Saturday, December 26, 2009

Hockey East midseason reports: Northeastern

Florence Schelling speaks for herself. The Northeastern goaltender has been cruising through the quintessential anti-sophomore jinx, and, at this rate, would not cause any excusable heart attacks if she were declared the league’s Player of the Year.

Much more pleasantly surprising, the Huskies are faring just fine and making a few strides ahead of schedule even without second-year head coach Dave Flint –on leave to serve as one of Mark Johnson’s sidekicks with the U.S. Olympic team.

Most crucially, the Swiss Save-ior is finally starting to get the compensation owed by her associates. To be fair, everybody on the strike force –permeated by six rookies amongst a total of 12 full-time forwards- could stand to give a little more for good measure in the second half.

But the improvement from recent memory cannot be overlooked. NU is averaging 2.19 goals per game, which is a whole tally ahead of the flustered opposition.

Still not impressed? Consider the fact that the Huskies have not finished with a goals-per-game median better than 2.00 since the 2001-02 season, when Joy Woog’s pupils charged up a 27-7-1 overall record, bumped New Hampshire in the conference semifinals, and fell one goal short of an ECAC championship.

Since then, the program has changed leagues and (twice) changed coaching staffs. That’s how long they have been pining for a passable offense, and there is reason to believe that, with the youth movement, it will continue to improve.

Through a nine-game ride in October, Casey Pickett scraped out two goals and three assists. In the seven games since then, she has piled on an additional 2-5-7 log and was last seen centering the top line between classmate Brittany Esposito and senior Annie Hogan. Kelly Wallace missed the first eight games altogether but has hopped right into the equation and sprinkled four points onto the scoresheet over six opportunities.

Even Esposito –one of the hotter freshmen producers who tapered off a little after the early weeks- bears some cause for optimism. If she was going to fizzle out of the initial sugar rush, it might as well have happened sooner rather than later, most preferably before the December deceleration.

Everybody else still needs to break out or at least nudge up their productivity rate. But luckily, some of the veterans –chiefly juniors Alyssa Wohlfeiler and Kristi Kehoe (13 points apiece) and senior Lindsey Berman- are also doing their share and Schelling has made every single outing winnable. At 10-4-2 overall, all four of the Huskies’ losses have been a mere one-goal decision.

Schelling, whose 1.09 goals-against average and .960 save percentage rate second in the nation behind Minnesota’s Noora Räty, has also benefited from a slightly more cast-iron band of praetorian guards. With their help in trimming her nightly workload in terms of shots on goal, the Huskies are averaging 1.19 goals-against as a team, a stat that not even Räty’s Gophers are matching.
Even more encouragingly, there is clear specimen of stamina given that Northeastern has averaged roughly the same scoring output in each period, notching a cumulative 12 goals in both the first and second, and 11 in the third. Conversely, the opposition has lit it up eight times in the opening frame, seven in the second, and an infinitesimal three in the third.

Not unlike the aforementioned Esposito, though, the Huskies all have some maintenance to attend to, and the break was rather timely, especially seeing as they had just come off of their first instance of back-to-back losses.

Raring to return to game action this Friday in a visit to Yale, a series of statement tests lie in the second half for NU. They include two more bouts with New Hampshire, one of them in front of an overflowing outdoor audience and the other in the oft-treacherous depths of Lake Whittemore, and three bouts with crosstown rival Boston University. That’s not even counting the first round of the Beanpot.

The Beanpot, more than anything, will offer a telling barometer of this ever-progressing program. They will be offered an authentic battle for hardware and a chance to all but cement their case for an at-large passport to their first NCAA tournament. Lately, they have been hovering around the No. 8 and 9 slots in the polls, which is only within tasting distance of surefire contention.

But if the offense adopts a little top-to-bottom consistency and remains mindful that, like Flint, Schelling will be absent in February due to her own Olympic obligations, everything should be pucky-dory.

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