Backcheck
For whatever an initial burst out of the Christmas chrysalis is worth, Northeastern junior goaltender Leah Sulyma still looks to be the Vladimir Myshkin to Florence Schelling’s Vladislav Tretiak.
Schelling’s immediate predecessor as the team’s top goaltender, radiant rookie, and team MVP, Sulyma and a convincingly refreshed and reassured alliance of skaters paced the Hub Huskies to a 3-0 knockout of host Yale on New Year’s Day. It was Sulyma’s second win in as many tries on the year, her fifth career shutout, and the program’s first victory since Thanksgiving Eve. In the time between, they had endured two one-goal nippings via New Hampshire and Boston College, then settled in to what was probably a well-timed month-long nap.
Even with Schelling and leaned-on junior defender Julia Marty preoccupied with international obligations, which will only accelerate from here on out in the countdown to the Olympics, Northeastern concocted a performance fairly characteristic of its entire first half. No single player or development stood far above the other elements. It was just another flat, balanced, New Jersey Devils’ type of formula in action.
All but three of the 18 skaters recorded at least one shot on net, seven individuals contributed one point apiece (no more, no less), and Sulyma withstood every flurry of rubber Yale would thrust, including a five-shot power play onslaught shortly after the halfway mark of the second period.
Sulyma’s final bushel of 32 saves matched her previous collection in a 3-2 triumph over Bemidji State back on October 24.
***
Since mid-November, a point almost as low and foul as a sewer when it came to statistical achievement, Providence College has accelerated its power play connectivity rate from 11.9 to 18.9 percent in the space of nine games. Between their two welcome-back games at the Easton Holiday Showcase in Minnesota, they pounced on four out of 12 cumulative opportunities to knot St. Cloud State, 4-4, stymie Minnesota State, 2-0, and place themselves second in Hockey East under the power play heading behind almighty New Hampshire.
Even with the encouraging ongoing surge in special teams, Saturday’s contest was ultimately a classic could’ve-would’ve-should’ve story. Junior center Alyse Ruff had renewed a lead with an unassisted power play strike with 5:38 gone in the third and the host Huskies all but dropped a written invitation to deal the knockout punch when they took two more penalties at 6:21 and at 16:14, respectively. But the Friars’ cornucopia of ammo failed them and a one-woman show they call Felicia Nelson inserted her fourth goal of the game in the final minute to stamp the 4-4 knot.
But following day –her twenty-first birthday, no less- Ruff made good of a do-over, scoring on another power play early in the second and burying the insurance midway through the third en route to a 2-0 win.
***
Vermont is one of the few WHEA programs thoroughly detesting the apparent fact that the December deceleration more or less froze the direction of everyone’s season in place. The Catamounts’ first week back had them traveling light on supplies and heavy on burden through five days worth of ECAC sightseeing.
Forced by various absences to dress merely 15 skaters on the first two nights, then 16 in Sunday’s visit to Brown University, the upshot was as follows: a 4-2 loss at Dartmouth on Wednesday, a 3-1 falter versus Yale on Saturday, and a 2-0 falter to the Bears. As such, the Catamounts’ carry-over cold streak now stands at seven consecutive losses and a 1-11-1 plague dating back to October 24.
All the problems are the same as they had been left last month. The league’s last-rate offense watched its output shrink by a single goal with each game last week and Sunday was Vermont’s eighth shutout loss in 19 total ventures this season.
Granted, they did start off swinging at a higher rate than usual, pelting Brown stopper Katie Jamieson with 26 registered shots in the first 40 minutes, thus exceeding their full 60-minute output in the previous three games. But it amounted to diddlysquat on the scoreboard and fatigue implicitly got the better of the shorthanded Catamounts in the third period.
To intensify the vinegar effect, they spilled five unanswered power play chances in the first two periods, including one sugar rush early in the second that saw them land five shots on net. And as soon as the hapless visiting strike force cleared the trough without a single sip, the host Bears muscled in and broke the ice on their first and only power play courtesy Laurie Jolin with 2:18 left till intermission.
