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. _____________ / good shooting rhun _____________/