to the keeper, before sliding it under her pads.
Jeanine Sobek (Conway) made it 2-0 when her quick shot went in
off a centering pass from a 2 on 1 rush.  BC got back in the game
when Karen Emma (Laura Traynham) went on a solo rush past the NU
defenders, and rang a shot in off the cross bar.  Lovely goal.
The Eagles tied the game when Traynham (Emma, Kathleen Garvin)
made a nice deke to slip past the NU goalie.  The play was made
by a 2 on 1 break-in cause by the skating of Emma.
 
In the second period Northeastern regained the lead when Kim Haman
(Angela Scerra, Shelley Looney) finished off a nice 1-2 out of
the corner.  NU's final goal was by Sobek (Conway, Missi Werner).
Off a face-off the Huskies executed a nice 3-way passing play that
resulted in a tip in.  There was no scoring in the third period.
 
Boston College has a marvelous first year player in Karen Emma.  She
has speed, can pass and shoot, and is a smart hockey player.  Laura
Traynham, Emma's linemate feeds well off her center.  Tracey
Labossiere had a good match on defense.  She reads the plays well,
and is strong enough to do something about it.  Kristin Gray played
very well in goal.  Overall, the Eagles looked good.  I think they
may give Harvard a hard time of it this Thursday.
 
Northeastern made this match harder than it needed to be.  They never
got skating.  A few individuals played extremely well at times, but
at this point coach Heather Linstad has much work to do.  NU used 3
5-player units for the first two periods.  I like that approach a lot.
It gives players a better way to interact with all of their mates on
the ice.  In fact, if I had 4 forward lines and 3 defensive pairings,
I would play 1 of the defensive pairings twice so as to use this
method.  The first unit was Tapani, Conway and Sobek with defenders
Werner and Kim Drews.  This is a very talented unit, but on the
night, they rarely used each other well.  The second unit of Scerra,
Looney and Haman, with defenders Katherine Wyman and Bree Cheatham is
equally skilled.  Wednesday night they played more often as a unit.
In fact Shelley Looney was the best player on the ice.  Her speed
let her make numerous rushes and always put her in a good position
to score.   She also played short-hand situations extremely well.
Angela Scerra is a first year player, and she looks to be the next
great NU player.  She has great quickness.  Kim Haman was always
the opportunist.  The Huskies are skating 4 first year players on
defense.  In fact 2 of the pairings are all first year players.
Katherine Wyman is one of these defenders and her play was very
good in her zone, as well as helping out on rushes.  Bree Cheatham,
also a first year player was all over the ice.  I thought on the
night she was the best Huskie defender.  The final unit was Dori
Hoagland and Caroline Heatley being centered by Marion Corcoran
in the first periods, and Courtney King in the final twp periods.
Their defenders were Jessica Wagner and Julie Otto.  This unit
is not as skilled as the others, but they can skate and give the
other teams a hard time.  Wagner and Otto did not play the third
period (which I was not thrilled about), so NU could try out
other units?  I thought their play in the first two periods
was on par with the rest of the team.  Michelle DiStefano play
in goal for Northeastern and had a fairly good game, but looked
unstable at times.
 
Overall, the Huskies have the players to do a lot in the new ECAC.
BC caught them overconfident perhaps, and used a quick counter-
attack as an effective game plan.  NU needs to skate more.  They
need to use each other more.  Too much of the play was flat, or
just individuals trying to do it on their own.  The defense really
needs to start skating and stop reaching.  Still, with a positive
coach like Linstad I expect much improvement by the end of the
month meeting with Harvard.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun
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