The best one might offer in the way of good news is that the Catamounts still do not resume Hockey East play until a week from Saturday when Connecticut drops in for a two-day series. They can take this weekend’s interleague series with Wayne State as a rigorous tune-up. A simple conference quarterfinal berth is all this team has to potentially gain at this rate, but they need to charge the ignition at some point.
***
Conflict came to be a common theme at Freitas Ice Forum amidst Dartmouth’s two-day visit to the Connecticut Huskies. Conflicting game reports had the league recording only one shot on net for the duration of Saturday’s second period while the host school’s report delivered a more believable account wherein the Big Green owned the shooting gallery, 11-5.
Then, on Sunday, chemically reactive tempers amounted to an aggregate 18 infractions and 47 penalty minutes, including an unpleasant 17-minute sentence to Dartmouth’s Amanda Trunzo (two minutes for bodychecking, five minutes for butt-ending, and a 10-minute misconduct) issued with 1:13 to spare in the middle frame.
All that notwithstanding, UConn’s top gun Michelle Binning would polish things off as her team’s uncontested hero of the weekend. One day after she inserted the gamebreaker in a tense 3-2 triumph, her helper on Amy Hollstein’s goal sawed an early 2-0 deficit in timely fashion with the first intermission looming.
On the other side of that Zamboni shift, Binning gave the Huskies their first conversion on four power play opportunities to draw the 2-2 knot. Less than four minutes later, Trunzo’s triple infraction amounted to an all-you-can-score buffet and Binning diligently put her team on top with 17 seconds to spare.
Granted, they didn’t do anything more with the fresh sheet and remaining 3:37 of that power play to commence the third period. And UConn did itself no favors in taking its own penalty when it still had a full two minutes in that 5-on-4 segment. But Binning’s input was central to at least walking off with a tie after Dartmouth recovered and Sasha Nanji scored at 10:05, ultimately cementing the 3-3 final.
Forecheck
Let’s be honest, we’ve pretty much slurped the hype bottle clean already, but it still should be noted that the WHEA schedule resumes this Friday with a critical clash between Northeastern and New Hampshire as part of the Frozen Fenway doubleheader. Beyond the mutual hunger to gain points of notoriety for their sport –which they ought to do given that they just might play before a live audience larger than a season’s worth of indoor crowds combined plus a national audience on the NHL Network- the Wildcats will be thirsting for a regulation win that will knot them up with the Huskies for second place in the league. Just the same, Northeastern must be mindful that UNH has three games in hand as it is, so pay heed to the warning sign “Danger: Do Not Feed The Beasts.”
Weekly scoreboard
Wednesday, December 30
Dartmouth 4, Vermont 2
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wdarver1.d30
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15680
Friday, January 1
Northeastern 3, Yale 0
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wnoeyal1.j01
http://gonu.com/whockey/2010/wh10-17.shtml
Saturday, January 2
Connecticut 3, Dartmouth 2
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wcondar1.j02
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/010210aaa.html
Maine 4, Moncton 2 (Exh.)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wmctmne1.j02
http://goblackbears.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/010210aaa.html
Yale 3, Vermont 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wveryal1.j02
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15690
St. Cloud State 5, Providence 4 (SO)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wprvstc1.j02
http://www.friars.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/010210aaa.html
Sunday, January 3
Providence 2, Minnesota State 0
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wmnsprv1.j03
http://www.friars.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/010310aaa.html
Connecticut 3, Dartmouth 3
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wcondar1.j03
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/010310aaa.html
Maine 6, Moncton 3 (Exh.)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wmctmne1.j03
http://goblackbears.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/010310aaa.html
Brown 2, Vermont 0
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbrnver1.j03
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15694
Upcoming Schedule
Tuesday, January 5
Northeastern at Princeton, 4:00 pm
Friday, January 8
Connecticut at Robert Morris, 2:00 pm
Yale at Boston University, 3:00 pm
New Hampshire at Northeastern, 4:00 pm
Vermont at Wayne State, 7:00 pm
Saturday, January 9
Yale at Boston College, 2:00 pm
Cornell at Providence, 2:00 pm
Vermont at Wayne State, 2:00 pm
Connecticut at Robert Morris, 4:00 pm
Sunday, January 10
Cornell at Providence, 2:00 pm
Brown at Boston University, 3:00 pm
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